4 takeaways from Viva Technology 2022

Published in

La French Tech Tokyo

8 min readJul 9, 2022

From June 15 to 18, 2022, Viva Technology was held in Paris. VivaTech, in short, is one of the world’s largest conferences where the innovation actors congregate in Paris to celebrate the latest technological innovations and digital transformation.

It is the biggest tech conference in Europe. In 2022, it attracted more than 91,000 in-person visitors, 3 billion virtual views, 2,000 investors, and whooping 28,000 startups (source). Even Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, appeared again this year at VivaTech and shared his vision.

What happened during this mammoth conference? Here are 4 takeaways from the event, including those from a La French Tech Tokyo member who was in the event physically, in Paris.

1. Tech Evolution

2022 has been seeing the continued popularity of emerging technologies. Among them, two of the key themes that stood out during the conference were web3 and metaverse.

For those who are unfamiliar with web3 and metaverse — web3 is, in essence, a project to renovate the system of the web with the help of blockchain technology. Cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and DAOs all belong to Web3. It will change how the information is saved, communicated, and owned.
Metaverse is, according to Matthew Ball the angel investor, “a 3D version of the Internet and computing at large”

Both technologies have prodigious market potential, and the conference invited catalysts who shared their visions and perspectives.

Web3

Among the various denizens of web3, cryptocurrency attracted special attention because of its recent decline in its market value. Some call it “Crypto Winter,” which foreshadows further crash. In fact, on June 18th (Sat), the value of bitcoin fell below $20,000 for the first time.

Despite these ominous trends, Changpeng Zhao the CEO of Binance, as well as Vitalik Buterin the CEO of Ethereum, the major cryptocurrency trading platforms, appeared and shared their optimistic views on the future of cryptocurrency.

Zhao acknowledged the potentially “bleak” outlook of cryptocurrency; however, he emphasized that the industry has not died yet, citing the fact that Binance increased its job openings by 2,000.

Crypto winter will soon pass, and the industry will never cease to exist — Zhao’s reassuring message was one of the key takeaways that encouraged a lot of entrepreneurs and investors in digital money.

Metaverse

On the other hand, metaverse is projected to grow into an 800-bullion USD market by 2024. By 2026, Gartner estimates that 25% of the world population will spend at least an hour per day on the metaverse for work, education, or social media.

The conference was filled with VR demos offered by conglomerates, such as Meta and LVMH. Meta revealed its demo of Horizon Workrooms, which could revolutionalize the future of work.

LVMH is attempting to interweave metavserse into its relationship management with its top clients, inviting them to the world of the metaverse.

On the other hand, startups and small-and-medium-sized enterprises also showcased their projects. For example, Roman Manoilov, a graduate student at the Devinci Innovation Center, showcased the “Augmented Olfactory Interface,” which adds smell to the experience in the metaverse.

You may simply associate metaverse with people wearing a cyclope-like goggle playing a video game — however, VivaTech showed the breadth of these technologies.

2. Technology for the Goods

As much as the latest technologies, such as metavserse and web3, fetched the attention of visitors, the other core theme of the event was the usage of technology for societal goods.

La French Tech Tokyo member, Nousha StMartin, attended the conference in person and noticed that “responsible innovation” was one of the central themes. More and more companies exhibited “green by design” and are contributing to SDGs.

Net-zero Emission

Climate change is a concrete threat to humankind as it is already affecting 3.3 to 3.6 billion people, potentially displacing one billion. Alleviating the damage — namely, attaining net-zero carbon emissions — would require approximately 3.1 ~ 5.8 trillion USD investment a year.

At VivaTech, conglomerates and start-ups presented their innovation and efforts to attain the collective goal.

Chemical and utility giants, including Air Liquide, Siemens Energy, ENGIE, and EDF showcased their own latest innovations and research to achieve net-zero emission and decarbonization, a few of which include the large-scale production of renewable hydrogen and carbon-capturing technologies.

For example, ENGIE exhibited alternative energy sources, such as biogas and hydrogen. EDF, one of the core partners of VivaTech, even sponsored to create the Low Carbon Park, an exhibit of innovative solutions to achieve net-zero.

Some start-ups that were featured in the Low Carbon Park include: Urbanomy, Enerbrain, and Acteon Farm.

VivaTech also invited and shed a spotlight on startups that leverage responsible innovation. During the conference, La French Tech announced a new cohort of 20 start-ups for Tech Green 20, one of the flagship programs that support 20 leading green-tech startups. (Compaines, such as Algama and Dual Sun were newly selected.)

Parallel to the increasing focus on some emerging technologies, such as web3 and metaverse, “responsible innovation,” innovation that is used for societal goods, was also one of the key central themes of the conference.

3. Ambition of France

Covered previously, France has ambitions about growing its start-ups; during the VivaTech, the nation revealed the updated ones. First, it is eager to nurture more unicorns. France has 27 unicorns as of 2022. President of France, Emmanuel Macron, wants more. At VivaTech, he shared his ambitions — to have 100 unicorns by 2030.

Sounds farfetched — some might think. However, the goal is far from idealistic. In fact, 73 companies were recently valued at more than a thousand million USD. A company gets awarded a “unicorn” label once its value exceeds one billion USD, meaning 73 companies are a few steps behind from being unicorns.

On top of the number of unicorns and the plan to grow France into a “start-up nation,” Macron also wants to further digitalize France and expedite technological innovation. Macron assured to fully leverage France 2030, funds worth 30 billion euros to mobilize technology innovation.

With more capital to invest and stimulate tech innovation, Macron emphasized that training would also be necessary. He laid out that around 500.000 ~ 800 000 people need to be trained for new professions in the next five years.

In short, Viva Technology served as a platform for France to showcase their achievements in entrepreneurship and innovation thus far and to reveal its refreshed goals for the next few years. In short, France stays ambitious.

4. Relevance to Asia

VivaTech is indeed held in Europe and attracts most stakeholders from the continent; however, it also calls for startups and investors from oversea.

In fact, 17% of visitors are from Asia, the second-largest population represented after Europe. VivaTech also broadcasted its event in Southeast Asia with the hope of reaching audiences in the region.

From Japan, about 13 Japanese startups and organizations, such as JETRO, hosted booths. Most startups in robotics, IoT, AI, and health tech were present and showcased the latest innovation.

For example, Tenchijin Compass, a startup that offers land assessment with the help of big data from space, demonstrated one of the Japanese approaches to environmental management.
Fermenstation uses the unique technologies to ferment the leftover food to be used for cosmetics and fertilizers.

However, as Japan is also eager to turn itself into a “startup nation,” some commented anonymously that the booth was a bit underwhelming.

Although there are certainly promising startups, Japan might not be advertising them well to the global stakeholders. As France is leveraging its branding capability and startup strategy, one of which is La French Tech, Japan is being tested to brand its startups better in order to grow into a “startup nation” in Asia.

Conclusion

Viva Technology successfully amassed a large number of the global audience, startups, and relevant stakeholders into one platform. With things getting back to “normal,” there were more in-person events and exhibitions, making the entire conference more convivial and somewhat nostalgic.

Among countless discussions, panels, and exhibitions, there are four key takeaways.

First, web3 and metaverse are expanding fast, and more startups are budding in the space; although cryptocurrency might be seeing a slump, it is most likely the temporal one.

Second, more startups were adopting “responsible innovation,” which is reflecting growing societal interest in using the latest technologies to solve impending social issues, such as climate change.

Third, the updated version of the French roadmap for the “startup nation” was revealed; Macron spoke at the conference in person and shared his bold visions and plans.

Lastly, the conference attracted a great number of audiences from Asia, highlighting the interest of the region in the tech landscape in Europe.

Japanese startups were present; however, given the limited number of startups present at the event, let alone the number of confirmed unicorns in the nation in the first place, VivaTech also shows that Japan has a lot of potentials to grow startups and better brand itself as a rising “startup nation,” the image that the nation is pursuing after the success of France.

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