Margot Ladiray

🏖️ The France Tourisme Tech program, launched last week, has introduced mentorship for its second cohort of startups. Mentors from established companies like Addguests, BlablaCar, Le collectionist, Evaneos, Flixbus, HomeExchange, Heetch, and Kactus will offer quarterly follow-ups, specialized coaching sessions, and event participation to help the startups grow and tackle digitalization challenges in the sector. Scale-up Kactus mentors Fairjungle and Affluences, both BtoB market focused startups, promising to aid with their development and market positioning.

🚗 Matawan, a French startup, offers a cloud platform to communities for facilitating multimodal travels, allowing the use of a single transport ticket. Operating in several French cities including La Rochelle, and internationally in Canada and Switzerland, Matawan aims to expand from a regional to a national level. Their cloud-based service enables real-time data storage and analytics, fostering predictive analysis for communities and simplifying the multimodal journey for travelers. Matawan's future includes advancing international presence and integrating generative AI for conversational agents to assist communities in real-time network management.

📦 Cloudbeds announces a pioneering AI-driven Property Management System (PMS) named Cloudbeds Intelligence, introducing multimodal and causal AI to the hotel industry. This PMS interprets data to help hoteliers optimize business strategy and pricing policy. Adam Harris, co-founder and CEO of Cloudbeds, highlights the system's ability to provide actionable insights for unified commercial strategies, impacting dynamic pricing and targeted marketing. Cloudbeds Intelligence is acclaimed as the first of its kind globally, positioning ahead of industry players like Snowflake and Oracle's Cloud solutions used by Hyatt.

🏕 On October 24th, France Tourisme Tech launched its second edition and reviewed the first promotion's collaborations with major groups. TicTacTrip, partnered with Orchestra, announced a 100% train tour operator launch. Wemap and SNCF Gares et Connexions introduced a world-first AI-based location system in train stations. Wintics extended its bus terminal AI technology to elevators and parking at Orly, targeting international expansion. Alltheway raised €2.5 million, and Luniwave with B&B Hotels achieved a 30% water consumption reduction. The second promotion features 10 startups, with Minister Marina Ferrari underscoring innovation's importance post-2024's successful events, despite a tighter budget. Nicolas Brusson of BlablaCar is the new patron, with a mentorship system and an international innovation contest introduced.

🏖 France Tourisme Tech unveiled the names of its second promotion in 2024: 10 startups were selected addressing challenges in crowd management, generative AI, and sustainable development. The tourism sector surpassed 100 million visitors in 2024, contributing to 7% of France’s GDP. In the previous year, France Tourisme Tech, supported by the Ministry of the Economy, facilitated over 60 connections, resulting in 30 contracts and 27 experiments. This year's reduced cohort, down to 10 from last year’s 15, is attributed to political shifts and fewer applications.