Medtech – the driving force for French Tech Alsace
French minister Axelle Lemaire announced the creation of the MedTech label in New York in June 2015, as part of the French Tech initiative.
What is French Tech ?
The French Tech initiative was launched in late 2013 by the then French Minister of Culture and Communications, Fleur Pellerin. It provides a new, collective mark for French cities involved in innovation in the digital sector.
The French Tech label helps French start-ups benefit from a common quality label, while encouraging cohesion and collaboration and boosting the image of these new, innovation-led companies both domestically and internationally.
Cities applying for the label undergo a number of in-depth audits. They must, for example, host a start-up which has managed to raise substantial funding, and also have local entrepreneurs with the ability to carry through large-scale projects and provide support for new companies within the area.
These cities must also have business incubators and accelerators, the structures which help start-ups and PMEs through the various steps in their development. The label additionally requires the city to offer a centre where these companies can meet and set up offices.
Strasbourg meets the requirements for the Medtech label
The medical technologies campus features start-ups such as Defymed, Rondol, Visible Patient, Protip and Hakisa, which, since 2012, have successfully negotiated the various stages in their business development, from the original idea to the marketing of the finished product.
The campus has 3 incubators (pH8, Ircad 2 and the Haras Biocluster), housing 23 start-ups, supported by the SATT organisation for technology transfer acceleration, which provides guidance during the early stages of the start-ups’ development. Access to trinational markets is facilitated by Alsace Biovalley, the world-renowned competitiveness cluster for healthcare biotechnologies.
The investments carried out since 2009 on the site of the city’s central hospital by the Eurometropolis, Strasbourg University and the State-sponsored Investing for the Future scheme have provided the infrastructure to allow these new companies to thrive. In addition, the French Tech label offers them a clear identity as French standard-bearers in medical technologies.
The French Tech label identifies a company in the domestic and international markets and helps it attract talents and foreign investors, while helping keep the best French specialists in the country. It’s a new way of marketing abroad!