UbiMobility 2017: Business France and Bpifrance Accelerate 8 Innovative Startups and SMEs in the US Autonomous Vehicle Sector

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1 PRESS RELEASE Chicago, March 30 UbiMobility 2017: Business France and Bpifrance Accelerate 8 Innovative Startups and SMEs in the US Autonomous Vehicle Sector - 8 startups selected by a jury of major actors in the connected and autonomous vehicle space in the United States - A 10-month acceleration program and 2 week immersion program in the automotive ecosystems of Detroit and San Francisco - It s third edition underway, UbiMobility 2017 boasts two successful editions in its past March 13th, Intel announced the acquisition of the Israeli company Mobileye which specializes in driving assistance systems for 15 $ billion. The announcement boosts the race for new technologies in the autonomous and connected vehicle industries in the United States and opens up a major market for specialized startups. Today, Business France and Bpifrance unveiled the 8 startups selected to participate in the 3rd edition of UbiMobility, an acceleration program in the connected and autonomous vehicle sector in the United States. Beginning on June 3rd, the eight selected French companies will begin an intensive two-week immersion program presenting their technologies and developing partnerships with major U.S. players in the industry. UbiMobility will take the delegation to two major ecosystems in the automotive industry Detroit/Ann Arbor and San Francisco / Silicon Valley. Additionally, these eight startups will be part of a 10-month program where Business France will provide professional support, and guidance, in order to foster the relationships established between the French and American companies. For the third edition of UbiMobility, a jury comprised of representatives from key U.S. automotive companies selected the 8 startups from a pool of 20 pre-selected companies. The selected startups offer advanced technologies in the key areas of the connected and autonomous vehicles including advanced driving and safety, facial and vocal recognition, driver behavior and interaction, vehicle connectivity and software validation. Supported by Bpifrance in their innovation efforts, most, if not all of these companies have made the United States their target market.

2 Designed as a program to accelerate their integration onto the U.S. automotive industry, UbiMobility provides the opportunity for these eight companies to present their companies to the automakers, suppliers, VC, and research communities. On site, each of them will benefit from personalized support from Business France. The goal is to build a lasting relationship with potential customers and strategic partners in the North American market. The companies will receive coaching to adapt their message to the U.S. market. They will participate in targeted events bringing together the diverse members of the automotive / mobility communities and will benefit from a program of personalized BtoB meetings. While in the U.S., the UbiMobility delegation will meet with each jury member* and their autonomous and connected vehicle teams, including: Ford Silicon Valley, Delphi, FCA, Valeo North America, The University of Michigan, WardsAuto, Magna International, The University of California Berkeley and the Boston Consulting Group. In addition to the jury, past meetings have included new automotive manufacturers and mobility companies such as Uber, Tesla, Faraday Future, Google, NVIDIA, venture capitalist firms and research institutions. This unique mixture of complete immersion and long-term professional support has demonstrated the program s effectiveness of introducing French innovation onto the U.S. market. Results from the first 2 editions of UbiMobility: - Coaching and development of 16 innovative startups and SMEs - 11 companies presence and expansion to the U.S. market - Contracts or agreements signed for 75% of them million euros raised for their international development The stakes are high. Auto manufacturers, suppliers, Silicon Valley firms and local authorities are heavily invested in the development of autonomous and connected vehicles. The University of Michigan has developed Mcity, a unique test facility in the suburb of Ann Arbor, designed to test autonomous vehicles in real-life conditions. Thanks to UbiMobility, the 100 % electric and autonomous shuttle Navya was selected to be a part of the Mcity program. The integration of advanced technologies influences the emergence and deployment of the autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle. According to the Boston Consulting Group, a majority of urban consumers are mostly in favor of autonomous cars (58% in France, 52% in the United States). This new mode of transportation has considerable perceived benefits (parking, the possibility using travel time to accomplish tasks...). Its generalization should have a major impact on mobility solutions. Nevertheless, this will only be possible if the safety of the user is guaranteed. As Hadi Zablit, BCG s Senior Partner and Managing Director Paris, points out, security remains a concern for a significant portion of consumers and remains a major impediment. This reality opens up important market prospects for technological solutions that will contribute to the reliability of the autonomous

3 vehicle. *The Jury for UbiMobility 2017: Dr. Dragos Maciuca, Technical Director and Senior Technical Leader, Ford Research & Innovation Center, Palo Alto Mr. Drew Winter, Editor-in-Chief, WardsAuto World magazine, Senior Editor, WardsAuto.com, WardsAuto Ms. Françoise Colpron, Group President, Valeo North America Mr. Xavier Mosquet, Senior Partner and Managing Director, Boston Consulting Group Dr. Huei Peng, Director of the University of Michigan Mobility Transformation Center Dr. Gary O Brien, Global Director of Avanced Engineering, Delphi Mr. Bret Scott, Head of Silicon Valley Future Technologies, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Mr. Ian Simmons, Vice President Business Development and Research and Development, Magna International Mr. Thomas West, Director of PATH - Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology, The University of California - Berkeley The 8 startups selected for UBIMOBILITY 2017 Acapela Acapela Transport invents speech solutions to vocalize contents with authentic and ultra-natural voices in the transportation market. Over 100 synthetic voices in 34 languages are ready to give a voice to any content producing a natural and pleasant audio result, by turning written input into speech. Our natural voices are available on all main platforms (Cloud, Windows Server, Windows Desktop and mobile, Linux servers and embedded, OSX and ios, Android ). By mixing two technologies (unit selections and concept-to-speech) we can now generate voices close to a human being in cars but also in other parts of multimodal transport (train, buses, planes ). Chronocam Chronocam is a Paris-based developer of biologically-inspired computer vision sensors and systems for autonomous navigation and IoT applications. Quite simply, its technology, which introduces a new computer vision paradigm based on how the human eye and brain work, significantly improves the performance and power efficiency of how computer vision can be implemented in a wide range of products and applications that improve the convenience and safety of our daily lives. CS Communications & Systèmes CS has developed an innovative technology that improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the Verification and Validation (V&V) process for complex critical systems such as advanced automotive systems. Its solution permits the generation of scripts of tests of hundreds of lines of code in several seconds, reducing significantly the cost of the tests. Dibotics LiDAR sensors are one of the key components of the Autonomous Car, as they allow for a precise 3D

4 perception of the surroundings. However, they are still too expensive for mass-market adoption and are not giving keen resolution and detailed data compared to, for example, cameras. The real-time software of Dibotics permits the vehicle to know its precise location and to know its environment (obstacles, route, road markings ). Dynamixyz High quality facial analysis middleware which can be applied to a wide range of domains including the automotive industry. We have developed and showcased a car at the CES 2017 in partnership with Visteon which has the abilities to authenticate the driver, track its gaze and do simple expression analysis. This kind of technology is key to the development of ADAS. Neavia Technologies Neavia Technologies has more than 10 years experience in devices for ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems): smart cameras, wireless detection of transportation duration and communication vehicle to infrastructure (V2I). All these products for road infrastructure are contributing to better road management, more efficient traffic and to saving more lives. Pertech Pertech Solutions is a French company that designs technological and innovative solutions for Eye Tracking. Eye Tracking consists of measuring the gaze direction of a subject in order to understand the interaction between the subject and his environment. The innovation is based on the development of high-performance algorithms and software, based solely on image processing techniques, without corneal reflection (without IR), enabling accurate, robust, fast pupillary tracking which is non-intrusive, simple too implement (a few seconds), not influenced by conditions of brightness and without any constraint related to the acquisition equipment (camera). Smart Me Up Computer vision deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. It can detect and identify any object in a scene. Vision intelligence goes beyond that definition by understanding the context of the scene and reporting the information (drowsiness detection, car accident detection, pedestrians crossing the road). At Smart Me Up we bring vision intelligence into cars to create the autonomous car of tomorrow. In fact, it is a light and an affordable solution that can be embedded in any type of camera or OS. CONTACT For North America Business France: Mick SALAS: michael.salas@businessfrance.fr Omar JANJUA : +1 (416) omar.janjua@businessfrance.fr For France: Business France: Clément MOULET: +33 (0) clement.moulet@businessfrance.fr Bpifrance: Nathalie POLICE: +33 (0) nathalie.police@bpifrance.fr

5 About Business France: Business France is the national agency supporting the international development of the French economy, responsible for fostering export growth by French businesses, as well as promoting and facilitating international investment in France. Created by the fusion of UbiFrance and the French Agency for International Investments on January 1 st, 2015, Business France counts 1500 collaborators in France and in 70 countries throughout the world. It promotes France s companies, business image and nationwide attractiveness as an investment location, and also runs the VIE international internship program. For more information: About Bpifrance : Bpifrance finances businesses through loans, guarantees, and equity during all stages, from the seed phase to transfer and listing on the stock exchange. In partnership with Business France and Coface, Bpifrance accompanies firms developing export activities and provides support for their innovation projects. Bpifrance offers businesses the benefit of a powerful contact, one who is readily available and able to efficiently respond to their financing needs during For more information: