From January 9-12, 2018, Las Vegas hosted the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), one of the world’s most prestigious annual technology events. For the first time, Luxembourg was there with an official stand and the companies that participated did far more than just “represent”.
The delegation, which was selected by The European American Enterprise Council and Luxinnovation was composed of 8 companies: : Aiva Technologies (an artificial intelligence musical platform), CarpayDiem (enabling motorists to pay electronically for fuel at the petrol pump), CoinPlus (a virtual currency exchange platform), Digital Devotion Group (with VR Time Travel, a unique virtual reality application that makes it possible for users to travel through a city in the past as well as in the future), Fundsquare (a subsidiary of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, dedicated to the cross-border distribution of investment funds), Motion-S (a solution providing information and data to insurance companies and users on their way of driving ), PostmiiCard (a mobile application to allow tourists to print their photos and make real postcards) and Virtelio (virtual reality software movie firm).
“Attending this type of mega event is a unique opportunity to enhance our own experience in terms of international events, to expand our network and to discover trends in new technologies and start-ups,” enthused Laurence Hulin, Advisor – Start-up Support at Luxinnovation, who was present in Las Vegas and who was interviewed by Paperjam.
Laurence was also invited to represent Luxinnovation at a round table at the “Women in Tech”evening, always organised as part of Euro Tech Week. This was an opportunity to once again promote the dynamism of the Luxembourg environment for start-ups its flagship programme “Fit 4 start”.
CES provided the opportunity to several of these chosen start-ups to be ignited by exciting announcements. CarpayDiem, for example, has announced a partnership with one of the world’s leading intelligent mobility operators, ZF Friedrichshafen, to integrate the Luxembourg payment solution into the “Car eWallet” of the German equipment manufacturer.
Additional partnerships were also announced for Motion-S, with British platform VUE cloud for entrance into the UK market, and with the Belgian insurtech DeeCide to integrate its solution into its offered services.
Motion-S was also selected, along with 11 other European start-ups, to participate in a very targeted pitch session, organised by EIT Digital and to which another Luxembourg company, Ujet (producers of electric scooters) were also invited but who were not part of the “official” delegation at CES.
PostmiiCard was also mentioned in an article on technology platform The Verge
Ujet was however also invited, along with PostmiiCard, for the “CES Unveiled”, a sort of giant warm-up, which brought together some 200 hand-picked start-ups just before the opening of the main fair.
“All of this very positive feedback allow us to demonstrate that concrete activities are really happening in Luxembourg and that the country is becoming a very interesting platform for early-stage start-ups seeking to develop and internationalise their activities”, explains Jean-Michel Ludwig, Director Start-up Support & SME Performance at Luxinnovation.
Outside of the selected Luxembourg delegation, CES also gave the opportunity to Artec 3D, in partnership with SnT – Interdisciplinary Center for Security, Reliability and Trust of the University of Luxembourg, to present a revolutionary 3D body scanner technology.
View our gallery of photos from CES