Plug and Play in Marseille: an encounter with the local business ecosystem

Around a hundred people gathered for a captivating discussion about tech, AI, and projects for the future.

As part of its decision to set up an international Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence in Marseille, the American tech accelerator and venture capital firm Plug and Play organized a networking evening in Marseille on August 28, 2024, in collaboration with Provence Promotion. The event was both an opportunity to present the project, which is part of Plug and Play’s regionalization strategy in France, and for the company to forge links with the Aix-Marseille-Provence business ecosystem. Yves Cabanac, the Managing Director of Plug and Play’s French subsidiary, declared the goal was to “bring Silicon Valley to Marseille.” Accompanied by eight other directors and experts, including Matthew Hennigan, an AI specialist from the Plug and Play Tech Center in London, Yves Cabanac announced that the Marseille project aims to boost innovation within companies across the South of France.

Founded in 2006 in Palo Alto in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, Plug and Play has long been a pioneer in innovation. In the 1990s, its founder and CEO, Saeed Amidi, supported start-ups that went on to become global giants, including Google, PayPal, Dropbox, and Danger, which was a precursor to Android.

Today, Plug and Play is considered the world’s most active venture capital company, having supported 2700 start-ups by 2023 and provided direct financing to 250 of them. It has 35 unicorns in its investment portfolio. “We focus on the most critical stages of funding for start-ups, such as seed funding and early-stage financing,” explained Yves Cabanac, who joined Plug and Play in April 2024 after a long career with the HP Group.

Plug and Play will bring the spirit of Silicon Valley to Marseille

Plug and Play began its international expansion in 2011 by opening operations in Berlin and Singapore, and the company is now present in more than 25 countries. Based in Paris since 2016, Plug and Play is now rolling out a regionalization strategy in France. The ambitious project in Marseille is designed to cover the whole of the South of France.

At the networking evening with the territory’s economic stakeholders, Plug and Play officially announced its decision to open an international Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence in Marseille.

Provence Promotion is the primary support contact for the Plug and Play project. Thanks to its broad prospecting activities in California, Provence Promotion has been in contact with Plug and Play for more than four years. The agency organized an event at the company’s headquarters in Sunnyvale in 2022 to highlight the advantages of Aix-Marseille-Provence to Californian innovators, with testimonials from start-ups such as Bovlabs, which developed its micro-grid solution in Provence. Provence Promotion has also regularly provided business intelligence about the local ecosystem to Plug and Play while promoting the talent pool and digital expertise in Aix-Marseille, notably to Plug and Play’s French subsidiary during an encounter at the Vivatech start-up and technology trade show in Paris.

By bringing the spirit of Silicon Valley to Marseille, start-ups and tech companies can remain in the territory when they are searching for funding or innovation support. Plug and Play will also boost local growth in the artificial intelligence sector, as it is one of the investment verticals that the company is rapidly expanding.

“AI is not just a passing trend. We firmly believe it can transform business models. We want to implement a decentralization strategy to avoid a Paris-centered approach. This approach offers start-ups in the South of France support for the development of their AI solutions and will help companies meet the needs in their markets. And if there’s one place where Plug and Play really wants to make an impact, it’s in Marseille,” said Yves Cabanac.

Plug and Play offers highly successful innovation services to companies, governments, and institutions that help them develop the technologies, systems, and expertise they need for the future. With a team of 250 people spread across the world that has been commissioned by 570 companies, Plug and Play is committed to identifying the most promising innovations that add genuine value to business models, products, or services.

On September 11, 2024, Provence Promotion and a delegation of economic stakeholders from Aix-Marseille will be welcomed by founder Saeed Amidi at Plug and Play’s tech center in California. This event will be part of the program for a visiting delegation of business leaders from Provence seeking to increase connections between the two territories and enhance the metro area’s influence. Members of the delegation and companies accelerated by Plug and Play will have the opportunity to take part in three round tables on the themes of innovation in decarbonization, artificial intelligence, and the advantages of the Aix-Marseille-Provence territory.