Nice is connected to another two cities across Europe through the ePlus Ecosystem project. These cities are: Baden-Württenberg and Lisbon. The organisations that ensure this connection are: CCI Nice Côte D´Azur and Fondation Sophia Antipolis.

The French Riviera has built its growth and its industrial reputation over the past 30 years on a strong substrate of companies belonging to the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector. This potential is concentrated in the Sophia Antipolis Science and Technology Park, the largest park of its kind in Europe and a world reference in terms of ICT skills.

The French Riviera Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a stakeholder and operator committed to developing and promoting the French Riviera and its companies, oversees the Nice / Cotê d’Azur entrepreneurship ecosystem which is based in Sophia Antipolis, Nice EcoVallée and Cannes.

• Sophia Antipolis: The Information Technologies sector is the core of expertise in Sophia Antipolis. It accounts for 265 companies and 12,800 jobs in Information technologies (Microelectronics, software, telecom, networks, multimedia, e commerce, web). SMEs and start-ups stand side by side with world leaders such as Amadeus, Cisco Systems, Hewlett, etc. The Sophia Antipolis “Business Pole” brings together a start-up incubator and coworking space close to the CCI Nice Côte d’Azur teams and business association offices, competitiveness clusters, and shared innovation platforms.
• Nice Eco-Vallée: many Mobile Near-Field Communication experiments are currently underway across the area, spearheaded by world leaders (Cisco, IBM, Orange, ErDF, etc.) around the concept of the smart city, as well as e-health and silver economy.
• Cannes: Cannes Bastide Rouge Technopole is developing a business incubator called “CréaCannes” dedicated to the creative sectors (design graphics media, advertising, image banks, design, and video games) and to medical and scientific imaging; and a business center with CCI Nice Côte d’Azur teams and a Laboratory for Digital Images. Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis has, for several years now, been working towards reconquering the industrial sector with Eco-Valley, the National Interest Project centred on eco-industries, and with the reorganization of its territory as a “smart city” to encourage the development of digital technology and related activities. As for the City of Cannes, now part of the Pays de Lérins Urban Community, it is also supporting ICT with its aim to develop a digital image cluster.

Entreprenurial drive

• 945 businesses created in 5 years (2009-2013)
• €18 million BPI funds raised on 96 projects over 3 years (2011-2013)
• €28 million venture capital funds identified since 2010
• €151 million in venture capital and growth capital since 2010

Activities

• 43 international exhibitions and conferences
• 40 local events or cycles of local events (200 to 300 days / year)
• 17 events and start-up support venues: 6 business accelerators (with co-working space), 3 co-working spaces, 4 incubators, 4 fablabs (1 with co-working space). > 5 clusters, 1 regional cluster, many professional associations

If you want to participate in events involving these three cities, please contact either the Coordinator of ePlus Ecosystem, or the two partners in Nice.