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- SA had eight tech companies flying the country's flag high at VivaTech 2023 in Paris.
- The summit is the biggest tech show in Europe, attracting over 2 500 exhibitors and 91 000 attendees.
- SA startup MellowVans caught the attention of multinational companies and could soon land partnerships in Europe and Asia as a result.
From overcoming crippling stages of load shedding back home to potentially landing contracts with multinational brands, SA tech companies flew the country's flag high at Europe's biggest tech show.
During the four-day event, poorly attended by African exhibitors, SA had a decent showing, with eight SA technology-driven companies taking part in the seventh edition of Viva Technology 2023 (VivaTech) in Paris, France.
In total, there were 2 500 exhibitors from 146 countries, and over 91 000 attendees.
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This summit took place from 14 to 17 June in the heart of the French capital at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, an exhibition and conference centre.
News24 was in attendance for the latest updates on all things related to smart devices, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, 3D printing, genomics, robotic process automation (RPA), and quantum computing, among other new technology trends on show.
VivaTech is a platform that seeks to accelerate innovation by connecting startups, tech leaders, major corporations, and investors for the sole purpose of responding to some of the biggest challenges the world is facing.
One such challenge is high levels of carbon emissions, which have far-ranging environmental and health effects, such as causing climate change by trapping heat and contributing to respiratory disease from smog and air pollution.
Because of his passion for urban transport and the development of last-mile delivery solutions through means that attempt to tackle the emissions challenge, Neil du Preez founded MellowVans, a South African developer of light electric utility vehicles.
His company is said to have drawn serious interest from large multinationals, such as e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group.
Speaking to News24 at the tech summit on Saturday, Du Preez explained how he came up with the concept of a light electric utility vehicle while residing in a load shedding ravaged country.
"A couple of years ago, I released that mobility is changing, and there is a real need for last-mile delivery vehicles not only in SA, but across the globe.
"So, we set out developing, from the ground up in SA, a vehicle that conforms to international standards, but [that] would also revolutionise last-mile delivery," said Du Preez.
He added that the rise of e-commerce and the popularity and convenience of home deliveries further spurred him on in his quest to revolutionise delivery vehicles.
"The journey has been rocky; as you can imagine building something from the ground up is exceptionally challenging, and then add onto that the challenge of regulations, automotive regulations… this just multiplied the complexity of the process.
"Then there was also the [challenge] of building a hardware product, which is and will always be expensive," said Du Preez.
He added one reprieve was that SA has great expertise and a very long history of automotive production.
"We (MellowVans) have been tapping into some of the experience available from the existing automotive industry in SA," said Du Preez.
The company's production facility is in Du Preez's hometown of Stellenbosch, and its production capacity, according to him, was around four to five units of the light electrical delivery van per day.
"We could theoretically increase that to 10 units per day, and the demand is exceptionally healthy, and we have a few cornerstone clients like DHL, retailers which include Spar leading the way.
"There is also Checkers Sixty60, Takealot, and demand is exploding," said Du Preez.
Despite the booming business, Du Preez admitted that load shedding was a serious challenge threatening his company's productivity.
?? Today. @elonmusk LIVE from #VivaTech - watch it here! https://t.co/rDtU8gsdxp
— Viva Technology (@VivaTech) June 16, 2023
"In terms of production, load shedding affects us and affects our supply chain. If you want to produce something and don't have electricity, your factory suffers; load shedding affects the industry significantly and will hamper production in the long term," he said.
He, however, said the crippling power cuts did not have too much of an effect on his electric delivery vehicle.
"Locally, load shedding doesn't really affect our vehicle in its usage because most of our vehicles are charged overnight, and in the middle of the night SA has power," said Du Preez.
Joshua Palm, who works at Wesgro and focuses on trade services said the vehicles have a 130km range after being fully charged, and did not need charging stations as they could be charged using electricity sockets at home.
Palm said:
Wesgro is the official tourism, trade, and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape which, with the assistance of the French Embassy in SA and the SA ambassador to France, assisted MellowVans and several other companies to attend the summit.
Palm said: "We took about eight companies with us, and [one of] the companies we took was MellowVans, a local company that focuses on the electric delivery vehicle made for the African market and for e-commerce. They currently partner with DHL, Takealot and [are] now looking for international clients all over the world.
Palm added that he had met with huge brands "such as Alibaba and others who have shown a keen interest in partnering with the SA companies, particularly MellowVans".
Du Preez said while he did not come to Paris to seek funding, he definitely had his eyes on European partnerships.
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He said his design had finally received approval declaring it roadworthy in Europe, and he was looking to expand into this market.
"We have achieved European" standards, he said, "which means the vehicle is road legal in Europe, so we are looking for partnerships with European companies.
"We have had a few very, very interesting engagements with large European companies and could score some other clients from the Middle East and other Asia Pacific regions, so it's been super successful," said Du Preez.
Other startups from SA included Lightbulb Edtech, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that provides customised virtual learning environments for clients, as well as Elemental, a Cape Town-based web and software designer which specialises in creating customised webpages.
Palm said the criteria for selecting the companies to send to this summit included the requirement that all the companies have to be market-ready and have an existing clientele.
Palm said:
Mobility was a key theme at this year's VivaTech, as there was no shortage of innovative companies vying to change the future of travel for people and goods.
In the same category as MellowVans, being delivery, French company Zapata introduced keen onlookers at the expo to the air scooter.
This one-person flying machine looked like something from the future – an oversized drone would be the best way to describe the ingenuity behind the concept.
Zapata plans to sell the aircraft for recreational flight experiences.
Speaking to News24, Zapata's community manager Beatriz Esteban Cara said that people could test-drive flying scooters in flight centres in the US next year.
"There will be no pilot's license necessary and no buildings or people around to worry about in the vicinity," she said.
Not to be left behind in advancing delivery methods, Australian company Apeleon unveiled a vertical take-off and landing drone (VTOL).
The concept incorporates both the advantages of a helicopter and a plane in delivering lightweight packages.
