City of Boston welcomes entrepreneurs from "Big Booster" program

 In partnership with MassChallenge and the City of Lyon, France, Mayor Martin J. Walsh today welcomed a visiting delegation of 20 entrepreneurs, government and industry leaders to Boston for Big Booster's week-long boot camp program, in the City of Boston, to accelerate innovation for technology startups globally.  Big Booster, launched in April 2015, is the first non-profit, international accelerator program between Boston and Lyon, France. In addition to this week's boot camp activities for participating entrepreneurs, Mayor Walsh and Vice-Mayor of Lyon Karine Dognin-Sauze, together will sign a Memorandum of Understanding, in the presence of the Ambassador of France to the US Gérard Araud, the first between the two cities to build upon shared opportunities in Boston and Lyon.

"We're thrilled these entrepreneurs are coming to the City of Boston to learn, grow and showcase their talent," said Mayor Walsh. "This Big Booster boot camp is a testament of Boston's standing as a hub of innovation. We're honored that Lyon has become a thoughtful and strong global neighbor in these efforts. Our growing economic partnership with Lyon continues to foster innovative collaboration and entrepreneurship that supports local and global talent, generating creativity in Boston and internationally."

"There is a natural partnership between Boston and Lyon, as both cities are committed to innovation and entrepreneurship," said  Karine Dognin-Sauze, Vice President and Deputy Mayor of the City of Lyon." "The Big Booster boot camp at MassChallenge is an exciting celebration of our bilateral collaboration and an important milestone in continued exchange between these two strategic hubs."

Throughout the week, 20 entrepreneurs from Europe, Middle East and Africa are participating in the Big Booster boot camp supported by more than 30 industry and government leaders (see below for a complete list of boot camp startup participants).  Big Booster focuses especially on entrepreneurship in health, digital, and environment and sustainability. Following Big Booster's official launch in April 2015, Lyon hosted the first boot camp in October 2015 which included 72 quarterfinalists. From the beginning, the Big Booster program has been advised by MassChallenge, the most startup-friendly accelerator on the planet, which is headquartered in Boston.

"We are so pleased to host and train promising startups from Lyon at MassChallenge and make stronger connections between the two ecosystems through entrepreneurship," said Mike LaRhette, President of MassChallenge.

Boston and Lyon continue to celebrate and promote innovation across the two partnering cities. France is Massachusetts' X global trading partner.  Boston is home to a number of companies with locations also in Lyon includingDassault Systèmes, Sanofi-Genzyme, Veolia, Schneider Electric, Keolis, and  Institut Merieux.  Big Booster has forged a strong partnership across both cities, especially in support of the life science, digital, cleantech and energy, security and defense, and robotics, all key industries in Boston and Lyon.  To learn more about Big Booster, visit www.bigbooster.org.

The MassChallenge-Lyon 2016 Boot Camp Startup Participants are as follows:

BIOSFER TESLAB SL 
Bio & Health 
www.biosferteslab.com 
Biosfer Teslab, a spin-off company that develops in vitro diagnostic tests providing the clinicians an innovative tool to better evaluate the cardiovascular risk.                

BREEZOMETER
Environment 
www.breezometer.com
BreezoMeter's mission is to help cities to improve the health and quality of life of their citizens, by controlling air quality.                                

CYLEONE 
Environment 
www.cyleone.fr 
Cyleone provides its users the means to address actual environmental and climate related challenges with efficient and cost effective solutions thanks to CYManager and CYbox.                                

DIABELOOP 
Bio & Health 
www.diabeloop.fr 
Artificial Pancreas service for Diabetes treatment. We will save lives, amputations, ocular and renal complications, and radically improve everyday life for the patients.

ECHY 
Global Impact 
www.echy.fr 
ECHY is a French start-up company with a patented daylighting technology, which captures, transports and diffuses sunlight into buildings using fibre optic cables.

ENOVAP 
Innovative Tech 
www.enovap.com 
Enovap is a revolutionary smart and connected e-cigarette that makes you quit smoking.              

INNAVIRVAX 
Bio & Health 
www.innavirvax.fr 
InnaVirVax is a clinical stage company developing an immunotherapy that is going to change the paradigm of HIV therapy.                                

IZICREA 
Innovative Tech 
www.izicrea.com
IZICREA develops an electronic device and an online platform to help couture lovers and designers of patterns simplify and quicken the use of models and generate interaction.                                

MAAT PHARMA 
Bio & Health 
www.maatpharma.com 
MaaT Pharma (for Microbiota as a Therapy) is proposing a new medical paradigm by developing a series of microbial drugs aiming at restoring the man-microbes symbiosis.                                

MARIOWAY SL 
Bio & Health 
www.marioway.com 
Advanced manufacturing of a unique ergonomic, verticalizing, hands-free and electric-propelled wheelchair with researched design for disabled and able-bodied persons.                                            

METAFORA BIOSYSTEMS 
Bio & Health 
www.metafora-biosystems.com 
METAFORA biosystems is developing a breakthrough technology platform for the diagnostic of human diseases. METAdiag, the future in metabolism discovery.

NEOLYS DIAGNOSTICS 
Bio & Health 
www.neolysdiagnostics.com 
Neolys Diagnostics develops a decision-making tool to radiation oncologists, allowing them to personalise the treatment: avoiding side effect; improving the efficacy.

NOVADISCOVERY 
Bio & Health 
www.novadiscovery.com 
Novadiscovery ambitions to develop a best-in-class drug discovery engine in the field of immuno-oncology based on a proprietary computational biology simulation platform.                                

SMART & BLUE 
Innovative Tech 
www.hydrao.com 
Smart & Blue company is developing connected solutions for smart management of water resources. Our first product is Hydrao the smart shower.  

SPIKE-X 
Bio & Health 
www.spike-x.tn 
Expanding Possibilities.                                

TILKEE 
Innovative Tech 
www.tilkee.com 
Tilkee is a cloud based app that optimizes prospect follow-up by tracking business proposal and predicting sales.                                

UCONEKT INC. 
Innovative Tech 
www.uConekt.com 
Our vision is to provide secure cyber solutions to everyday problems and challenges. We want to make every day better by making technology easy, relevant and available.                                

WEEN SAS 
Innovative Tech 
www.ween.fr
The world's first geo-driven smart thermostat that drives significant energy savings in real-time.