Innovation Across Borders: French Deep Tech Takes Center Stage at SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026
At the heart of the global technology landscape, France has emerged as a powerhouse of innovation. Today, the French startup ecosystem boasts over 33,000 startups, 35 unicorns, and has created over 1.1 million jobs since 2000. Backed by massive public and private support, including the historic €54 billion "France 2030" investment plan and hyper-growth support structures like the French Tech Next 40/120, French startups are actively expanding their footprints worldwide.
On Day 2 of the global technology event SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026, the French Pavilion hosted an exclusive startup pitch session at the Meteor Stage (15:00-15:30). Under the coordination of La French Tech Tokyo—one of the 14 official communities across Asia—this session highlighted five pioneering French startups tackling critical challenges in artificial intelligence, hardware data security, eldercare, telepresence, and climate monitoring. The day's official schedule featured companies such as Abbeal, Cypheme, FACIL'iti, Erase4Good (LE GSM), Orikio, Ucaya (la Vitre), and YellowScan, showcasing a highly innovative subset of the broader France Pavilion delegation.
La French Tech Tokyo itself serves as a crucial bidirectional bridge. Led by a volunteer board of nine elected tech professionals, the community supports approximately 900 members. It facilitates partnerships between French entrepreneurs, Japanese investors, and industry giants, paving the way for celebrated French unicorns such as Back Market, Deezer, and Exotec to establish robust operations in Japan.
1. Cypheme: The AI-Powered Shield Against Global Counterfeiting
Counterfeiting costs global brands billions of dollars annually, particularly in fast-growing markets like India and China. While traditional safeguards like holograms and QR codes are easily replicated by bad actors, Cypheme has introduced a game-changing solution combining chemical uniqueness with advanced artificial intelligence.
The Technology: A high-security adhesive sticker embedded with a chemically generated, entirely randomized signature. Because the signature is molecularly unique, it acts as an uncopyable physical fingerprint.
AI-Powered Verification: Consumers or logistics agents simply take a photo of the sticker using a standard smartphone camera. Cypheme's AI instantly analyzes the image to verify authenticity.
Contractual Guarantees: According to Cypheme, the company offers a contractual money-back guarantee if its security system is breached.
Investigative Action: When counterfeit attempts occur, Cypheme’s technology maps the fraudsters' networks, geolocates their manufacturing facilities, and assists law enforcement in shutting down illicit operations.
Global Recognition: Cypheme’s Vrai AI technology received a United Nations University-related AI award in 2025, adding to the company’s international recognition in anti-counterfeiting technology. Cypheme reports operating across more than 180 countries and having helped eliminate millions of counterfeit products.
2. Erase4Good (LE GSM): Unlocking Circular Electronics via Certified Data Erasure
Data security is the single largest barrier to the circular economy for consumer electronics. Statistically, between 37% and 69% of consumers avoid trading in or recycling old devices due to fears of data theft, resulting in less than 20% of global electronic devices being recycled. LE GSM, represented by founder Lionel Uzzan, tackles this bottleneck with its innovative hardware solution "Erase4Good".
Non-Destructive Erasure: Unlike traditional physical shredding, "Erase4Good" renders flash memory completely unrecoverable without damaging the physical components of the device.
Dual-State Operation: The hardware solution is highly versatile, operating successfully on both functioning (power-on) and non-functioning (power-off) devices.
Certified Data Erasure: Each processed device receives a secure data erasure certification validating its clean data status, turning potential e-waste into certified, reusable physical assets.
Environmental Impact: By resolving security concerns, the technology maximizes device recycling rates and preserves rare materials, establishing a secure bridge between data security and environmental sustainability.
3. Orikio: Protecting Aging Societies with Plug-and-Play Acoustic Intelligence
In rapidly aging societies like Japan, eldercare facilities and families face severe caregiver shortages and the constant risk of unmonitored resident accidents. Orikio addresses this critical societal challenge through non-intrusive, autonomous acoustic monitoring.
Acoustic Signature Detection: Every physical crisis—such as an elderly person falling, calling for help, or suffering acute physical distress—creates a unique acoustic signature. Orikio’s AI is trained to instantly recognize these sound patterns.
Zero-Contact, Zero-Wearable Hardware: The compact device plugs directly into a standard wall socket. It requires no cameras, no body-worn sensors, and zero user configuration, with privacy-conscious monitoring.
Instant Contextual Alerts: Upon detecting a distress event, the system immediately sends a contextual notification to caregivers or family members, allowing for remote assessment and swift emergency intervention.
Proven Scale: Already deployed across more than 4,500 rooms (thousands of units) globally, Orikio is a world leader in acoustic eldercare, ensuring no critical emergency goes unnoticed.
4. Ucaya (la Vitre): Revolutionizing Global Collaboration with Life-Size Telepresence
In an era of hybrid work, conventional video conferencing often fails to capture the nuances of physical collaboration, burdened by calendar links, scheduling friction, and language barriers. Ucaya overcomes these hurdles with its immersive, life-size telepresence platform "la Vitre", designed to "disappear" into the room.
Frictionless Interaction: Dubbed the "walk up and knock" interface, "la Vitre" requires no pre-scheduled links or virtual lobbies. Users simply walk up to the life-size display to initiate an instant, secure peer-to-peer connection.
Real-Time Multilingual Translation: Supports instantaneous translation in over 40 languages, enabling seamless cross-border communication.
Tangible Business Impact:
Fashion & Manufacturing: A leading lingerie manufacturer connected its global design team directly with its production factories. Real-time, life-size visual reviews reduced brand-validation cycles and saved two weeks of production delays.
Elderly Engagement: In clinical tests with seniors aged 77 and older, "la Vitre" demonstrated significantly higher engagement and ease-of-use compared to standard video software.
SaaS-Hardware Hybrid: Supported by a robust companion app, the platform enables multi-point connections, digital screen annotations, and a secure "avatar mode" for interactive visitor guidance.
5. YellowScan: UAV Bathymetric LiDAR for Climate Adaptation and Modeling
As climate change accelerates, extreme weather events like flooding and shifting river patterns threaten critical infrastructure and coastal biodiversity. Gathering accurate terrain data is vital for environmental protection, but traditional surveying methods are often dangerous, expensive, and logistically complex. YellowScan addresses this with drone-integrated bathymetric LiDAR.
Advanced Drone Integration: High-performance laser scanning systems designed to be mounted on standard commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Dual-Medium Modeling: Generates highly accurate 3D spatial models both above and below the water surface, capturing intricate shorelines, riverbeds, and underwater topography in a single flight.
Massive Cost Efficiencies: Delivers dense, research-grade geodata at a fraction of the cost and time required by traditional marine or land-based surveying teams.
Empowering Decisiveness: The resulting data helps municipal governments, researchers, and private builders plan flood defenses, monitor coastal erosion, and execute sustainable infrastructure projects without putting human lives at risk.
Conclusion: Shaping the Future of Co-Innovation
The innovative presentations showcased at SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 demonstrate that the technological bridge between France and Japan is stronger and more critical than ever. Both nations face deeply aligned modern challenges: rapidly aging demographics, the urgent need for circular industrial practices, digital vulnerability, and systemic environmental risks driven by climate change.
By delivering scalable, deep-tech solutions—ranging from non-intrusive acoustic intelligence to advanced bathymetric modeling—these featured French startups offer tangible answers to shared problems. Supported by La French Tech Tokyo, this collaborative ecosystem is set to drive the next wave of cross-border technological partnerships, transforming strategic issues into mutual opportunities for sustainable growth and security.
