A handful of French startups will travel to Montreal take in the local startup scene, compete in a showcasing event and, ideally, plant the seeds for future expansion.

Ten companies are participating in the French Tech Tour Canada 2016, where they’ll travel to Toronto from June 6-15, and onto Montreal until June 23. They are: BiBOARD, Brainwave, CBien.com, Dataiku, Easytransac, Feeligo, Headoo, Lifedomus, Ogust and Wiztivi.

Business France, the national agency supporting the international development of the French economy in Canada, is organizing the tour, now in its third year.

“For many of the startups, it’s a good way to see if the Canadian market is responding and if they can grow further in North America,” said Pauline Durand, a trade advisor at Business France. “We have several good examples of startups that experienced positive growth in Quebec and Canada, so our French companies see Quebec as a good destination.”

It seems 2016 has been a positive on for France-Canada collaboration already. In February Phil Telio and Startupfest announced the Paris and Montreal bilateral startup program, which will offer startups from both cities office space for three months.

While Toronto is doubtless a strong business market for the French startups, smaller Montreal holds some clear advantages. The most obvious one is that Montreal can act as a jump-off point, a home-base with French as its mother tongue.

Durand even mentioned that Montreal was recently designated a French Tech Hub among a network of 11 cities (New York, Tel-Aviv, Tokyo, San Francisco and Moscow, and more recently Cape Town, Abidjan, Barcelona, London and Hong Kong).

“We think it’s really important to facilitate relationships between startups from France and Quebec, and there’s already a lot happening,” said Durand. “Montreal is really recognized as a great place to encourage French start-ups, so I hope this program can help that. If MTLinTech readers want to be a part of this, of course we’re happy to help any way we can.”

This year will be French Tech Tour Canada’s third edition, and its first at a three-week-long duration. The previous two were only a week long, and Business France felt the teams needed more time to spend in both cities.

As of today, the ten start-ups will begin working with Business France to define their strategy and approach to the Canadian market. Once in Canada, the program will build around a series of B2B individual meetings with potential clients and partners. The companies will also participate in thematic workshops and roundtables to better understand the keys to entering the Canadian market. In addition, they will attend several networking events in order to increase their visibility locally.

Thanks to this program, the companies will be able to grow their business, prepare to operate in North America and expand their market exposure. French Tech Tour is proud to offer this opportunity in the spirit of collaboration between French and Canadian tech companies.

-Business France

The Montreal networking event will be held on June 21^st at the OVH office at 1801 McGill College Ave. Business France is emphasizing that if anyone in Montreal is interested in getting in touch with the teams or the event, they should reach out to frenchtechtourcanada@businessfrance.com.

Here’s all the details about each of the 10 startups:

BiBOARD provides a Business Intelligence (BI) and visualization software tool that autonomously collects data and spreads it at all levels of the company via a dashboard accessible through a simple web browser.

Brainwave develops Brainwave Identity GRC, a software solution which provides audit, control and governance capabilities for user permissions on digital assets such as data, applications and systems.

CBien is a web-based platform that allows customers to register online all their material belongings in order to better manage their assets in case of life events such as a move, an accident or a sale.

Dataiku develops an all-in-one platform, Data Science Studio (DSS), which integrates all the capabilities required to build end-to-end services that turn raw data into business impacting predictions quickly.

Easytransac develops a mobile acquisition payment solution per Credit Card for professional and SaaS solutions designed for e-commerce and retailers. Thanks to this mobile app, the smartphone becomes a virtual mPOS.

Feeligo provides the technology for any online community or messaging service to easily provide rich media content such as emojis, stickers, Gifs… Feeligo reinvents the online advertising making it less intrusive and thus changing the relation between advertisers and consumers.

Headoo offers a visual content platform for brands aiming to generate exclusive and creative digital content in order to entertain eCommerce Websites, connected stores and brand activations.

Lifedomus is a home automation specialist, offering an operating system and an application allowing customers to remotely control their houses when they need it.

Ogust offers online management softwares for services to individuals. One of their key products is Ogust Self-service, an e-commerce platform developed in SaaS mode and dedicated to human services companies (cleaning, tutoring, personal care, …).

Wiztivi develops multiplatform deployment solutions for connected TVs, set-top boxes ISPs and other screens. The platform handles the media, the distribution and the traffic and consumption of analytical tools and links with the customer billing system, all in SaaS mode.