Sebastien Payen & Thibaut Scholasch, Fruition Sciences

Fruition is a technology-enabled information service business. The company is focused on helping winery customers capture data from vineyards with innovative sensors and then analyzing this data to improve consistency, yield and quality.

Data is captured by a suite of sensors deployed in vineyards (or any other high-value crops) and provides physiological and physical parameters describing the plant and delivered via a web-based application. 
Fruition’s first product is an application, which enables the winemaker to see the real-time status of a vineyard and make immediate decisions about irrigation and canopy management.

WHY FRANCE?

France seems to be an obvious choice for us due to the natural fit of our business and what France has to offer. There are two main reasons why Fruition Sciences wishes to set up part of the company in France:

•  Research and Development:  o  In the viticulture and wine space, French research is still considered as the reference. Thibaut Scholasch is finishing his PhD in viticulture at INRA Montpellier, so he is well connected to many of the top researchers in that space. Moreover, France’s efforts to boost innovation are the other big incentives for Fruition to set up its research and development there. In 2007 and 2008, Fruition was a winner of the Emergence and Creation-Development competitions organized by the French ministry for Research and Innovation (250,000 euros)

 -  In the sensor and software space, France also offers a few academic centers of excellence (like the competitive pole in Grenoble or Marseille). However, it is important to note that Fruition also believes in its presence in the bay area as a way to (1) reach customers but also (2) keeping itself informed of the latest sensors or technology out of the Silicon Valley. Indeed, the Silicon Valley remains the center of excellence for most high technology with its two world recognized Universities (Berkeley and Stanford).

•  Business Perspective: 
  -  In the wine industry, it is necessary to have an easy access to the European market (France, Spain and Italy). Europe is the biggest market in wine while the US is a smaller market but more prone to adopt technology rapidly (US also gives also access to market like Chile and Argentina). While France’s rules make it impossible to irrigate in most high-end wineries, Fruition truly believes that it should be able to sell in France in the next few years. In addition, Spain and Italy are very promising markets.
  -  Compared to competitors in the same space: it’s a critical advantage to be present worldwide. Moreover Chile’s presence would double the sale cycle.
  -  Finally, from a business perspective, France offers the advantage of a very qualified and relatively cheap workforce, with labor costs 20%-50% lower than in the US. In addition, France’s efforts to boost entrepreneurship make it possible to find a lot of local support like incubators and seed money to launch the activity.

WHY YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS INITIATIVE (YEI)?

How did it happen? Thibaut Scholasch knew somebody working at the French Trade Office in San Francisco.  This is how we were connected with the YEi project manager (Sebastien Dagault) and decided to apply.

What has been done so far? So far, the program has been extremely helpful. After helping us putting together our application for the French competitive grant OSEO - Creation and Development, YEi invited us to France and helped us organize a first business trip in France in April with the support of regional economic agencies in Grenoble (Aepi , Grenoble Economic Development Agency), Montpellier (Montpellier Agglomeration), Lyon (Lyon Area Economic Development Agency, ADERLY) and Marseille (Provence Economic Development Agency, Provence Promotion). During 10 days, we toured southwestern France in order to set an office in France. The goal was to find cities close to the vineyards (France, but also Spain and Italy) and close to academic centers of excellence in viticulture, sensor and network technologies, and software. In each city we met with incubators, local agencies and potential academic or technical partners. A second trip was organized to go to two conferences: the French-American Conference for Entrepreneurs and the annual workshop of YEI. This trip was also the occasion to visit once more Lyon and Marseille. This time, the goal was to meet with local investors and visit a few incubators. Finally, Sebastien went to Paris to participate in the finals of the TREMPLIN business plan competition in the Senate in Paris. Fruition Sciences won the Jacques and Francoise Douce special price and 7500 Euros

WHAT IS OUR PROJECT IN FRANCE?

Fruition Sciences has 3 objectives in France:
1) Initiate research and development by leveraging French competency. The core competency of the company is the knowledge of physiological algorithms and how to use those to inform vineyard management decisions. In order to do that, we are planning on going to France in November to create the French office and hire the first two employees. One to start the research program and one to take care of business development and operations in France. We are expecting to hire 21 persons before the end of 2010.

2) Establish strategic partnerships with academic centers and technical partners. A key component to our success is the creation of a network of partners in academia and the industry. The idea is to integrate the best sensing technologies with the best modeling tools to bring to the customers a really useful decision tool.

3) Develop sales and marketing activities in France and in Europe. While France is not an immediate market, Spain and Italy are the 2nd and 3rd producers of wine in the world. As such, Fruition is going to develop its strategy to market and sell to these markets. This means we’ll soon have to create a sale force and a way to distribute and support our products.

 
WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?
 
The next steps for Fruition Sciences are the following:
• Finish harvest 2008 in California and Spain. Make sure the customers are happy and sign on for next year. At the same time, start prospecting for new customers in California.
• Start developing the next generation of physiological sensors
• Start the research program in France at the end of the year
• Secure at least one customer in the southern hemisphere to double the sale cycle.