The Burgundy
Franche Comté Challenge
Your one-stop-shop to enter the French market
The BFC challenge is organized by GrowingIL, Business France, AXA Climate & the Burgundy-Franche-Comté regional economic agency.
The challenge is a unique opportunity for Israeli Agtech startups to meet with experts from the region who can help your company better understand the region and how it can be used as a stepping stone for entry into the French & European market.
Congratulations to the challenge winners
In case you missed it, here's the recording of the Kickoff Event and everything you need to know about the challenge
Who Can Apply?
Agricultural practices: Biocontrol & Soil Biodiversity
Cattle feed and Protein
autonomy
Climate change: Water Management & Frozen crops
Solutions for a Regenerative Agriculture
Israeli Agtech startups in the fields of
Winning Prize.
A turnkey business roadshow in the region; meeting relevant farmers, corporates & potential clients
AXA CLIMATE Coaching
in ESG and raising from
Impact Funds
Meet the judges.
Engineer in agriculture (Master degree), Nicolas worked several years in the food industry and distribution.
As a multilingual project leader in precision agriculture (Agtech) food industry, Nicolas is in charge of following up new investment projects.
He is in charge of advising and giving you a taylor support to develop your business in Burgundy-Franche-Comte.
Nicolas has helped hundreds of companies learning more about the region and its ecosystem and access new markets.
Nicolas Grenier
AgriFood Director
Burgundy-Franche-Comté
regional economic agency (AER BFC)
AgrOnov gives structures related to agriculture the chance to take root within a dynamic incubator and develop the network they need to further their growth for a progressive agriculture that is both profitable and responsible. AgrOnov facilitates the link between firm and agricultural structure to boost innovation and development regarding needs of farmers in crops, livestock and vineyards.
Director of AgrOnov, an innovation center in agroecology, Liselore Martin has an engineering background in innovation management. Making the link between innovation and the agricultural world is what drives her, to meet the challenges of transitions. She has developed expertise in the field crops, vineyards and livestock sectors and participates in the innovation bodies of the partners of the Bourgogne Franche-Comté Region (selection committees, think tanks, etc.).
Liselore Martin
Director
Agronov
The Chamber of Agriculture of Côte d'Or is a Public Establishment, representing the agricultural and rural world and at the service of all farmers. Our proximity gives us a detailed knowledge of the territories, their challenges and their actors.
Thanks to our teams of engineers and technicians, we also offer advice, services and training to farmers, winegrowers and local authorities.
François DEPUYDT is the Director of the Chamber of Agriculture Côte d'Or and is also an Engineer in Agriculture.
He has accompanied many collective projects of farmers in particular on the subjects of evolution of practices, management of phytosanitary effluents and management of water at the scale of basins for the irrigation of the production.
François Depuydt
Director
Chamber of Agriculture Côte d'Or
As an agricultural engineer, Mickael began his career at the Normandy Chamber of Agriculture working on projects related in particular to the development of agricultural data.
He has worked for 17 years at the Dijon Céréales cooperative in the R&D department, which is now shared within the BFC Alliance, a union of 3 cooperatives in the Burgandy Franche-Comté region.
Head of the Agronomists Department, he is in charge of all experiments and innovative projects to provide solutions to farmers. Having already visited Israel, Mickael is very interested in the solutions that can be detected within the framework of this challenge.
Mickael Mimeau
Head of Agronomy
Alliance BFC
(Dijon Céréales)
The Alliance BFC/Dijon Céréales is a union of 3 cooperatives in Burgundy; Covering the main sectors of the Region: field crops, vineyards and livestock, the Alliance BFC brings together 12,000 farmers and has 1,400 employees in the 3 agricultural cooperative groups. The R&D department is shared for the 3 cooperatives and has about fifteen people on ambitious projects for regional agriculture: data hub, new crops, etc. Innovation is at the heart of their business and people are placed at the center of activities.
Axa Climate is the entity dedicated to climate change adaptation within the AXA Group, one of the world’s leading insurance and asset management groups, serving 108 million individuals and businesses, in 57 countries.
Our latest initiative is a new impact fund dedicated to Regenerative Agriculture in partnership with Unilever and Tikehau Capital. AXA and its partners will invest 100m€ each and the fund will also be open to investors with a target size of €1 billion. The vehicle will invest in projects and companies and it’s expected to be global.
I have 20 years’ experience in the banking and insurance sector with 4 main focus areas: data, marketing, innovation and coaching. I am based in Tel-Aviv as an Exclusive Innovation Partner of AXA Climate in Israel to lead the Israeli Hub.
My mandate is to support the AXA Climate innovation process by setting up and leading the partnerships with the local solution providers: startups, academics and big companies
Ophelie Touati
Innovation Manager
AXA Climate
Challenge Timeline.
September 4
Application Deadline
November 7-10
Finalists Announcement
July 12
Virtual Kickoff Event
September 13
Pitch session for finalists
