Why these French companies are big on business in Miami. Here’s what they make and do
Instead of speaking Spanish over platters of tequeños, business executives and community leaders said bonjour and merci over champagne and octopus bourguignon as they celebrated French entrepreneurship and the ties with South Florida.
Four French companies won awards in innovation at a dinner Monday at Villa Azur in Miami Beach, the centerpiece of a three-week long celebration of French business and culture in the region that ends Nov. 13.
The events are organized by the French American Chamber of Commerce Florida chapter in partnership with the French Foreign Trade Advisors chapter. The Chamber is backed largely by private French companies.
The winners
▪ The top company in the small- and medium-sized business category was Dronisos, which creates live entertainment using drones and has regular shows at Disneyland in Paris. Its chief executive officer and co-founder, Laurent Perchais, was named entrepreneur of the year.
▪ Waga Energy, which converts landfill waste to renewable natural gas, was awarded top honors for impact on ESG, or Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance.
▪ Ovrsea, a technology platform that organizes and manages freight transportation, and Tomo 4.0, which seeks to convert trash at large events into new forms of memorabilia, tied for Startup of the Year.
France’s interest in South Florida
More than 150 people attended the awards ceremony, which is normally rolled into an annual gala by the Chamber, said its executive director Annabelle Ballot Pottier. This year was the first separate event.
That reflects growing French interest in South Florida.
Among the companies that didn’t win — there were 12 finalists — Quicktext, which provides an AI tool for the hospitality industry, is used by Provident Doral at the Blue Miami and Eurostars Langford in downtown Miami. And Yon-Ka Paris, a beauty and wellness company, counts David and Victoria Beckham as clients and is sold at the Carillon Miami Wellness Resort, a spa and beach club in Miami Beach.
In 2022 among European countries, France was South Florida’s second largest trading partner with total trade of $3.45 billion. In technology, more than 100 French startups have operations in Miami, according to the French American Chamber of Commerce in Miami.
More broadly, 32,700 jobs were created in Florida in 2022 by French companies, according to a report by the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. That represents 51% growth over the past 10 years. Large French companies in South Florida include Air Liquide, which supported the Artemis-1 mission last November; Airbus; Accor; and Dassault Aviation.
The three-week long affair, dubbed French Weeks Miami and which was originally one week, included a sailing excursion, a talk on AI at Miami Dade College by Clement Delangue, chief executive officer and co-founder of Hugging Face, and petanques, a popular French sport akin to bocce ball, at Nikki beach.
More potential for growth ahead
And more opportunity abounds. Trade between Florida and France last year was just 4% of total trade between the U.S. and France — and companies continue to arrive.
Fanny Vion, chief executive officer and co-founder or Tomo 4.0, flew in from Marseille for Monday’s event. Her company takes garbage at large events such as sporting events and converts it into souvenirs.
“We would like to expand here,” she said in an interview.
Vion said she plans to return to Miami in the next few months and will set up an office here “as soon as we find the right person.” She estimated that would take up to six months.
The company has no other office in the United States and sees the Magic City as an entry point into the American market.
“Marseille, Miami seems to be quite perfect,” for the company, she said.
Ovrsea, founded in Paris in 2017 has had U.S. offices in New York and Miami with a total of 15 employees, said David Grinevald, the company’s managing director for the U.S. New York used to have the majority of those employees.
But in the past few years, that changed, and Miami now has 12 of the 15 employees, he noted.
“That’s new,” said Grinevald, who is based in Miami.
They are hiring at least another five employees in sales and operations. “Every future hire [in the U.S.], we’re going to make is going to happen in Miami,” the executive said.
The company considers Miami commercially important with its port and serving as a gateway to Latin America, a region Ovrsea has not yet explored.
Waga Energy, the company headquartered in Grenoble, France, and developing renewable natural gas from landfill waste, also expects to hire in Miami, said Tanguy Largeau, vice president of commercial. It is seeking project engineers, track managers and business development professionals.
“Miami makes a lot of sense for us, from the standpoint of addressing the U.S market but also to be able to provide a solution to the Latin American market,” Largeau said. “There’s a lot of waste.”
French connection in Orlando
Not all French entrepreneurs are focused on Miami. Laurent Perchais, chief executive officer and co-founder of Dronisos, moved from France to Orlando in August 2023.
His company, founded in 2016 in Bordeaux, produces drone shows for theme parks, businesses and sporting events. It puts thousands of drones in the sky simultaneously, converting them to pixels, which result in a light show at nighttime. It has been featured at the last World Cup in Qatar and musical festivals in Europe.
It is an official partner with Disneyland in Paris where it does two daily shows and has a yearly show for Bastille Day, where it deploys nearly 1,5000 drones.
That tie made it start thinking about Florida.
At the beginning of this year, Dronisos hired its first employee for its Orlando office. It has since moved over 1,200 drones and their systems from France to Orlando, Perchais said.
It has not yet inked agreements with Walt Disney World in Orlando but remains positive. It does have a deal to be featured at the city of Orlando’s upcoming Christmas show.
In Miami, the company sees growth potential from businesses staging marketing events, helping make the U.S. its biggest market.
“We expect to surpass our business in Europe in the next two years,” said Perchais.
