Oyst wins LVMH Innovation Award

French company Oyst has been named the winner of the 12th LVMH Innovation prize at the Viva Technology show that took place in Versailles, France, from May 24 to 26. The company developed a one-click payment solution, enabling a direct transition from the product page to the sales portal and bypassing the need to enter additional information.

Founded by Frenchman Julien Foussard, the company's goal is to make online purchases completely seamless and to enable consumers, by means of its services, to complete purchases in one click on the product, without needing to enter a password, delivery address or bank details.

The jury of the 12th edition of the LVMH Innovation Award also gave a special mention to two other start-ups: Kronos Care, a Parisian firm that has created an omnichannel solution for distributors and brands; and Vechain, a Singaporean start-up which has developed a blockchain ecosystem to facilitate the pooling of information which would in turn allow for product authentification and identification of counterfeits.

"Technology is important in our line of business, providing agility from our artisans to our retailers," LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault explained. "Quality, creativity, and luxury products overall benefit from technology. France is becoming a country of entrepreneurs and technology, which I'm very pleased about. In the next 10 years, we will see the birth of companies in Europe that will become international titans. And that's what the Innovation Award is there to assist.

"These start-ups grow with us, and we grow with them," he added.

Some 30 finalists, from France; America; Canada; China; South Korea and Israel, were selected from the 800 applications received by LVMH. They operate across 17 categories, from retail to e-commerce; social media; AI; blockchain; sustainable development and anti-counterfeiting.

Amongst the finalists were the companies Akoustic Arts; Akoustic Arts; Alcméon; Algiknit; Aryballe; Arylla; Aveine; Bobbli; Cityshake; Echy; Foko Retail; FTSY; Haptic Media; Hero; Icare Technologies; Kuaizi; Malong; Mercaux; Mystore; Orbis; Paperscent; SGNL; Southpigalle; SpartedSpoon; Upterior; VisioPM and Wearable Media.

The jury included members Alexandre Arnault, Rimowa CEO and the son of Bernard Arnault; José Neves, the founder and CEO of Farfetch; Ginni Rometty; the CEO of IBM; and Jimmy Iovine, cofounder of Beats Electronics.

The awards ceremony comes just a few weeks after LVMH's start-up accelerator set up at Parisian start-up incubator Station F. The program, dubbed "Maison des Startups" (House of Startups), is providing 89 workspaces for two opportunities of six months each, with the goal of hosting 50 international start-ups over the year, the group explained.

Oyst wins LVMH Innovation Award

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