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Brad shows up — at the booth, on the panel, in the field — because sovereign agritech is built through relationships, not slide decks.
Brad Technology is a winner of France's national "Made in France" exhibition. A national jury named one product per French département, 104 in all: the BRAD probe, designed and tested in France, represents Vaucluse at the Élysée Palace.
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Far from the buzz of innovation-as-an-end-in-itself, Brad Technology stands at the crossroads of technology, agriculture and real impact. At Rencontres Africa and across meetings with major Ivorian institutions, we are preparing the rollout of the Brad probe, apps and "Hey Brad" — our voice AI agent — for African farmers. A real-time agronomic infrastructure that reconciles ground truth with large-scale data analysis, addressing a triple imperative: vital adaptation to climate change, soil biodiversity preservation, and farm profitability. Built on Open Data, Open Source and Open Hardware, Brad guarantees technological sovereignty — data and compute can stay within a country's borders. Warm thanks to risingSUD, Business France and the Team France Export Sud for opening these doors.
At Africa's largest tech event, First Venture took centre stage at the French Pavilion under the "Ground Truth, Global Vision" banner — presenting Real-time Data & Voice-AI for Global Food Security, purpose-built for African farmers and the Euromed-Gulf-India corridor.
Invited by MEDEF Vaucluse and risingSUD, Olivier Lépine joined the panel "Entreprendre avec impact: comment les entreprises à mission transforment l'économie" — alongside Frédéric Guétin (Etex) and Muriel Lecou (GSE), moderated by Eric Ingargiola (MEDEF). A frank conversation on how mission-driven governance reshapes strategy, capital allocation, and the path to Solvency before Sustainability.
As a purpose-driven venture, First Venture exhibited at the world's largest event for the planet — presenting our Sovereign-by-design, soil-centric decision-support solution and animating our own workshop on Voice-first AI for resilient agriculture.
Co-animated alongside our friends at OSFARM, the GAIA AI Hackathon brought together students, engineers, and farmers to prototype Voice-first, Open Model solutions for European agriculture — turning conversations in the field into deployable code in 48 hours.
Featured speaker on the panel "AI for Smart and Resilient Agriculture: From Research to Solutions" alongside Inria CEO Henri Verdier, INRAE's Dr. Carole Caranta & Dr. Thierry Caquet, FAO's Dr. Vincent Martin, and BAIF's Dr. Bharat Kakade. We advocated for Voice-first interfaces and Open Models as the path to inclusive, sovereign intelligence. Our booth received the honour of a visit from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Our first exposition under the new motto — "Ground Truth, Global Vision." First Venture joined the international panel on AI in Agriculture at the Gulfood NXT Stage, sharing how Sovereign-by-design, soil-centric intelligence delivers immediate revenue gains across the Euromed-Gulf-India corridor.
Olivier Lépine mentored teams at the Agreen Defi AI Hackathon during SIVAL — the leading European trade show for plant production. 48 hours of intensive prototyping where students, engineers, and growers built Voice-first, Open Model solutions for specialised crops.
First Venture joined the France delegation at GITEX Global — the Gulf's definitive stage for Hardware, Software & AI. Ribbon-cut at the Pavillon France alongside Région Sud leadership, we showcased Sovereign-by-design Voice-AI to operators across the Euromed-Gulf-India corridor.
At the invitation of the Tamil Nadu government and French Tech India, First Venture joined the Global Startup Summit "Disrupt to Rise" — presided by Hon'ble Chief Minister Thiru. M.K. Stalin. We took the keynote stage to share Voice-first, Open Model intelligence for the 70% of Indian farmers who own a smartphone but rarely use it beyond basic communication.
Co-animated with our friends at OSFARM at SPACE — the global trade show for animal farming — the GreenTech AI Hackathon gathered students, engineers, and livestock professionals on the Espace Jeunes stage. 48 hours to prototype Voice-first, Open Model solutions purpose-built for breeders and the realities of the barn.
At IGIC — an initiative by Smadja & Smadja — Olivier Lépine joined the panel "The Race to Market: The Changing Paradigm for the Go-To-Market Process," debating how AI, Deep Tech, and disciplined capital are reshaping product-market fit. We argued for Voice-first, Sovereign-by-design intelligence as the fastest route from prototype to revenue across the Euromed-Gulf-India corridor.