B! UP Accelerate

What does it really mean when a major bank works with startups? In this episode, Plug and Play Tech Center sits down with BNP Paribas to break down how open innovation works in practice, beyond pilots and buzzwords. Recently Liza Donskaya spoke with Catherine Tonlorenzi and Marie MAFFRE from BivwAk!, BNP Paribas’ Open Innovation Hub. BNP Paribas and BivwAk! run a leading open innovation ecosystem, including the B! UP Accelerate program 🚀 with Plug and Play Tech Center at STATION F. Together, we unpack what open innovation really looks like behind the scenes inside a global banking organization in a conversation full of insights, and honest reflections. A great reminder that even in highly regulated sectors like banking, innovation thrives when curiosity, collaboration, and a bit of fun are part of the journey. 🔍 In this conversation, you’ll learn: • What makes a startup stand out • How BNP Paribas moves from pilot → contract • The #1 mistake early-stage founders make • What internal innovation looks like inside a 200,000-person company 🎥 Watch the full episode to see how enterprise–startup collaboration and BivwAk! create real impact #Bivwak #bnpparibas #plugandplay #pnptc #openinnovation #startups Marie Guillaume Catherine Tonlorenzi Liza Donskaya Santiago Vivas Blijweert Gaspard de Durand Rita Belarbi Alba Brotons Carrillo Tereza Pigova Natalia Markovskaia

Last Tuesday, we had the pleasure of hosting a Deep Dive session dedicated to AI in Sales & Marketing, bringing together leading startups and industry experts to explore how AI is reshaping commercial performance. 💡 First, we had the chance to hear from Hani Ramzi, CEO Europe at Persado, who shared valuable insights on how AI is redefining marketing bringing a unique perspective from years of real-world deployment. We were also pleased to welcome four startups: 1️⃣ Xaver - Showcased how AI-powered financial advisory can deliver personalized guidance at scale, enabling more relevant and dynamic customer interactions across the entire journey 2️⃣ Sillage - Demonstrated how AI can detect real-time buying signals, helping sales teams focus on the right prospects at the right moment and significantly improve conversion rates 3️⃣ Electric Twin - Presented its synthetic audience platform, allowing companies to simulate customer reactions to campaigns, products, or pricing strategies in seconds instead of weeks 4️⃣ Kinro.ai - Showcased compliant AI sales agents for insurance distributors, enabling accurate policy guidance, streamlined qualification, and seamless distribution across both owned channels and platforms like ChatGPT or Gemini These Deep Dives are all about connecting strategic priorities with actionable innovation, helping teams better understand where AI can drive immediate business impact across sales and marketing. Thank you to our speakers Hani Ramzi, Max Bachem, Arnaud Weiss, Danielle Dove, Corentin Hugot, Pierre-Alexandre Kamienny and to everyone at BNP Paribas who joined this insightful session! Marie Guillaume Catherine Tonlorenzi Liza Donskaya Rita Belarbi Gaspard de Durand Santiago Vivas Blijweert Vincent Bourdel #bivwak #AI #startups #bnpparibas #pnp #plugandplay

Fintech innovation in France is moving fast, driven by #AI, real-world pilots, and closer collaboration between banks and startups. At STATION F, our program B! UP Accelerate powered by Plug and Play Tech Center helps turn this innovation into real impact. Together, BNP Paribas and Plug and Play Tech Center have created a platform where startups do more than collaborate with corporates. They scale within a global banking ecosystem. The results highlight what this approach can unlock: • 2,000+ startups scouted • 20+ BNP Paribas business units engaged • 72 startups accelerated • 85 pilots completed, with 42% moving into production In the video, leaders from across the ecosystem share their perspective on how collaboration is shaping the future of fintech: Philippe Maillard, COO of BNP Paribas Saeed Amidi, CEO & Founder of Plug and Play Tech Center and Play Roxanne VARZA, Director of STATION F Catherine Tonlorenzi, Head of the B! UP Accelerate Program Liza Donskaya, Director at Plug and Play Tech Center Raphaël carriero, COO & Co-founder of muchbetter.ai Olivier Jourdran, CEO of K-AI France’s fintech ecosystem is proving that innovation only delivers impact when it is intentional, collaborative, and built for scale, as Philippe Maillard reminds us, “Innovation is not optional. It is a strategic imperative.” Marie Guillaume Catherine Tonlorenzi Renaud Dumora Philippe Maillard BivwAk! Liza Donskaya Santiago Vivas Blijweert Gaspard de Durand Rita Belarbi Salim Laouiti #bnpparibas #bivwak #plugandplay #startups #corporateinnovation #pnptc

Open Innovation Practice: Elite List 2026 🚀 On Tuesday, we had the pleasure of hosting an Open Innovation Practice dedicated to our Elite List 2026, a curated selection of high-potential startups identified for BNP Paribas, aligned with its 2026 strategic priorities. The objective was simple: highlight a handful of standout companies and give them the opportunity to pitch directly to the Group and showcase concrete, ready-to-deploy use cases. 💡 We were pleased to welcome four Elite List companies: 1️⃣ Lovable – Demonstrated compelling use cases around automated slide and content creation, showing how AI can drastically accelerate internal documentation, reporting, and presentation workflows. 2️⃣ Predicti – Showcased how predictive intelligence can support better decision-making and operational optimization through advanced AI-driven forecasting. 3️⃣ Gradium – Delivered a demo of real-time translation, illustrating how AI can break language barriers instantly across teams and customer interactions. A powerful enabler for global collaboration and multilingual operations. 4️⃣ Skyfire – Presented its vision for AI-native payments infrastructure, enabling autonomous transactions between AI agents, software, and digital platforms. These sessions are about creating direct bridges between strategic priorities and emerging technologies that are mature enough to be tested and deployed.  ️ A big thank you to the startups for the quality of the presentations and demos ! Maximilian Keil Jakob Vang Glud Constance Grisoni (Deperrois) Craig DeWitt Marie Guillaume Catherine Tonlorenzi Liza Donskaya Rita Belarbi Gaspard de Durand Santiago Vivas Blijweert #Bivwak

Open Innovation Practice: Elite List 2026 🚀 On Tuesday, we had the pleasure of hosting an Open Innovation Practice dedicated to our Elite List 2026, a curated selection of high-potential startups identified for BNP Paribas, aligned with its 2026 strategic priorities. The objective was simple: highlight a handful of standout companies and give them the opportunity to pitch directly to the Group and showcase concrete, ready-to-deploy use cases. 💡 We were pleased to welcome four Elite List companies: 1️⃣ Lovable – Demonstrated compelling use cases around automated slide and content creation, showing how AI can drastically accelerate internal documentation, reporting, and presentation workflows. 2️⃣ Predicti – Showcased how predictive intelligence can support better decision-making and operational optimization through advanced AI-driven forecasting. 3️⃣ Gradium – Delivered a demo of real-time translation, illustrating how AI can break language barriers instantly across teams and customer interactions. A powerful enabler for global collaboration and multilingual operations. 4️⃣ Skyfire – Presented its vision for AI-native payments infrastructure, enabling autonomous transactions between AI agents, software, and digital platforms. These sessions are about creating direct bridges between strategic priorities and emerging technologies that are mature enough to be tested and deployed.  ️ A big thank you to the startups for the quality of the presentations and demos ! Maximilian Keil Jakob Vang Glud Constance Grisoni (Deperrois) Craig DeWitt Marie Guillaume Catherine Tonlorenzi Liza Donskaya Rita Belarbi Gaspard de Durand Santiago Vivas Blijweert #Bivwak

✨ Great moments at STATION F! ✨ It was a real pleasure to gather with the startups from the B! UP Explore and B! UP Accelerate powered by Plug and Play Tech Center programs at STATION F. Beyond the inspiring conversations and shared energy, it was great to take a moment to connect in a more informal way around a Galette des Rois. January is the month when we celebrate this tradition, and it felt like the perfect occasion to bring everyone together, exchange ideas, and enjoy a friendly moment with such a dynamic startup community. Looking forward to many more great encounters and collaborations ahead! 🚀 #BNP Paribas #plugandplay #Bivwak #StationF #Startups #Entrepreneurship #Community

On Friday 9th of January,  we had the pleasure of presenting the B! UP Accelerate powered by Plug and Play Tech Center, BivwAk! and Plug and Play to the Digital Disruption Chair - ESSEC, the partner of BNP Paribas, Investment Protection Services at STATION F . It was a great opportunity to share how we support startups, foster innovation, and help Business Lines and entrepreneurs turn ambitious ideas into real-world impact. Thank you to the Digital Disruption Chair - ESSEC team for joining us and for the engaging discussions — always inspiring to connect with such a dynamic ecosystem of students, academics, founders, and innovators. Looking forward to future collaborations and continuing to build the next generation of digital innovation 🚀 Marie Guillaume Déborah Tempesta Jérémy Beaufils Jan Ondrus Matteo Pingarelli Catherine Tonlorenzi Liza Donskaya #Bivwak #Innovation #bnpparibas #Entrepreneurship #Startups #ESSEC #StationF #PlugAndPlay #DigitalTransformation

✨ Happy 2026! ✨ To kick off the new year, we’re excited to share one of our highlights of 2025, which also marked the culmination of our B! UP Accelerate program. On December 11th, we had the pleasure of hosting the EXPO Day of the B! UP Accelerate program, powered by Plug and Play Tech Center and in collaboration with BNP Paribas, at STATION F. This edition focused on a key question: How do successful startup pilots turn into solutions deployed company-wide? 🎤 The afternoon opened with welcome words from Marie Guillaume, Head of BivwAk!, and inspiring remarks from Renaud Dumora, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Investment & Protection Services at BNP Paribas, and Saeed Amidi, Founder & CEO of Plug and Play Tech Center, setting the tone for a discussion centered on execution, scale, and long-term collaboration. 🔥 We also hosted a fireside chat with Zama, a Plug and Play portfolio unicorn, featuring Jason D. and Rand Hindi, followed by the panel “From idea to scale-up”, where Roxanne VARZA, Edouard Beaucourt, Marie Gwenhaelle Geffroy, and Jean-Marie John-Mathews shared concrete insights on moving from pilot projects to global deployment. 📊 The conversation was enriched by Catherine Tonlorenzi and Liza Donskaya, who shared the key achievements of the B! UP Accelerate program, and Thomas Bigagli 🪐 who highlighted the current investment trends, followed by our Batch 2025 startups and BNP Paribas Champions who presented the results of the pilots that they worked on throughout 2025. The day concluded with closing remarks from Philippe Maillard, Chief Operating Officer, reaffirming that innovation is a strategic imperative and highlighting BNP Paribas’ strong commitment to scaling impactful solutions. ✨ Some highlights from the day: 👥 400+ attendees 🚀 20+ startups 🏘️ A Startup Village 🎙️ 10+ speakers 🦄 2 French unicorns 📌 6+ pilots showcased A big thank you to everyone who joined and contributed to making this EXPO Day such a success. We are looking forward to more innovation and collaboration in 2026! 🚀 muchbetter.ai LIBERTIFY Resistant AI - Fraud Detection K-AI Arlequin AI Rogo TwoWay Santiago Vivas Blijweert, Salim Laouiti, Elisa Durdu, Gaspard de Durand, Alba Brotons Carrillo, Ella Esaian, Rita Belarbi #Happy2026 #Innovation #Startups #BNPParibas #PlugAndPlay #BUPAccelerate #StationF #CorporateInnovation #ScaleUp

✨ Last Thursday we were excited to host our annual EXPO day of the B! UP Accelerate powered by Plug and Play Tech Center program at STATION F and bring our ecosystem together:  🦄 2 French unicorns 🚀 20+ startups 🎤 10+ speakers 👥 400+ attendees  This year’s edition was all about #scaling: turning successful startup pilots into solutions deployed at Group scale.   The afternoon kicked off with Renaud Dumora, Deputy COO, Invetsment & Protection Services, who reminded us why #OpenInnovation is more critical than ever in a world reshaped by #AI, alongside Saeed Amidi (CEO & Founder of Plug and Play), who joined us all the way from Silicon Valley. We then explored investment trends and the growing role of CVC with a presentation from Thomas Bigagli 🪐.   Later on, Catherine Tonlorenzi and Liza Donskaya shared the key achievements of the B!UP Accelerate program, illustrating how innovation moves from trend #exploration to #experimentation, & then to #acceleration and #scale — ultimately delivering measurable, real impact for our Business Units.    💡We also had the pleasure of hosting:   - an insightful fireside chat with Zama, 🦄 alongside Jason D. and Rand Hindi, CEO,   - a standout panel “From idea to scale-up”, with: Roxanne VARZA (Director, STATION F),  Edouard Beaucourt (Pigment, 🦄),  Marie Gwenhaelle Geffroy (CIB, BNP Paribas),  Jean-Marie John-Mathews (Giskard), who reinforced what it truly takes to scale: the right governance, aligned incentives, and deep ecosystem collaboration. 🎤 Congratulations to the startups from our program for your inspiring pitches, showcasing concrete results delivered with our Business Lines: John W.(Rogo) shared the stage with Hella ISMAIL(CIB) and Axel-Long L. (Finance and Strategy), Raphaël carriero (Muchbetter AI) and Arnaud Ladrech (Personal Finance), Steve ROSENBLUM (LIBERTIFY) and Laurent de Vivie Jan de Waard (Resistant AI) and Thomas Nietsch Olivier Jourdran (K-AI) and Jérémy NEYROU Hugo Micheron (Arlequin AI isabelle giordano (Fundation)   We also had the pleasure of hosting a spontaneous mini pitch session, where two additional startups took the floor to quickly present their solutions Klaimy and TwoWay— a great illustration of the agility, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit that define our ecosystem.   The day closed with Philippe Maillard, reminding us that innovation is not optional — it’s a strategic imperative, and reaffirming the Group’s commitment to French Tech 2030.   🙏 Huge thanks to all our great speakers   And special thanks to our all our teams: Marie Guillaume (BivwAk!) Marie MAFFRE, Catherine Tonlorenzi, Liza Donskaya, Rita Belarbi Salim Laouiti, Santiago Vivas Blijweert Elisa Durdu Onward to scaling innovation even further 🚀

Great news from our current batch! 🎉 We are thrilled to celebrate muchbetter.ai, who just announced a €4M Seed round led by Educapital, alongside astoryaVC and renowned tech angels. 🚀 Less than two years after launch, muchbetter.ai is already transforming how sales teams train: their AI-powered role-plays simulate ultra-realistic customers, bringing practice, feedback and measurable progress back to the core of commercial performance. With over €1.5M ARR and 30+ large enterprises already onboarded, they are scaling fast, across 30 languages. We chose to support muchbetter.ai because they are driving real change in Retail Banking and Financial Services with clear impact, strong innovation, and fast international traction. Huge congratulations to the team, onwards and upwards! Julien Heissat Raphaël carriero Marie Guillaume Catherine Tonlorenzi Liza Donskaya Salim Laouiti Rita Belarbi Santiago Vivas Blijweert #AI #Funding #FinancialServices #FinancialServices #BUPAccelerate