The French-American Business Awards

Congratulations to all the FABA 2016 laureates!

The 3rd annual ceremony of the French-American Business awards was a blast!
Thank you to all attendees, nominees, jury members, sponsors and partners for making this event possible.
We were thrilled to welcome you all at the Julia Morgan Ballroom to honor the leading French-American companies, startups and personalities of 2016. Attendees, please answer our short survey here to help us improve.

Congratulations to all laureates! We wish them to keep growing in the coming years and nurturing the French-American entrepreneurial spirit.

Agribusiness

Gold Award: Nadalié USA

Founded in Montpellier in 1902, the operations of this family owned company were moved to Ludon Medoc in the 1930’s to benefit from the moist climate and proximity to the ocean in the drying process. Today, Tonnellerie Nadalié has a worldwide presence in France, Australia, California and Chile. Handcrafting barrels in the traditional French style, the name Nadalié has become synonymous with fine cooperages worldwide.

Cleantech

Gold Award: Enphase Energy

Enphase Energy is a global energy technology company leading the charge to bring smart, connected solar energy to every home, business and community. The company delivers simple, innovative and reliable energy management solutions that advance the worldwide potential of renewable energy. Enphase has shipped more than 10.3 million microinverters, and over 430,000 Enphase residential and commercial systems have been deployed in more than 100 countries.

Special Distinction: PowWow Energy

PowWow Energy is a SaaS company that leverages its Big Data platform to help growers in their daily operations, and save water and energy. Their machine learning platform provides simple answers to farmers with no up-front capital costs. PowWow Energy provides an integrated water and crop management solution that provides 80% of the value of precision agriculture at 20% of the cost of other solutions.

Food Business

Gold Award: Galaxy Desserts

Galaxy Desserts and its award-winning French pastry chef, Jean-Yves Charon, provide innovative and French-inspired desserts and pastries for the masses. With over 20-year partnership with Williams-Sonoma and are Oprah’s favorite, Galaxy Desserts share their French traditions with customers and clients and re-affirm the French tradition of quality ingredients and artisan taste. Now, part of the Brioche Pasquier family of bakers.

Special Distinction: Rians USA

Rians USA is a company specialized in the making of specialty cheeses (goat cheese & Soft Ripened Cheese). The Company is based in Sonoma, CA since 2006 and operates two plants: one in Sonoma and one in Petaluma. The company is marketing nationally under two local Californian brands with strong local roots: Laura Chenel’s and Marin French Cheese.

High Tech over $30 million in revenue or funding

Gold Award: Symphony

Symphony transforms the way users communicate effectively and securely with a single workflow application. Forging a new path in the industry, Symphony is designed to help individuals, teams and organizations of all sizes improve productivity, while meeting complex data security and regulatory compliance needs. Symphony is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, with offices in New York, Chicago, Boston, Germany, London, Hong-Kong, and Singapore.

Special Distinction: App Annie

App Annie delivers the most trusted app data and insights for your business to succeed in the global app economy. Over 500,000 registered members rely on App Annie to better understand the app market, their businesses and the opportunities around them. App Annie has received $157 million in financing, including investors such as e.Ventures, Greenspring Associates, Greycroft Partners, IDG Capital Partners, Institutional Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital.

High Tech under $30 million in revenue or funding

Gold Award: FollowAnalytics

FollowAnalytics is a leading 1:1 mobile engagement so companies can engage their customers better than ever before in a mobile-first world. They provide the intelligence and automation create the mobile and omni-channel experiences to delight customers. FollowAnalytics customers include industry leaders such as: AXA, Allianz, BNP Paribas, L’Oréal, Renault, Wells Fargo and more.

Special Distinction: Ivalua

Ivalua is the leading provider of Spend Management Cloud Solutions. Its success is reflected in a 98% renewal rate within an active and engaged community of 250 customers across 70 countries achieving high performance empowered with the Ivalua Solution. Their customers realize rapid savings by improving visibility, standardizing processes and increasing Procurement and Finance productivity.

Lifetime Achievement

Award: Philippe Kahn

Philippe is an inventor, technology innovator and entrepreneur. He has founded four successful technology companies (Fullpower Technologies, LightSurf, Starfish, Borland) and is credited with creating the first complete camera phone solution, sharing pictures instantly on public networks. He created The Fullpower Sleeptracker® and MotionX® technology platforms, which are at the core of solutions by Simmons, Serta, and Nike among others. He is also the inventor of more than 150 technology patents covering Smartbeds, wearable & IoT, eyewear, smartphone, mobile, imaging, wireless, synchronization and medical technologies.

Personality of the Year

Gold Award : Pascal Rigo

Pascal Rigo moved to the US more than 25 years ago to chase his American dream. He founded the renowned French bakery in San Francisco in 1998 – La Boulange, later bought by Starbucks in 2012. After 3 years developing the “food” department and experience at Starbucks, Pascal decided to quit and re-launch some of La Boulange stores. He also wrote two books – The American Boulangerie and La Boulange – Café Cooking at Home.

Special distinction : David Gurlé

David Gurlé is Symphony’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. A prominent thought leader and visionary, he has extensive experience in IP communications and authored international standards and books on IP telephony. For two decades, he built and managed consumer and enterprise communication and messaging platforms for Skype, Thomson Reuters and Microsoft. David’s ideas and vision have played a leading role in defining enterprise communications over the last fifteen years.

Startup of the Year

Jury’s Choice Award: Calso Community, Inc.

CALSO is a Bay Area nonprofit organization whose mission is to break the greatest barriers disadvantaged populations face on their path to success. Whether these challenges are linked to access to quality education, livable jobs, primary healthcare or affordable housing, CALSO empowers each and every individual to reach their full potential. CALSO’s double-bottom-line approach is based on innovative, sustainable business models.

People’s Choice Award: BlueFox, Inc.

BlueFox senses mobile phones. Without requesting the visitor to download an app or login, BlueFox B2B solutions help businesses and brands sell more and engage. Metrics include new vs. recurring visitors, flows, window-to-store conversion rate, dwell times, and response to promotions among others, in real time. On the B2C side Party Squasher helps Home owners who rent their property know the number of devices in their house.

US Investment in France

Gold Award: Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe Systems Incorporated enables customers to create, deliver and measure personalized, high-impact content that their constituents can access from virtually any device, including smartphones, tablets, PCs and televisions. Their innovation and leadership in two large categories, Digital Media and Digital Marketing, provides their customers with a real competitive advantage.

Special Distinction: Airbnb

Airbnb vision is to bring the world together by allowing all 7 billion people to belong anywhere.

Wine

Gold Award: Morlet Family Vineyard

Beginning with the 2006 vintage, Luc & Jodie Morlet have been hand-crafting vineyard designated wines and unique cuvées from the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Meticulously farmed vineyards and low-intervention winemaking techniques have led to highly acclaimed wines which are harmonious in their intensity, richness, complexity and refinement. The couple also imports the award-winning Pierre Morlet Champagnes.

Special Distinction: Domaine Carneros

Domaine Carneros was founded by Champagne Taittinger in 1987, and has been directed since its inception by Eileen Crane, CEO and winemaker. This small grower-producer of méthode champenoise Sparkling wine and Pinot Noir has all their estate vineyards in the cool Carneros appellation. The elegant Domaine Carneros Chateau landmark, known for its hospitality, is the perfect setting to savor our nationally and internationally renowned Le Rêve and Brut cuvée.

Check out the full album here!