ASK : winning ticket

ASK is revolutionizing the transport circles with a 'clever ticket', a smart card without contact. A start like a whirwind for the start up from Sophia Antipolis.

ASK (from the technical word Amplitude Shift Keying) is the leader on the market of the smart card without contact, applied to public transport. The start-up has got strong ambitions of development.Historical record :ASK was created in November 1997 by Georges Kayanakis, a former employee of Matra Transport and of the branch Cartes and Systems of Schlumberger. 'We decided to launch out because there were no specialized firms in the technology of the smart card without contact applied to transport', Xavier Bon, the vice-president Ventes et Marketing (Sales and Marketing), explains, 'and because there were some obvious needs, as much from the SNCF and the RATP as from the private operators. Moreover, we were very confident in the performance of the technology chosen in partnership with SGS-Thomson.'First settled in Paris, the company was then based near Aix-en-Provence. It set up in Sophia Antipolis in February 1999.Activities :Design and manufacturing of smart cards without contact applied to transport. The activity is divided on three sites : Paris, Hong-Kong and Sophia Antipolis. Sophia has been receiving a Research and Development team and a centre of production of a capacity of ten million cards a year. Some departments are going to open in Spain, in Italy, in Great-Britain and in the United States.Products :A smart card with an integrated remote micro-processor readable by a receiver. The first research stage is carried out in the scope of the European plan, ICARE (Innovatron, SNCF and RATP).Applied to public transport, this first card (used as a ticket) with a micro-processor replaces the tickets and the monthly vouchers. ASK is also working on a multimodal card : it can combine four different uses, each one with its set (for instance bus, train, tube, tramway). ASK received the ANVAR label for the development of the disposable ticket without contact, for public transport.Other uses are possible : business card, electronic purse... ASK was borne in mind with BULL for the development of the Modeus Card (used as a ticket and as money), by the side of La Poste, the Caisse d'épargne, the Société Générale, the SNCF and the RATP.Customers :-Urban transport : ASK made 100,000 cards for Sunbus, the urban network of Nice (SEMIACS), a project led by Ascom Monétel. 20,000 further cards were delivered. Other cities are customers : Amiens (40,000 cards), Avignon (25,000). Some contacts are under way with Tours, Lyon, Strasbourg...-Cards as tickets and money : the football Club of the Glasgow Rangers is currently testing the cards of ASK in different uses (reservation and payment, yearly subscription).Team :The managing team gets together experts in smart card : Georges Kayanakis, Bruno Moreau (the former director of development of Innovatron), Xavier Bon (the former director of department at Gemplus). François Monteil (who comes from Schlumberger) is in charge of the Research and Development.Manpower : 32 people (a hundred people planned in late 2000).Funding :Several investors went with the beginning of ASK : Advent (number two in the venture-capital in Great-Britain), LT Partners, an Asian company of venture-capital, the CDC Innovation, and the CDC Innovatech in France. Thus, ASK could take up 35 million francs during a first meeting. A new meeting allowed to collect 27 million francs (Crédit Lyonnais, Sudinova...) which leads new capital to 47 million francs. The first financial year showed a turnover of 25 million francs. 'Our expectations for the turnover of the year 2000 are of 60 million francs.'Particularities :ASK has just announced to the GART (Group of the Authorities in charge of Transport) an union with Aquitaine Valley : this SSII, a subsidiary of the Caisse d'Epargne, is specialized in the development of computer solutions in transport. The aim of this joint-venture, called CardNet, is the development of module softwares about the ticket production and information of the travellers : 'The problem for the future is the mobility of the travellers. We are working on the new instruments combining the capabilities of the smart card and those of the GSM, with for instance cartography instruments, via Internet or the GSM.'Reward : ASK was given the SESAM of the best transport applying, awarded during the show CARTES 99, in Paris. This SESAM is about the GTML card product (Generic TRansport Mask Light) contact card/Without contact ticket multicontracts.Why Sophia ?'Because there are considerable intellectual resources in the software area, and a strong international culture.'Contact :xbon@ask.frASK is revolutionizing the transport circles with a 'clever ticket', a smart card without contact. A start like a whirwind for the start up from Sophia Antipolis.ASK (from the technical word Amplitude Shift Keying) is the leader on the market of the smart card without contact, applied to public transport. The start-up has got strong ambitions of development.Historical record :ASK was created in November 1997 by Georges Kayanakis, a former employee of Matra Transport and of the branch Cartes and Systems of Schlumberger. 'We decided to launch out because there were no specialized firms in the technology of the smart card without contact applied to transport', Xavier Bon, the vice-president Ventes et Marketing (Sales and Marketing), explains, 'and because there were some obvious needs, as much from the SNCF and the RATP as from the private operators. Moreover, we were very confident in the performance of the technology chosen in partnership with SGS-Thomson.'First settled in Paris, the company was then based near Aix-en-Provence. It set up in Sophia Antipolis in February 1999.Activities :Design and manufacturing of smart cards without contact applied to transport. The activity is divided on three sites : Paris, Hong-Kong and Sophia Antipolis. Sophia has been receiving a Research and Development team and a centre of production of a capacity of ten million cards a year. Some departments are going to open in Spain, in Italy, in Great-Britain and in the United States.Products :A smart card with an integrated remote micro-processor readable by a receiver. The first research stage is carried out in the scope of the European plan, ICARE (Innovatron, SNCF and RATP).Applied to public transport, this first card (used as a ticket) with a micro-processor replaces the tickets and the monthly vouchers. ASK is also working on a multimodal card : it can combine four different uses, each one with its set (for instance bus, train, tube, tramway). ASK received the ANVAR label for the development of the disposable ticket without contact, for public transport.Other uses are possible : business card, electronic purse... ASK was borne in mind with BULL for the development of the Modeus Card (used as a ticket and as money), by the side of La Poste, the Caisse d'épargne, the Société Générale, the SNCF and the RATP.Customers :-Urban transport : ASK made 100,000 cards for Sunbus, the urban network of Nice (SEMIACS), a project led by Ascom Monétel. 20,000 further cards were delivered. Other cities are customers : Amiens (40,000 cards), Avignon (25,000). Some contacts are under way with Tours, Lyon, Strasbourg...-Cards as tickets and money : the football Club of the Glasgow Rangers is currently testing the cards of ASK in different uses (reservation and payment, yearly subscription).Team :The managing team gets together experts in smart card : Georges Kayanakis, Bruno Moreau (the former director of development of Innovatron), Xavier Bon (the former director of department at Gemplus). François Monteil (who comes from Schlumberger) is in charge of the Research and Development.Manpower : 32 people (a hundred people planned in late 2000).Funding :Several investors went with the beginning of ASK : Advent (number two in the venture-capital in Great-Britain), LT Partners, an Asian company of venture-capital, the CDC Innovation, and the CDC Innovatech in France. Thus, ASK could take up 35 million francs during a first meeting. A new meeting allowed to collect 27 million francs (Crédit Lyonnais, Sudinova...) which leads new capital to 47 million francs. The first financial year showed a turnover of 25 million francs. 'Our expectations for the turnover of the year 2000 are of 60 million francs.'Particularities :ASK has just announced to the GART (Group of the Authorities in charge of Transport) an union with Aquitaine Valley : this SSII, a subsidiary of the Caisse d'Epargne, is specialized in the development of computer solutions in transport. The aim of this joint-venture, called CardNet, is the development of module softwares about the ticket production and information of the travellers : 'The problem for the future is the mobility of the travellers. We are working on the new instruments combining the capabilities of the smart card and those of the GSM, with for instance cartography instruments, via Internet or the GSM.'Reward : ASK was given the SESAM of the best transport applying, awarded during the show CARTES 99, in Paris. This SESAM is about the GTML card product (Generic TRansport Mask Light) contact card/Without contact ticket multicontracts.Why Sophia ?'Because there are considerable intellectual resources in the software area, and a strong international culture.'Contact :xbon@ask.fr