THEY INNOVATE FOR THE ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION
The Minister for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, Christophe Béchu, announced the new Greentech Innovation startup winners this Thursday, May 23, 2024, at the Discovery Stage at VivaTech. This new class represents nine metropolitan and overseas regions.30% of these companies are led or founded by women! “Sustainable Food and Agriculture” Winner
The
companyLisaqua creates a virtuous marine ecosystem in land-based aquaculture farms, close to where they are consumed. Lisaqua draws inspiration from nature and permaculture and uses the co-culture of marine species to maintain healthy farms, without antibiotics or polluting waste. Lisaqua works daily to have a positive and significant impact on the planet and consumers. Their commitment to producing better, with fewer resources, and to offering products that are good for us all, good for the planet, and good for our plates.Currently based in Saint-Herblain, Lisaqua aims to expand by deploying its network of production farms near consumption areas. The goal is to achieve a cumulative production capacity of 10,000 tons per year within 10 years, first in France and then in Europe.
The project
Shrimp raised in France without antibiotics, chemicals, or polluting waste.
Its local production allows for the shortest delivery time on the market between the farm and your plate, guaranteeing preserved freshness without preservatives, a juicy texture, and a refined taste.
The “Sustainable Building and City” winners
The company
Founded in 2017, EQUIUM is an industrial deeptech startup focused on the energy transition, developing a new generation of heat pumps to decarbonize the thermal comfort of buildings. This disruptive technology stems from French research: the use of an acoustic Stirling to produce heat or cold.
The Project
This 100% French technology combines the energy efficiency of thermodynamic systems with the robustness, silence, ease of installation, maintenance, and use of an electric radiator; it also avoids harmful and dangerous refrigerants by utilizing the thermal effect of acoustics. The EQUIUM project will demonstrate the technical and industrial feasibility, as well as the commercial benefits, of the harmonic compression heat pump. EQUIUM is targeting the building sector, with the renovation of individual homes to replace the tens of millions of gas and oil boilers still in operation in France. EQUIUM is now beginning the industrialization of the harmonic heat pump. Initial real-world tests are planned for late 2024 and will continue into 2025. Marketing of the harmonic heat pump will begin in early 2026 with a pre-order phase.
The Company
Kintsugi-Lowcarbon (K-LC) specializes in the development of digital solutions. Its online platform, UrbanThinkPlatform, helps communities and urban professionals assess and track their decarbonization progress using specific performance indicators.
The Project
UrbanThinkPlatform presents ThinkCities, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution designed to in-depth assess development projects related to the ecological transition and carbon neutrality. Aimed at local stakeholders seeking powerful tools to prepare for their ecological and energy transition, ThinkCities integrates the best features of SaaS urban co-construction applications.
This digital twin application uses benchmark indicators to analyze and simulate the impacts of development projects, providing optimal strategic recommendations. ThinkCities thus constitutes a comprehensive tool for territorial observation and project evaluation, promoting a systemic approach in real time.
ThinkCities is an agile and scalable solution to support the transition to more sustainable neighborhoods.
The Company
For 28 years, Passman has supported nearly 7,000 establishments with connected solutions developed entirely in-house: Wi-Fi, interactive TV, telephony, digital signage, and now home automation. The goal: to constantly improve the customer experience in hotels and residences, through cutting-edge technology and personalized service.
The project
The result of five years of R&D, Passenergy is an innovative thermal control solution designed for hotels, residences, and campsites seeking to reduce their carbon footprint and energy costs. This smart technology, compatible with most existing heating and air conditioning systems, is based on wireless sensors for quick installation in any existing building. It automatically adjusts the temperature based on the actual usage of each room, taking into account active occupancy and window openings. In addition, it interfaces with PMS systems to monitor space reservations and adjust the temperature. Passenergy thus ensures optimal comfort for guests and a 20 to 30% reduction in energy consumption, for immediate profitability. A wireless Class A BMS, it allows establishments to comply with the BACS and Tertiary Decrees, while benefiting from CEE (European Economic Community) regulations.
The company
Emerwall is a young, innovative company that offers solutions using bio-sourced materials derived from local resources. The company’s goal is to contribute to the decarbonization of the Caribbean construction sector.
The project
Emerwall produces bio-sourced insulation from sugarcane bagasse, a waste product from sugarcane harvesting in distilleries and sugar mills. In a context where the majority of insulation and building materials are imported, Emerwall established its production site in the town of Ducos in Martinique with the aim of promoting a local resource and offering a solution adapted to a construction sector in transition. In this approach, taking into account the Caribbean context, both geographically and climatically, was a priority. This now allows Emerwall to offer sustainable insulation adapted to the context and whose entire life cycle has been taken into account.
The Company
The PAC Facteur 7 by Solaronics ECS, a heat pump manufacturer, is a turnkey solution for recovering the waste heat contained in gray wastewater to produce domestic hot water. The Project
The PAC Factor 7 heat recovery system is a system that produces domestic hot water by recovering waste heat from graywater. The system collects graywater at an average temperature of 30°C at a single point in the building, and the water is routed through high-performance water-to-water heat pump modules designed with a refrigerant with a GWP of less than 150 kgCO2/kg of fluid. The heat pump amplifies and transfers the energy contained in the graywater to the new tap water supply to produce domestic hot water for the building. The graywater leaving the module can be reused to cool the building in summer and, under certain filtration conditions, reused in the building’s toilets. The carbon footprint of the heat pump is <20 gCO2/kW of thermal energy produced.
The “Decarbonization of Industry” Award Winners
SPOTLIGHT
The Company
SpotLight is a proven predictive maintenance solution enabling frequent, reliable, and environmentally friendly monitoring of CO2 storage sites. It provides verifiable objectification of declarations and reduces the environmental footprint of geological storage monitoring solutions by a factor of one thousand, compared to conventional solutions.
The project
SpotLight proposes a Big Data / Machine Learning approach, for a frugal and resilient solution. Thus, SpotDetection is the lightest underground change measurement system in the world. The solution consists of a “survey design” phase where a first patent covers our big data expertise, allowing us to identify ideal locations for surface sources and sensors from existing data. Based on this particularly agile and lightweight acquisition geometry, frequent monitoring can be carried out without hindering production and injection in the field (second international patent). Furthermore, the solution is non-invasive (unlike the ultra-dense coverage required for imaging or compared to observation wells). The company
AVEC develops, designs, and produces solutions based on molded cellulose cushioning for product packaging. AVEC offers 100% natural, low-carbon, and recyclable materials. The cushioning is robust, durable, and lightweight, as well as economical and made in France.
The AVEC project offers an attractive option for companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining competitive costs.
The company offers easy access to molded cellulose manufacturing technology, allowing many customers to adapt this environmentally friendly alternative without the barriers to entry of other market suppliers. AVEC uses French tooling, which can help support the local economy and ensure high standards of quality and sustainability. The cellulose drying process is also designed to be low-carbon, meaning it minimizes greenhouse gas emissions. AVEC plays an important role in the transition to sustainable alternatives to plastic, offering an environmentally friendly, economical, and technologically accessible alternative thanks to AVEC’s patented technology.
The Company
Otrera is a startup with 50 years of experience. Its primary objective is to build a small modular reactor (SMR) to decarbonize electricity and heat production at an affordable price, using the least land resources and reusing used nuclear fuel. Otrera aims to collectively address the challenges of the climate and energy crisis. Its ambition is to create a new French sector of excellence in energy. It is committed to providing low-carbon energy at affordable and controlled prices.
The project
This is an SMR project to produce carbon-free electricity and heat at a reduced cost, without uranium mining and with a small footprint. This breakthrough underscores Otrera’s commitment to safe and competitive nuclear power. It also confirms their contribution to shaping a more promising and sustainable global energy future.
The “Water, Biodiversity, and Biomimicry” winners
The company
Lilaea aims to protect aquatic environments from environmental disasters. The company offers a turnkey monitoring solution for the early detection of ecosystem pollution events. Lilaea provides support through turnkey solutions consisting of:
Awareness raising and training
Collection and interpretation of water quality data
Support and recommendation of action plans.
The project
Lilaea offers the possibility of obtaining real-time and continuous data thanks to the tools it has developed. In particular, it provides an autonomous floating monitoring station equipped with physicochemical sensors to monitor water quality in real time and continuously. The advantages of this station are:
Early detection of ecosystem pollution events to avoid ecological, health, or economic disasters
- Better knowledge of aquatic environments to better guide the management and development of wetlands with a view to restoring and preserving them. LUNIWAVE
- The Company
- Luniwave offers a positive and profitable ecology approach to the hospitality sector. It implements equipment and solutions to reduce water and energy consumption for hoteliers while improving the guest experience.
The Project
- Luniwave offers an innovative turnkey solution based on behavioral science. A gamified device placed in showers can reduce water and energy consumption by more than 30%.
- The process is simple: guests set a consumption goal and receive a reward if they reach it. This can be a donation to an NGO, liters saved, or a discount on their room.
- The service is complemented by a centralized consumption platform to help hoteliers measure the impact of their actions and manage their transition.
The device does not impact the quality of the shower and can be installed in less than 5 minutes without any construction work. It is a unique, viable approach for the sustainable tourism sector, which is divided between customer overconsumption and their demand for ecological efforts.
The “Circular Economy” Winners
The Company
PHYre – An innovative technology for the production of recycled carbon fibers. Extracthive is a French SME working for the circular economy, specializing in the production of recycled carbon fibers for producers of semi-finished products. Extracthive offers a range of high-quality, low-impact carbon fibers made from the recycling of pre- and post-consumer composite waste.
The Project
To meet these challenges, Extracthive wishes to industrialize its innovative technology for recycling composite materials using solvolysis, called PHYre®. To reduce the volume of waste and make available carbon fiber of equivalent quality to virgin fibers, but with an environmental impact 5 to 10 times lower.
The Company
VoltR is a French manufacturer specializing in second-life lithium batteries. Its expertise is based on a rigorous industrial process that regenerates value. VoltR maximizes the value of batteries by reusing cells in a second-life application adapted to their residual performance.
The Project
VoltR has created a pilot plant in Verrières-en-Anjou (49) to validate the feasibility of each stage of its industrial process and to serve its first customers. VoltR is now able to manufacture batteries with performance equal to or even superior to new batteries by reusing second-life cells in less energy-intensive applications. This pilot plant allows it to address the entire value chain of the circular battery economy: from the collection of end-of-life batteries to remanufacturing, including the characterization and prediction of cell aging. VoltR aims to harness the full potential of Europe’s end-of-life battery supply by creating the most virtuous circular economy possible.
The company
Rewake develops the reuse of research and laboratory equipment. Rewake offers the recovery of unused equipment and the sale of refurbished equipment in France. The Project
After 10 months in existence and nearly 100 pieces of equipment sold, Rewake is entering a phase of industrializing its model. The company is tripling the size of its workshop by the end of the year to internalize several reconditioning operations and increase its inventory. Rewake is also developing its processes and technological infrastructure to scale up reconditioning.
Rewake is an adventure with a social impact through the creation of non-offshorable technical jobs, training, and the use of social and solidarity economy (SSE) associations to carry out certain technical tasks. Rewake is an industrial adventure with a positive environmental impact. 80% of the equipment’s impact comes from its production. According to them, reusing it is the best thing they can do. The best waste is therefore that which is not produced.
The “Renewable and Carbon-Free Energy” Winner
The Company
Melia offers a reliable and environmentally friendly pellet made from the wood fraction of green waste, enabling local areas to meet their energy needs with their own resources, thereby increasing resilience and improving their carbon footprint.
The Project
Thanks to an innovative material pretreatment process (patent pending), Melia makes it possible to recover a still underutilized resource: the wood fraction of green waste. The first production line will begin in 2025 in Hirsingue (68) at the Agrivalor site, one of France’s leading independent composters and a project partner. This pilot line will ultimately produce 3,000 tons of pellets per year and supply the surrounding district heating networks. The commercial offering developed by Melia, based on long-term contracts, is particularly suited to these players, who are facing a highly volatile market. The company is developing a network of pelletization lines adapted to green waste deposits. It aims to become Europe’s leading supplier of non-forest wood by 2030, in a world with ever-increasing demand for biomass and where forest resources are shrinking sharply.
The “Sustainable Finance and CSR” Winners
The Company
Simul’impact was founded in late 2023 and is based in Nantes. It is a mission-driven company whose mission is to help public stakeholders direct their investments towards projects that are more beneficial for society and the planet.
The Project
Simul’impact is based on modules corresponding to investment project types. The first module concerns public lighting. Coming soon: development, connected cities.
The “Eco-responsible Digital” Winner
The Company
Systnaps, a software company with 17 years of expertise in data governance, lifecycle management, and recycling, based on circular economy principles. Their sovereign solutions accelerate the digital and data/AI transformation of organizations while complying with data and ESG regulations.
The project
Data Recycling, the world’s first sovereign and transparent recycling platform for:
Sustainably managing data assets.
Optimizing the digital footprint of each individual’s data.
Maximizing the value of data through responsible and intelligent sharing.
Implementing effective ESG/ESRS reporting
with minimal effort and cost.
The “Risk Prevention” winner
The company
FlowStop was conceived in 2015 and founded in 2018 in Perpignan. It aims to find solutions to weather-related damage. FlowStop tackles one of the consequences of climate change: flooding. The company therefore offers innovative solutions and is responsible for their installation.
- The project
- Flooding is the most damaging natural disaster. 29% of the world’s population is exposed to flooding (17 million people in France). In most cases, the water level does not exceed one meter, and disasters can easily be avoided:
- Enduring, receiving compensation, renovating, and rebuilding—that’s the way things used to be.
- Protecting buildings, property, and assets is FlowStop’s mission.
FlowStop is a flood protection device that protects doors, patio doors, garage doors, and all types of openings. It requires no construction, inflates in minutes, and is easy to store. FlowStop is used by individuals, businesses, and local authorities. FlowStop won a prize at the Lepine competition and has been used in EDF nuclear power plants and Carrefour and VINCI buildings. The flood protection device has also attracted international attention, with FlowStop being exported to Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, the United States, Canada, South Africa, and Australia.
The “Health-Environment” winner
The company
ŌBERON uses real-time imaging/AI (patented process) to measure the content of the mixture of particles in the air: pollen, dust, soot, and fungal spores.
ŌBERON specializes in environmental metrology and data analysis. They design, develop, and prototype measurement solutions. These solutions are then industrialized in markets with demonstrated traction. This development model is open to strategic partnerships to ensure ŌBERON’s innovations quickly reach the market.
The ŌBERON project offers a digital service and provides it to the environmental health, air quality, and industrial risk markets. ŌBERON is involved in the following areas:
- Priority markets and technological risks
- Secondary markets for biodiversity and human exposure to aeroallergens
Crop diseases
Ambrosia Radar is therefore a solution provided to communities responsible for combating ragweed, an invasive plant with highly allergenic pollens, whose spread is poorly contained. The technology implemented by ŌBERON makes it possible to locate ragweed plants, in addition to participatory reporting. This facilitates the collection and sharing of data with the ragweed contact person in each municipality, thus making the efforts of the services they mobilize to remove the plants more efficient. Ambrosia Radar can be adapted for other sources of specific monitoring, related to biodiversity or other issues, traceable by pollen or other types of particles in the air. The Radar Ambrosias project uses:
Continuous characterization of industrial particle emissions in the air
Real-time measurement of pollens such as ragweed and mold
Early measurement of visible predictors in the air such as mildew spores
The Winners Sustainable Mobility
The Company
- 40Watts, an ESUS company, specializes in the sustainable remanufacturing of electric bicycle batteries. Using advanced technologies such as 3D printing, the company extends battery life, promoting greener urban mobility and reducing electronic waste.
- The Project
- The 40Watts project aims to improve sustainable urban mobility by remanufacturing electric bicycle batteries. The company extends battery life, thereby reducing electronic waste and the consumption of new resources, in line with the principles of the circular economy. The company is also committed to supporting local production, helping to reduce the carbon footprint and stimulate regional employment. Their goal is to offer an economical alternative for electric bicycle users, promoting a transition to more environmentally friendly transportation.
The company
Wiibat is a mobile application that allows users to purchase and have delivered all construction materials and consumables. The company delivers within 1 hour and exclusively by cargo bike.
- The project
- Dooitch is a service that makes life easier for construction professionals by contributing to the decarbonization of city centers. The company offers a catalog of 12,000 references in all construction trades: plumbers, electricians, tilers, and plasterers can find what they need on the mobile app. The service is available in Nantes, Paris, and very soon Lyon, with extended delivery times between noon and 2 p.m. Delivery is made to construction sites and is only by bicycle. The company uses cargo bikes and trailers for heavy or bulky loads such as placo and hot water tanks.
- The company
Cartage was founded in 2022 and is a mission-driven company. The objective? Do like Blablacar with carpooling a few years ago but this time with citizen carsharing. Cartage has therefore created the first digital insurance product dedicated to the practice of citizen car sharing. That is to say that today, everyone can insure themselves online, in a few minutes and for a low price on any car they know in order to borrow it.
The project
The objective of cartage is to democratize shared cars via a digital solution at the service of a human and local practice: the sharing of car keys, from hand to hand.
The car will be shared and this practice will become commonplace in the world to come.
The company
Founded in 2009, Coalis is a historic player in river transport and urban logistics. With a fleet of more than 60 boats grouped within the boatmen’s cooperative Nautalia, of which he is the leader and commission agent, it serves the ports of the Seine Haropa axis (Le Havre, Rouen, Paris), the main river ports of Seine-et-Marne (Gennevilliers, Bonneuil-sur-Marne, Limay), as well as other smaller ports in the Seine basin.
The project
The innovative Green Deliriver urban logistics concept aims to develop a carbon-free hybrid electric/Bio-CNG propulsion solution using the river network and the Seine to transport goods from the urban outskirts to the heart of Paris. On the return journey, Green Deliriver transports urban waste to treatment and recovery centers. Green Deliriver implements a short supply chain to serve the center of Paris and reduce the impact of road transport. This technical solution enables energy optimization and a better compromise between carbon footprint, competitiveness, maneuverability, and vessel autonomy. The goal for 2024 is to complete the repowering of the first demonstrator powered by Bio-CNG in an operational environment.
The Company
The Cross Product (TCP) is a French deeptech company offering software for managing industrial sites and rail and highway infrastructure. The Cross Product project aims to develop and industrialize innovative software solutions: modeling, reverse engineering of the track layout, and automatic gauge analysis of a railway using AI and 3D point clouds. When SNCF Réseau needs to perform an analysis prior to construction, for compliance, or for post-construction compliance verification, the rails must be modeled and then the track geometries reverse engineered. This is a time-consuming, costly, and complex task. This solution allows this to be performed automatically to reduce risks, minimize fieldwork, and thus enable SNCF Réseau to easily conduct large-scale analyses for the needs of the entire French network.
The company
Soben is an SME created in 2005. Its initial business, which it maintains in parallel, concerns the development and mass production of shock absorbers and landing gears (military vehicles, civil engineering, aircraft, etc.). Since 2017, Soben has co-created a business unit specializing in autonomous mobile robots. The starting point was the production of mobile robots for transporting parts in the shock absorber factory in Soben. Since then, the company has expanded the scope of robot operability. Now, in addition to factories, TwinswHeel robots are intended to help people with logistics tasks in cities.
The project
The TwinswHeel project is of great interest to communities for the deployment of fleets of shared robots. Indeed, TwinswHeel robots are of enormous interest thanks to their ease of use and their ultra-rapid reconfigurability. In 5 minutes they can change jobs and serve very different customers 24 hours a day. TwinswHeel offers an on-demand, shared and extremely environmentally efficient logistics service.
The company
Created in 2019, Someware supports the development of cartographic solutions and designs digital tools for the accessibility and walkability of cities.
The company is the publisher of the Handimap pedestrian route calculator, deployed in 87 cities in France, and designs the AccesLibre Mobilités tool for the DGITM, allowing communities to collect their accessibility data. Someware is now developing an audit offering for
marketability for communities and the real estate and tourism sectors
The project
The project aims to develop and test an innovative solution that takes into account the walkability of pedestrian feeder routes to improve and optimize the mobility offerings of a public transport network. This solution, designed for public transport stakeholders, will draw on the expertise and solutions developed by Someware to audit the walkability of cities and will integrate the design of complementary tools and methods. The project will be tested in Rennes Métropole with the support of Keolis Rennes, through the study of several use cases for the Star network (in particular, the future trambus network).
The Company
Founded in 2023, the company Transport Citoyen de Mayotte was created to facilitate the daily lives of Mayotte residents and promote tourism by offering innovative and comfortable transport services.
The project
Transport Citoyen de Mayotte offers a solution for travelers and their luggage to relieve road congestion and reduce CO2 emissions in the region. Midzo Fly is a service that allows individuals and businesses to transport their luggage and parcels using a combination of clean, efficient, and shared means.
Midzo Fly is adaptable to all types of transport (postal, medical, air, etc.) and will include different levels of baggage handling to best meet the needs of businesses and individuals.
The Company
Estuaire’s mission is to build the most comprehensive data platform on aviation and climate. Estuaire leverages the transparency of aviation data to help companies monitor and reduce their environmental impacts globally.
The Project
Estuaire, a technology company aiming to decarbonize the aviation industry, addresses the challenge of how to pragmatically reduce the impact of aviation on the climate.
Estuaire offers a web application on which airlines and aircraft lessors can model various innovations or processes to achieve their climate targets. These simulations are based on their own flight data. Customers can then choose to invest in new electric aircraft, incorporate a proportion of sustainable fuels, offset a portion of their emissions, or optimize their aircraft’s flight profiles.
The Company
Celeste Airships is a company specializing in the design and manufacture of ultra-long-range drones. Airships drones are innovative hybrids, combining the advantages of a flying wing with an airship. They are passionate about innovation and present their hybrid drone as the future of air travel.
The Project
The goal is to create a drone capable of flying for hours, even days, without requiring refueling. This unique hybrid drone is designed to:
Conduct low-altitude inspections of large land-based infrastructure such as power lines, pipelines, and railways.
Be used for very long-distance parcel transport.
Enable discreet surveillance of sensitive areas.
Be used for communication relays.
