GreenTech top trends and the EuraTech startups that bring them to life!
Trend 1: Battery reuse and upcyclying for clean mobility
▶️ Swoop Energy founder, Yann Cousin
The electric car is 10 years old. That's also the average lifespan of a battery. Composed of rare metals (cobalt, nickel, manganese, lithium, etc.) whose extraction requires a large amount of energy and which will be in short supply in the coming years, end-of-life electric car batteries are becoming an attractive prospect, with a dedicated reuse sector built around them.
A pioneer in this field, Swoop Energy, a EuraTech startup from Roubaix, kills two birds with one stone: reusing batteries sent for recycling while they still have at least 70% capacity AND creating a solution to power electrical equipment in isolated sites with clean energy. An exciting and elegant solution that did not exist until now, and is creating a whole new market from scratch!
Trend 2 : Sustainable investment in tree conservation
▶️ Symbiose Management founder, Marwen Nefati
In terms of individual actions one can adopt for a more eco-responsible way of life, choosing a responsible bank is at the top of the list. According to Oxfam, the money laying dormant in savings accounts represents the 1st source of CO2 emissions on an individual level (as the bank uses the funds to invest in projects with high CO2 emissions).
To preserve French forests and sutain natural carbon sinks represented by biomass of forest origin, Symbiose Management, which joined the EuraTechnologies incubation program last March, is developing an accessible investment product that makes it possible to invest in the planting of young trees in France and to obtain a return via the natural growth of the tree, through the market value of the newly formed wood/lumber.
Trend 3 : Reconditioned, and hyper-local
▶️ Tomorrow Tech founder, Romain Deffrenne
There is another life after life... For our smartphones anyway! According to ADEME, the ecological transition agency, nearly 50 million mobile telephones were sleeping and wasting away at the bottom of our drawers. However, 2/3 of them still work. At the same time, the environmental impact linked to the manufacturing of smartphones will make you cringe: an estimated 120 kg of CO2 are emitted to manufacture just one smartphone.
The solution? Tomorrow Tech, a EuraTech startup from Roubaix, has a simple and elegant idea: installing collection points connected directly within the common areas of companies to provide rental and repair services accessible to everyone. Designed for busy clients who lack the time to quickly repair their mobile phones, and with a super local distribution strategy in mind.
Trend 4 : A universal battery for optimized efficiency
▶️ Otonohm founder, Christophe Piquemal
The electric battery sector is strategic for Europe. To achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, the electrification of the transport sector and the integration of renewable energies are key, and battery technology is a major facilitator of this transition in the mobility and construction markets.
Otonohm, a EuraTech start-up from Lille, has perfectly anticipated this trend and has developed a breakthrough technology that can power any type of device (from 5 to 400 volts) without using a transformer, inverter or converter. The first application of this patented technology takes the form of an easily transportable device. Its battery can be charged from any source without a charger and distributes any current or voltage directly, which promotes various uses, limits energy loss by reducing carbon impact by up to 40%, and provides 30% longer lifespan than conventional batteries.
Trend 5 : Intelligent consumption, fully concious of products' environmental impact
▶️ Frugall founder, David Dhondt
You cannot improve what is not measured. A straight-forward premise that inspires the development of tools and methods for measuring and improving the ecological footprint.
Frugall, who shares this premise, offers a dedicated B to B solution that does just that for non-alimentary products. Through their SaaS solution, Frugall measures for its clients the impact score of various products. Through an LCA approach (based on the composition of the products, their means of production, their uses, their distributions, etc.), Frugall Score makes it possible for customers to identify the most virtuous products for the planet, at an affordable cost.
Frugall also enables their customers to better design their products by taking into account the impact scoring during the production process.