123Fab #86

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

This 9 May, the COP15 against desertification opened in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The challenge is to take concrete action against land degradation and its harmful consequences for biodiversity and populations. Today, according to the UNCCD, more than 40% of the planet’s land is degraded, affecting half of humanity and threatening half of the world’s GDP, i.e. $44,000 billion. This is particularly due to the impacts of climate change and the increase in the number of disasters such as droughts causing aridity of the land and water scarcity. Ethiopia is currently experiencing the worst drought “ever”: in 18 months, no drop of rain has fallen. The African continent is not the only one affected: while North America is experiencing an unprecedented drought, the worst episode recorded in 1,200 years, in the south of the continent, Chile is preparing for water rationing. The worst is also to be feared in France as several regions are also experiencing historic droughts.

These droughts are a big problem for communities, especially in terms of access to water for the population, agriculture, the surrounding fauna and flora, and the damage that can be caused. To mitigate the risks of water scarcity, various levers have been tested around the world. Beyond a better distribution of water sources, with the creation of aqueducts, wells, aqueducts, or dams, some communities try to avoid evaporation of stored water. In 2015, in California, the water company Las Virgenes Water District poured as many as 96 million shade balls filled with water and air to reduce water evaporation by 85-90%. Following this initiative, start-ups have taken up this technology, such as Neotop Water Systems, which has developed “TopUp Ball”, a modular cover for water reservoirs that allows for significant reduction of evaporation while cooling the water, maintaining high quality and reducing the growth of algae. In addition, another lever mobilized is that of education, particularly for water-intensive activities, in more rational and sustainable use of water. In agriculture, which uses more than 70% of the available freshwater in most parts of the world, precise irrigation consists of having water brought right to the roots of the plants, exactly when the plants need it, and in just the right quantity they need. Smart irrigation, which uses weather data or soil moisture data to determine the irrigation need is also in vogue and has raised over $155 million in investment according to Tracxn.

Other initiatives focus on increasing existing freshwater resources:

• Desalination: It has been widely developed since the 1960s. More than 15,000 plants are producing desalinated water today, most in the Middle East and North Africa—the largest is in Saudi Arabia. But desalination is still very energy-intensive, although it is increasingly powered by renewable or recovered energy, and it represents a real danger for marine life and oceans, in particular, because of the very large discharges of brine.
• Wastewater filtration: Since the 1990s, some start-ups have been trying to address this market by offering filtered water quickly, cheaply, and without harming the environment. This is the case of Desolenator, which has developed a technology that uses the sun and seawater to produce high-quality drinking water from any source at a cost of less than $1 per cubic metre.
• Water from air: More than 50 companies are providing solutions to extract water from the air according to Tracxn. India-based startup Uravu Labs has developed the Aquapanel solution, based on solar thermal. It produces drinking water by absorbing water vapour at night when humidity levels are generally higher. Then, during the day, the solar collector heats the unit to 176-212 degrees Fahrenheit, which then releases the water vapour, which passes through an air-cooled condenser, eventually turning into liquid. A similar system, WEDEW, from the Skysource/Skywater Alliance partnership, won the XPRIZE Water Abundance award. The solution cools hot air through a biomass gasifier and stores the resulting condensation in a tank, which can then be accessed via a tap. It can harvest enough water from the air for 100 people per day.
• Fog water harvesting: It provides an alternative source of freshwater through a technique used to capture water from wind-driven fog. This strategy has been developed by the Canadian-Mexican start-up Permalution, which has created a solution based on biomimicry that makes it possible to harvest between 150 and 400 litres of water per day, i.e. 3 bathtubs, thanks to fog and while respecting the environment. In particular, it has helped save orchids from the brink of extinction as part of a forest fire mitigation strategy.
• Other sources of water such as clouds and icebergs are used on a small scale to alleviate the risks and problems associated with water shortages in the world.

Global warming is acting as a catalyst for droughts and water scarcity, which are becoming more severe and more frequent in all parts of the world. The consequences are noticeable, and many initiatives are being developed under the impulse of private companies, governments but also startups. Although they propose solutions to prevent or alleviate droughts in part, it seems that only a reduction in global emissions as well as a more reasoned consumption of water, particularly within industries, would make it possible to limit their future consequences.

2 Key Figures

The smart water management market size is expected to reach $23.46 billion, rising at a market growth of 10.4% CAGR between 2021-2027.

Business Wire

+$210M of funding in water management 

Traxcn

3 startups to draw inspiration from

Desolenator

The UK startup has developed a water purifying device intended to purify water from any source. The company’s purifying device utilizes solar radiation to turn salt and contaminated water into pure drinking water, enabling people in coastal and water-stressed areas to become water independent.

Uravu Labs

The Indian startup has developed a technology to convert atmospheric moisture into usable water. The system is built with only a few components: the proprietary hygroscopic material that absorbs and stores water vapour from the air and a solar collector – similar to solar water heaters – that rapidly heats the vapour, which then turns into water when cooled.

Permalution

Created in 2020, the Canadian-Mexican start-up has developed a fog water harvesting technology that can capture from 150-400 liters of water per day, which can support a family of 4-6. It has also developed a water radar, which goes hand in hand with the technology. It is a passive solution and it does not alter ecosystems.

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123Fab #87

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

Last week, Canada Steamship Lines’ latest diesel-electric self-unloading vessel – the MV Nukumi – entered service with Windsor Salt. In order to reduce the vessel’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25% and air pollutants (substances that have a detrimental effect on living organisms) by 80%, the MV Nukumi was fitted with a twin-fin diesel-electric propulsion system. According to the International Council on Clean Transportation, maritime shipping could account for 17% of total emissions by 2050. For several years, the IMO (the International Maritime Organization) has been tightening the requirements for international shipping in order to achieve its goal of reducing the sector’s carbon intensity by 40% by 2030. In response, several initiatives and technologies, including fuels, are being developed to comply with the new rules that are gradually coming into force.

Electricity-based solutions

Solutions based on electric power (batteries, motor) have been widely developed over the last few years, such as the Yara Birkeland, the first autonomous battery-powered container ship that set sail last year in Norway to transport 120 containers over 7.5 nautical miles. Startups are flocking to the sector, with total funding of more than $360 million. Fleetzero, which builds battery-electric cargo ships, has already raised $3.5 million. The startup is increasing the efficiency of existing diesel ships by converting them into battery-electric vessels and is pioneering innovation with the MVE7 – an electric ship designed for transpacific cargo delivery.

However, for the time being, due to energy storage constraints, the electric solution can only be relevant for niche use, such as ferries with fairly short and stable routes, multiple recharging times at the quayside, or for coastal and river transport, and not for long-distance ships. Other alternatives seem more appropriate for maritime transport and it is likely that a transition to hybrid engines will be necessary to reduce carbon emissions in the sector.

Other non-combustion engine solutions

Several technologies show that there are alternatives to power generation by internal combustion engines, but they are not suitable for all uses, including long-distance shipping.

• Wind: Hybrid electric propulsion combined with renewable energies such as wind has the best total carbon footprint, especially for small ships. The Nantes-based start-up Neoline has the ambition to develop commercial lines operated with ships designed to use wind. Scheduled to enter service in 2024, the first Neoliner will be a 136-meter long, 24-meter wide ship capable of carrying 5,000 tonnes of cargo. The sails, combined with a reduction in commercial speed will reduce energy requirements by 90% compared to a traditional cargo ship of the same size.
• Hydrogen: Hydrogen stored onboard powers a fuel cell that produces the electricity needed for propulsion. While this technology meets the objectives of reducing CO2 emissions, it nevertheless shifts the problem to the production of hydrogen, 95% of which is currently produced from fossil fuels on land (Futura Planète). Moreover, the stability of onboard storage still raises technical reservations. The startup Boundary Layer Technologies combines the known physics of hydrofoil with patented designs to build 160-container ships that run on hydrogen. The ARGO cargo ship is powered by liquid H2 and travels at twice the speed of conventional containerships. It uses direct routes to reduce overall transit times and be competitive with air freight.

New fuels for internal combustion engines

For the next 30 years, the predominance of internal combustion engines for ship propulsion remains the most credible scenario. But it is possible to improve the environmental balance by changing the fuels.

• MGO – Maritime Gas Oil: The aim is to integrate a growing proportion of fuels from agricultural production, mainly ethyl, or recycled petroleum products such as waste oils or recycled vegetable oils. However, production is costly if not subsidized (collection, reprocessing) and the impact on emissions remains low. On the other hand, in the case of fuels derived from agricultural production, the ecological cost is highly controversial. The startup Mash Makes was a finalist of the 2022 World-Changing Ideas Awards. It specializes in converting various agricultural residues into carbon-negative fuel products that meet the necessary international maritime standards.
• Ammonia: Compared to hydrogen, ammonia has a higher energy density and is more available in ports. In addition, the production cost per tonne is very low, and this solution can meet the targets set by the IMO. However, its mass production as a fuel has been ruled out until now because of its toxicity and low flammability. It is massively manufactured from fossil fuels, which also shifts the environmental problem. The most promising combustion tests for this technology are based on a combination of 70% ammonia and 30% MGO. Brooklyn-based startup Amogy is developing an ammonia power system for ships and heavy-duty road transportation. The technology uses liquid ammonia and converts it into hydrogen gas, which then runs through a fuel cell. The one-year-old company says it plans to launch a small demonstration vessel by early 2023, along with large road vehicles.
• Methanol: Methanol is a promising alternative fuel for reducing emissions and improving the environmental performance of shipping. It contains no sulfur and, because it is a clean-burning alcohol, emissions of NOx and particulate matter from combustion are low. However, the use of methanol requires certain levels of safety and engine adaptation as well as increased bunkering capacity on board.
• LNG – Liquefied natural gas – coupled with MGO: LNG can drastically reduce combustion emissions, including carbon emissions, which is its great advantage. Moreover, it requires only minor modifications to current propulsion technologies, which means that emission reduction targets can be met quickly and with limited investment. However, this technology relies soleyl on fossil resources.

Large groups are also targeting this segment. In August 2021, Maersk ordered eight green methanol-fuelled ocean-going vessels for delivery from the first quarter of 2024. They have also invested in WasteFuel, another Californian start-up making greener biomethanol from waste. Through the Ammonia 2-4 project, a strong consortium of shipping players including Wärtsilä, C-Job, DNV, and MSC aims to develop demonstrators of two- and four-stroke marine engines running on ammonia.

Finally, numerous alternatives are being developed, notably under pressure from the IMO and numerous supra-national bodies, including the Brussels Commission. While for small ships and routes, 100% electric or renewable energy-based alternatives are being developed, for freight transport, hybrid engines seem more feasible for the coming years. But questions remain: batteries have a limited life expectancy and their production requires many critical materials. The overall carbon impact of these new fuels is therefore far from zero.

2 Key Figures

Global marine fuel market is expected to reach a total market size of $156 billion in 2025.

Research And Markets

+80 startups manufacturing electric ships

Traxcn

3 startups to draw inspiration from

Fleetzero

The startup is building battery-electric ships that will sail between major neighbouring ports. The plans call for unloading containers of cargo and nearly depleted batteries, and then loading containers of replacement cargo and freshly recharged batteries. This method would allow the ships to carry a relatively small fleet of batteries.

Neoline

The startup is working on decarbonized merchant shipping, powered mainly by sail. The first Neoliner will be capable of carrying 5,000 tonnes of cargo. The sails, combined with a reduction in commercial speed will reduce energy requirements by 90% compared to a traditional cargo ship of the same size.

Mash Makes

The startup is specialized in the environmentally friendly conversion of various agricultural residues into fuel products in accordance with international standards. The biofuel is compliant in a B11 blend with DMA (or  MGO) directly from the pyrolysis machine. The fuel has been validated at Alfa Laval’s Marine Test and Training Center.

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123Fab #85

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

Last week, a team of Dutch researchers succeeded in developing a unidirectional superconductor. This approach could lead to a substitute for semiconductors and develop computers 300 to 400 times faster than those of today. More than just faster information transmission, the use of superconductors instead of ordinary semiconductors could save up to 10% of all Western energy reserves according to the Netherlands Research Council (NWO). They are also very valuable for the future in solving energy efficiency issues.

Superconductivity is a phenomenon of zero electrical resistance and expulsion of magnetic fields that occurs in certain materials when they are cooled below their critical temperature. In other words, this creates very strong magnetic fields and ensures that no energy is lost when superconducting materials carry or produce energy. There are two types of superconductors: Low-temperature superconductors (LTS) are those whose critical temperature is below -196.2°C and high-temperature superconductors (HTS) are those whose critical temperature is above -196.2°C. LTS critical temperature is relatively close to absolute zero, which is a problem because materials have to be cooled with expensive technologies such as liquid helium cooling. Its scope is therefore rather limited when a large quantity of material needs to be cooled. On the contrary, HTS have critical temperatures above the liquefaction temperature of nitrogen. They can therefore be more easily cooled with the latter (LN2), as is already done in other sectors such as IT or food processing.

There are many diverse applications for superconductors. To begin with, for the energy sector, the use of superconductors has great potential along the value chain.

• Conversion: High-temperature superconducting generators or engines are lighter and more compact than traditional ones and allow high efficiency.
• Transmission: An average of 5% of the electricity consumed is lost during transport. Thanks to superconducting materials, and their resistance-free current conduction, higher energy yields resulting from reduced energy losses in are achieved.
• Network security: Superconducting fault current limiters (FCLs) act as protective devices during power transmission, inserting an impedance into a conductor when there is a sudden surge of current on the transmission networks.
• Storage: Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) stores electricity from the grid in the magnetic field of a coil consisting of a superconducting wire with zero energy losses.

Other applications also exist, notably in health and transport and several technologies use the ability of superconductors to generate large magnetic fields. Indeed, superconductivity has played a key role in medical imaging as it is at the heart of MRI technology, providing intense, stable, and uniform magnetic fields. Superconductors can also replace conventional electromagnets in magnetic levitation trains (maglev), i.e. monorail trains that use magnetic forces rail to avoid energy losses due to friction with the rail. Last year, Chinese engineers presented a train of this type capable of traveling at 620 km/h.

However, several challenges remain to make superconductors the key to energy efficiency. First, superconducting wires and films are still expensive compared to conventional electrical cables because their manufacturing process is very complex. Indeed, HTS are ceramics, therefore difficult to manufacture and LTS are metals, easy to manufacture but difficult to cool. Moreover, the cooling infrastructure needed to exploit the capacities of superconductors is also expensive (even with liquid nitrogen for HTS).

Although the sector is not yet very mature, several large companies and start-ups are developing initiatives to overcome these limitations and benefit from this promising technology. Late last year, Nexans, a leading manufacturer of superconductor cables, installed and commissioned its technology for power grid system provider American Superconductor (AMSC) for Chicago’s Resilient Electric Grid project. In the same way, the startup SuperNode is developing superconducting cables to provide a medium-voltage direct current (MVDC) transmission system. One use case for the startup is to connect an offshore wind farm to the grid using superconductors as the mechanism of energy transfer. They make it possible to place renewable energy sources at the most strategic location without worrying about transporting the energy, since it is done without loss. Another example is the British company Epoch Wires, which manufactures patented superconducting wire. Their production process creates low-cost, durable magnesium di-boride superconducting wires that have the potential to provide superconductivity at temperatures of 40K (-233°C) for magnetic resonance imaging and power applications. For the cooling process, the startup Veir raised $10 million in funding last year to further develop a  cooling system for high voltage superconducting transmission lines.

The prospects for superconductors, studied since the 1980s, are significant and very promising. Its benefits could revolutionize the energy industry. Indeed, having a non-resistive conductor would save a huge amount of energy on the existing grid installation. They could also contribute to the development of remote renewable energy sources by ensuring lossless energy transmission. However, deployments remain limited today due to the cost of the infrastructure and the complexity of the large scale.

2 Key Figures

The superconductors market is expected to reach $8.78B in 2025 at a CAGR of 13.08%

The Business Research Company

+$100M raised in the last six years in the superconductor market

Traxcn

3 startups to draw inspiration from

SuperNode

The Irish startup designs and delivers superconducting connection systems to connect renewable generation and increase grid interconnection in mature markets. It manufactures superconductor cables that can carry huge amounts of power in a much smaller surface area than conventional cables and require significantly less infrastructure, materials, and space.

Epoch Wires

The UK startup is specializing in manufacturing superconductor wires using environmentally friendly, abundant, and cheap material, namely Magnesium Diboride (MgB2). The company’s patent-pending technology offers high capacity production of infinitely long wire at one of the lowest market prices.

Veir

The US start-up has developed a passive evaporative cryocooling solution that enables reliable and cost-effective transmission of superconducting cables over very long distances. It provides 20 times more cooling power per kilogram of nitrogen flow than mechanical subcooling.

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123Fab #84

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

In 2021, the circular economy became the most funded sector in private equity, with over €2.2 billion invested, almost double the previous year (Novethic). Back Market, the electronics reconditioning specialist, has made this rise possible with  €726 million in two rounds of financing. The model is gradually proving its cost-effectiveness and is of increasing interest to consumers who are turning to much more frugal lifestyles and consumption patterns.

The circular economy consists in producing in a sustainable way by limiting consumption and the production of waste. It can be defined more broadly as a system that valorizes resources at each stage of their transformation. The resources can be raw materials, finished products, goods, or services (such as car-sharing). According to ADEME, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency, the functioning of this system is based on 7 pillars: sustainable supply of raw materials, eco-design of products, industrial and territorial ecological commitment, ecology of functionality, responsible consumption of products, extension of the useful life of goods and recycling of materials from products. The shift of companies from the linear to the circular model has advantages and challenges on several levels. From an economic point of view, the model allows companies to save on the costs of acquiring and transporting raw materials, which are abundantly available. This model is also a strong asset for companies as it improves their brand image and appeals to the growing number of environmentally conscious consumers. In addition, the circular economy is becoming more and more popular to comply with the increasingly strict regulations of the States in favor of ecology: the display of the lifespan of products, the development of packaging deposits, the support of the economy of functionality or the fight against waste and programmed obsolescence. In line with its March 2020 Circular Economy Action Plan, the European Commission last month presented proposals to green almost all physical goods on the EU market, with for example the introduction of ‘digital passports‘ for relevant products and ‘performance classes‘ from A to G for comparison.

Nevertheless, the circular economy model requires certain key success factors to establish effectively and sustainably. Firstly, the model must continue to prove its capacity to improve the profitability of industries, particularly those in emerging countries, which still have significant development potential in the linear model. Secondly, manufacturers need to have access to their products at the end of the cycle. Information technology can partly address this concern with for example online failure detection or monitoring of wear levels. From a macro-economic point of view, an ecosystem should enable actors to work together, facilitating shared objectives, dialogue, and alliance, sometimes even with competitors. Another important criterion is the establishment of reverse logistics channels to collect and optimally recover the considerable end-of-cycle volumes generated by the circular economy. Industrialists will be directly concerned, particularly for closed loops, but also SSE (social and solidarity economy) players and local authorities.

To this extent, several startups and large groups are developing solutions and initiatives to benefit from circular economy. A distinction can be made between operators, who try to modify their production processes and limit waste production, and companies that offer solutions to facilitate the circular economy, in terms of logistics, product monitoring, quality assessment, etc. In textiles, some large players such as Patagonia have focused on a strategic positioning allowing access to products at the end of the cycle with the presence of an “absolute guarantee” allowing the repair and modification of its articles. External startups, such as Murfy, are also choosing to penetrate this part of the value chain by encouraging consumers to repair household appliances rather than replace them with new ones. It offers three services: free tutorials on how to repair household appliances, repair by an employee technician, and an e-commerce platform for reconditioned appliances. Intending to create a circular economy ecosystem, another startup, Phenix, offers a range of solutions to companies – supermarkets, local shops, but also producers, industrialists, and wholesalers – to give a “second life” to their unsold goods, by putting them in touch with second life item collectors (charitable associations or even sales at a reduced price through a mobile app). The startup saves 120,000 meals a day, thus avoiding the production of 50 tons of waste per day. Finally, in a more global logic of recycling, several startups have contributed to the creation of the “internet of garbage“. This is the case of AMP Robotics, which raised 55 million last year and uses AI and physical robots to orchestrate sorting, picking, and placement tasks to increase recycling rates.

The circular economy holds great promise for the future. It is of increasing interest to companies in all sectors notably to reduce production costs and ensure an abundance of raw materials. It is also increasingly important for their image in the eyes of consumers who want to consume sensibly and sustainably. Finally, it is the subject of particular attention from the public authorities, who are enacting laws to act in favor of the environment and limit the production of waste.

2 Key Figures

 Circular economy revenues in the plastic packaging recycling market are expected to have a CAGR of 9.1% between 2019 and 2030

The market revenue is estimated at $13.1 billion – Research And Markets

750 funded companies & + $3B invested in last 2 years in circular economy

Traxcn

3 startups to draw inspiration from

Murfy

Murfy, created in 2017, has undertaken the mission of solving the overconsumption of household appliances, via the circular economy. It thus offers three services: free tutorials to repair one’s own household appliances, repair by an employed technician, and an e-commerce platform for reconditioned appliances. In one year, Murfy has tripled its turnover to €3.5 million in 2020.

Phenix

Phenix has developed a platform to connect generators and collectors of second life items. The platform, Phenix Exchange, connects waste generators, ie companies and industries that want to sell off their old items, to agencies that wish to buy these items. These include recycling companies, NGOs etc. The startup raised $17,2M in 2018.

Centrical

The American startup has developed an artificial intelligence-based waste sorting robot which picks recyclable materials off a conveyor belt in mixed waste, construction & demolition waste, and e-waste facilities. AI-technology is used to identify the waste material and machine learning platform keeps record of types of materials identified. The startup raised $55M in 2020.

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123Fab #82

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

On 8 February this year, 12 EU member states affirmed their desire to launch an IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest) on developing a sovereign cloud in Europe. These countries include Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and France, which plan to contribute 300 million euros to the project, estimated at 7 billion euros. The first objective is to guarantee the protection and security of European users’ data. Indeed, most web hosting companies in the cloud are currently owned by American companies, with GAFAM controlling 70% of the European market. They are therefore subject to the Cloud Act, the US federal law on access to communications data, which obliges providers to disclose all information in their possession upon request from the US judiciary, regardless of whether the data is hosted in the US or in a third country, which violates the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The other objective is to compete with industry behemoths such as Google or AWS and reduce European dependence on US companies from a commercial point of view.

The explosion of the cloud in recent years is due to its many advantages: it makes all data accessible from any terminal very quickly and, in theory, also prevents it from being lost, even if the hardware storing it is damaged. It is largely dominated by the American giants, mainly Amazon, which holds over 30% of the market, Microsoft, and Google. Their dominance is often decried, and this week Reuters reported that the European Commission has opened an investigation into Microsoft’s potentially anti-competitive practices in the cloud sector. A few large European players still manage to emerge such as Deutsche Telekom, OVHcloud, SAP, or Orange as well as smaller cloud providers like pCloud, Oodrive, or Leviia.

However, the principle of remote storage raises questions of security, reliability, and confidentiality. Thus, standards have been developed such as ISO 27001 to ensure that the operator guarantees a good level of data security. In France, the government supports the “trusted cloud” label, which lays the foundations for high technical and legal standards, such as the mandatory SecNumCloud security level issued by the ANSSI (the French information system security agency). The logic is the same in other countries, for example in Germany. T-Systems and Google Cloud have announced that they will create and provide sovereign cloud services for businesses, the public sector, and healthcare organizations. Cloud computing also poses problems of dependence, on the one hand on the supplier, particularly in terms of ownership of data and functionalities, and on the other hand on the Internet, since a connection is required to use cloud computing. Furthermore, from an environmental point of view, the exponential development of cloud computing has a huge impact on global electricity consumption and also generated carbon dioxide: data centers worldwide consumed around 200 TWh in 2018, or about 1% of global electricity use.

In response to these limitations of the cloud, several startups have emerged to offer answers and attempt to occupy this growing market. For instance, this week, Intel announced plans to acquire Israeli cloud optimization startup Granulate for $650 million. The startup continuously optimizes the operating system resource manager to drastically improve performance, reduce costs by around 60%, and increase capacity in both on-premises and cloud environments, without any code changes. With the same aim of optimizing costs and performance, startup Iceotope has developed chassis-level liquid cooling solutions to reduce energy and water consumption, as well as the design, construction, and operating costs of cloud data centers. At the crossroads of energy optimization, sovereign cloud, and server storage management, Qarnot Computing proposes to use the heat emitted by micro-processors to heat offices, social housing, or colleges. The computing power is then 2 to 4 times cheaper than that offered by public cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or OVHCloud since the cost of the infrastructure is financed by the customer. Qarnot’s digital boiler consists of 24 processors and can, for example, heat water to over 60°C. When it comes to the growing demand for security, startups are leading the way. US-based cybersecurity company Rapid7 has confirmed its investment in the cloud with the acquisition of Israeli startup Alcide, a leading Kubernetes security provider, and DivvyCloud, a cloud security and governance startup. To ensure infrastructure and data security and entrust its management to the data user, startup Fortanix offers a solution for multiple public clouds and hybrid environments via a single platform and its technology, Runtime Encryption.

The cloud is therefore ultimately a solution full of promise, dominated by a few large players but bringing together a very innovative ecosystem. Start-ups play a key role in meeting the challenges, particularly in terms of security and environmental impact, and there are more and more of them developing in this area.

2 Key Figures

The cloud computing market size is expected to grow from $445.3 billion in 2021 to $947.3 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 16.3%

MarketsAndMarkets

+ $3B invested in cloud security in last two years

Tracxn

3 startups to draw inspiration from

Iceotope

The British startup has developed liquid cooling systems suitable for traditionally high power and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. The systems wrap each server blade in a metal case filled with dielectric coolant, helping avoid the costs and carbon emissions associated with the need to cool the entire data center.

Qarnot Computing

The French startup provides a cloud-based radiator computer that produces free and eco-friendly heat sourced from IT processors. Through dispatching software, the company offers performant and secure cloud computing services. QRad provides energy-efficient green heating for buildings in every room by installing sensors.

Fortanix

The American startup is a cloud data security solutions provider. The features of the product include data privacy and management, multi-cloud key management, data encryption, network virtualization, secure access control, etc. The startup receives the Cybersecurity Excellence Gold Award.

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123Fab #81

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

A 2018 survey by Trace One reveals that while 91% of consumers think it is important to know where their food comes from, only 12% are fully confident in the safety and quality of their food. As a result, many food companies such as Carrefour, Walmart, Nestlé, or Unilever have implemented initiatives to improve the traceability and transparency of their products in response to consumers’ lack of trust and desire for healthier and higher quality products. At the same time, traceability is key for producers, as it guarantees the quality of the raw material that is introduced into the food chain, allowing certification and accreditation of their products, quickly locating problematic elements, and setting up control systems. It also facilitates the economic management of farms since it requires a detailed history of interventions, products used, and agronomic results. Therefore it has become a major issue for consumers and producers, but also for states, for health surveillance purposes and supply concerns. As such, in France, the law on the future of agriculture voted in September 2014, introduces the obligation of traceability for all phytosanitary products. Thus, throughout the supply chain, each product used must be identified (batch number, date of manufacture, etc.) and this code is transmitted to each new actor up to the final consumer.

Food traceability is defined by the ability to track the movement of a product and its ingredients through all stages of the supply chain, upstream and downstream. It involves documenting and linking the production, processing, and distribution chain of food products and their ingredients. This is a real challenge. Firstly, because of global sourcing, which does not always allow for great visibility and transparency of production processes. But also because of the lack of unifying requirements in different geographical areas regarding handling, storage, inspection, and safety standards. From a logistical point of view, many products are sold individually and questions arise as to the scale of traceability (by unit? by pallet? at the product level?), which has a significant cost. To this extent, it is also an economic challenge because, although the demand for transparency is often driven by consumer desire, it is not clear that consumers are willing to pay this cost, nor are supermarkets, which already make low margins on food products.

The main vehicle for traceability of agricultural products is labeling, with information on, for example, origin, ingredients, or farming practices. But the reliability of labels has limits, both from a practical point of view and in terms of the veracity of the information. With the growing number of food certifications, and the constraints in terms of traceability becoming stricter, new tools are emerging at the initiative of large groups or start-ups. For example, Walmart, with the help of its technology partner IBM, created in 2016 a food traceability system based on the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain, at a time when the number of start-ups in this field was booming. The time needed to trace the origin of mangoes produced in the United States was reduced from 7 days to 2.2 seconds thanks to this system, which is now used on many products. Carrefour is also a pioneer on this topic in Europe with the first application of its own blockchain technology to the Filière Qualité Carrefour (FQC) products in March 2018. The group plans to have deployed it on all 100 products by the end of 2022. Indeed, blockchain is one of the most convincing answers to the challenge of food supply traceability, because it makes it possible to record in a decentralized and unforgeable digital register all the useful information on the origin of a product, its manufacturing and storage conditions, and the various stages of its transport.

Numerous other solutions are emerging, notably at the initiative of start-ups to ensure traceability in agriculture and consumption. For example, the World Wildlife Fund has partnered with BCG Digital Ventures and social capital investors to create OpenSC, a startup that allows businesses and consumers to verify specific claims about a product’s sustainability and ethical production. The platform uses many different technologies, including IoT sensors, machine learning, and blockchain, to trace the movement of food through its supply chain and share this history with businesses and consumers. Other solutions are implemented directly on farms, such as Farmer’s Hive, which uses IoT sensors to collect all kinds of information to improve farm management (air temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, etc.) and traceability by generating a unique QR code to track activities from the producer to the end-user. This makes possible, for example, the tracking of environmental conditions and location when the product is in transit. Further down the production chain, Zest HACCP is an application specifically designed to ensure health traceability. It generates its own barcodes directly on the labels to create a chain of custody and automate shelf and stock management, take temperature readings using sensors and produce statistical reports.

Food traceability is becoming an increasingly important market, driven by consumer demand for transparency and government regulations. Increasing labels and certifications are being created to promote healthy and responsible agricultural products. In addition, traceability helps to improve supply chains and farm management, but also to avoid fraud and limit food waste. It is therefore beneficial to all and will certainly continue to be a key issue in the years to come.

2 Key Figures

 The food traceability market size is projected to reach $26.1 billion by 2025, recording a CAGR of 9.1%

It was valued $16.8 billion in 2020 – MarketsandMarkets

$118M million of total funding in food traceability

Tracxn

3 startups to draw inspiration from

OpenSC

The Australian startup uses blockchain technology to allow consumers to verify the provenance of products they are purchasing by scanning a QR code. Its main aim is to provide consumers with the confidence that these products are ethical, legally compliant and environmentally friendly. The blockchain technology ensures the data cannot be tampered with.

Farmer’s Hive

The Canadian startup has developed a farm management software platform. The technology uses lightweight wireless hardware sensor nodes that allow remote access to real-time information such as soil moisture measurement, enabling the user to make informed decisions. Each food item has a QR code that follows it throughout its life and records information for the end consumer.

Zest HACCP

The French startup Zest HACCP is a platform that creates its own traceability chain from barcodes. It enables to manage shelves, stocks, take temperature readings, produce activity reports, manage use-by dates and comply with European health standards. The solution is already deployed throughout France with over 1200 active licenses. It was acquired in 2020 by Phytocontrol Group.

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123Fab #80

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

At least 14 million tonnes of plastic end up in our oceans each year, and plastic accounts for 80% of all marine debris, from surface waters to deep-sea sediments. By 2050, it is predicted that there will be more tonnes of plastic in the oceans than fish, posing a serious threat to our ecosystems and our health. Three of the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Goals are dedicated to tackling the problem of plastic waste: responsible consumption and production, climate action and marine life. To this end, alternatives to plastic have been emerging for several years, driven by governments, including biomaterials, also known as bio-based materials.

Biomaterials are biomass-based raw materials. They include cells, molecules or extracellular matrices but also natural textiles, leather, wood, paper or silk. They are used in everyday life, for example in packaging, clothing and furniture. But in recent years, a new use for biomaterials has emerged as an alternative to fossil-based materials, for example in the production of plastic. These are known as “sustainable biomaterials” and plastic manufactured from sustainable biomaterials is known as bioplastic. But not all bioplastics are equal: some are partly bio-based and not all are biodegradable, such as bio-based polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP). However, bioplastics have the unique advantage over conventional plastics of reducing the dependency on fossil resources and lowering greenhouse gas emissions over their lifetime. Indeed, they have the potential to reduce 30-70% of carbon dioxide emissions and their production requires 65% less energy than conventional petroleum plastic (Allied Market Research). They also offer new recycling perspectives and opportunities for the circular economy.

For these reasons, various governments across the world are adopting favorable regulations and policies to promote the sustainability and biodegradability of bioplastics. This is one of the key drivers of the market that explains its growth in recent years. For example, the European Union launched a public consultation on this topic in January. The US government announced its plastic pollution control programs, in February, which include increased research, development and buyer/consumer awareness of bioplastics. Currently, bioplastics account for about 1% of the approximately 360 million tonnes of plastic produced annually.

However, bioplastic production has its limits and still needs to be further developed in order to have a neutral environmental impact, especially when looking at the life cycle of materials. Indeed, the production of bioplastics sometimes requires intensive land use, often combined with the use of fertilizers and pesticides. To transform organic material into plastic, chemical treatments are also necessary. An example is B-PET (bio-based polyethylene terephthalate), a hybrid plastic derived from sugar cane, which combines the negative impacts of agriculture and chemical processing. In addition, bioplastics generally require high-temperature industrial composting facilities to decompose, which very few cities have. In this case, recycling or decomposition is limited. Finally, bioplastics are also relatively expensive. For example, PLA (polylactic acid) can be 20-50% more expensive than comparable materials due to the complex process used to convert maize or sugar cane, while it is less robust than fossil fuel-based polymers.

In response to this, several groups and start-ups are trying to innovate in this field, notably by selecting raw materials. This is the case of the Californian start-up Mango Materials, which creates bioplastic from the methane gas of wastewater treatment plants or landfills. Similarly, Made of air uses forest and farm waste to produce bioplastics. Fundraising is also accelerating in this sector. In December 2021, UBQ materials, which produces bio-based thermoplastic materials from 100% unsorted household waste, raised a $170 million funding round. The solution substitutes oil-based plastics, wood, or metal in various applications: construction, automotive, logistics, retail, 3D printing. Other startups focus on the other end of the value chain, on decomposition or recycling. This is the case of TIPA, which manufactures bio-based and fully compostable packaging for the food and fashion industry. The materials decompose in the same way as food waste, within a maximum of 180 days.

Finally, biomaterials, and especially bioplastics, represent a growing opportunity for the future to limit the use of fossil resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Although they are not yet capable of replacing all the different uses of plastics (resistance to humidity, temperature, breakability, etc.) and their impact on the environment is questionable when the entire value chain is taken into account, a great deal of progress has been made in recent years. The market is growing and initiatives from startups are flourishing, which is a good omen for the future.

2 Key Figures

The global bioplastics market is projected to reach $16.8 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 11.5% from 2021 to 2030

It was valued at $5.8 billion in 2020 – Allied Market Research

 $561M raised in the last 2 years by waste-based bioplastics

Tracxn

3 startups to draw inspiration from

Made of air

The Berlin startup has developed a bioplastic made of forest and farm waste that sequesters carbon and can be used for everything from furniture to building facades. The recyclable material is 90% carbon and stores around two tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent for every tonne of plastic, more than it emits throughout its lifecycle.

UBQ materials

The Israeli cleantech startup converts unsorted household waste into a bio-based thermoplastic composite. The product is a raw material that can substitute wood, concrete, or oil-based plastics in the manufacturing of durable products.

TIPA

The Israeli startup manufactures bio-based and fully compostable packaging for the food and fashion industry. The material used for the packaging is a patent-protected sheet combining plant-based and petroleum-based composition which decomposes under compost conditions in 180 days.

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123Fab #79

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

In early March, the price of natural gas in Europe hit an all-time high due to tensions between Ukraine and Russia, reaching €345 per megawatt-hour. In response, the EU proposed the REPowerEU plan, to increase the resilience of its energy system, and plans to cut imports from Russia by two-thirds this year. Alternative energy sources like solar, hydrogen and next-generation nuclear are in the spotlight. To that extent, solar is seen as one of the fastest replacements for Russia’s supply. The Commission estimates that by accelerating the rollout of rooftop solar photovoltaic systems to 15TWh this year, the EU could save an additional 2.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas (155 bcm of gas was imported from Russia in 2021). Overall, solar energy seems to be an essential way for Europe to wean itself off Russian gas and it has become a priority for governments in a very short time. Start-ups and players in the sector have understood this well.

Solar energy is already well represented in the European energy mix, reaching a record 10% of total electricity last summer with a 34% increase in solar PV capacity compared to 2020. It is particularly popular with companies and individuals for its profitability. In 2020, 16% of the French photovoltaic park was composed of residential roofs, with a power of less than 9 kWp. Depending on the technology of the panels used, their power, the geographical area of implantation, the orientation, the inclination or the materials of the solar kit, the yield of the photovoltaic panels can vary from 6 to 24%. This puts them slightly below wind turbine efficiencies, which vary from 20 to 35%. The issue of efficiency is closely related to the recurring questions about the reliability of solar panels. Indeed, any change in the availability and intensity of sunlight has an impact. Technology has addressed this issue with battery storage options for off-grid systems. By storing excess solar energy in batteries, energy can continue to be distributed when there is no sun to power the panels.

Startups have played a key role in this sector in providing answers to the various limitations of solar panels, especially from a BtoC perspective. This is the case of Pika Energy, acquired in 2019 by Generac, which offers a complete platform dedicated to energy management and storage. The startup ensures an efficient flow of energy between the smart battery, the solar cells and the building, to produce energy continuously. Another well-known limitation to the efficiency of photovoltaics is the dust and dirt that can accumulate on the solar panels. In response to this, the startup Pellucere has developed the MoreSun product, which adds an anti-reflection and anti-fouling silica screen to solar panels. Field tests of the startup’s solution have shown energy gains ranging from 3.5% to 4.1%. Another startup, Inti-Tech has developed semi-autonomous and autonomous cleaning systems that clean solar farms without the need for infrastructure changes, with absolutely no water and fewer people than traditional cleaning methods.

The growing need for solar energy is also leading to increased fundraising in the sector, notably through the creation of funds dedicated to the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, such as Gaia Impact Fund or Energy Transition Ventures. Germany-based company Enpal has raised the most venture capital so far, following a €150 million investment by Japanese venture capital fund SoftBank six months ago. Its BtoC solution is full stack: it sources its solar panels, modules, batteries and inverters directly from China, employs all the installers and has also created its own software. Another startup, Otovo, raised €30m in February. Its solution is a kind of marketplace: Otovo does not install its own solar panels but instead uses local contractors.

It seems that the crisis in Ukraine has been an accelerator for renewable energies, and in particular solar energy. Green energy has jumped really quickly from the ESG budget to the national security budget. This is especially true for countries that were highly dependent on eastern energy, such as Germany, where total solar PV capacity reached 59 gigawatts in 2021 and is expected to rise to 200 gigawatts in 2030. This opens many doors for players in the sector, especially in the installation and recycling of these solar panels, which will become a central issue for the next decade.

2 Key Figures

The solar energy market is expected to reach $200 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 20% between 2020 and 2026 

It was estimated to be worth $50 billion in 2019 – GlobeNewswire

+1,300 Funding Rounds in solar energy

In the last 10 years – Tracxn 2021

3 startups to draw inspiration from

Inti-Tech

The chilean startup has developed an electro-mechanic device to make more efficient the operation of solar photovoltaic plants. It offers an automatic, high-frequency and eco-friendly cleaning service to stop the efficiency loss caused by dirt over the surface of PV modules. One robot per array of panels is permanently installed to clean with no human intervention.

Enpal

The German startup uses AI for provisioning and installing solar panels. The whole provisioning part of the installation is done remotely with AI-based algorithm. An app allows consumers to measure their energy gathering, storage and consumption, and to pay for services. They pay rent on the solar panels and for the all-round service.

Otovo

The Norwegian startup connects solar energy installers with homeowners who want to put solar panels on their roof. The solution analyses the potential of any home and finds the best price and installer for customers based on an automatic bidding process between available installers. Otovo has more than 12,000 customers and expects to add 10,000 new customers in 2022.

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