Context 

Industries are facing increasing pressure to reduce their carbon footprint swiftly.

Conducting a carbon footprint assessment is a starting point, as it allows to amount the company’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), compare them to established benchmarks and devise a robust decarbonization trajectory.

Aster Fab was missioned to conduct the company’s carbon assessment (scope 1, scope 2 & scope 3) and support in the establishment of their decarbonization trajectory.

Mission

• Definition of the organizational perimeter and operational scope 
• Data collection carried out in coordination with the client-side data collector (scope 1, scope 2, scope 3)
• Formulation of assumptions for missing emission factors
• Emission calculation and input of data into a structured table
• Creation of graphs to highlight the most important sources of emissions
• Recommendations on the action levers to reduce the carbon footprint and establishment of the client’s decarbonization trajectory

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Context 

Our client has long been a leading manufacturer of machinery for the construction, agricultural and logistics sectors.

More specifically, in recent years, the group has been developing electric machinery. Within the framework of this strategic orientation, our client has a double challenge: to invest in innovative technologies and to develop its electric vehicle business in order to present a competitive offer that meets the market’s needs.

Aster Fab’s mission was to support our client in the closing of a deal with a modular battery startup. In addition, Aster Fab has been commissioned to work on other M&A deals carried out by the group.

Mission

• Valuation of the startup using five different methods (comparable company analysis, precedent transactions, DCF analysis, R&D headcount, replacement cost value)
• Structuring the acquisition proposal by drafting the letter of intent setting out the terms, governance, management package, performance criteria, etc
• Assistance, coordination and negotiation with all stakeholders throughout the process until the completion of the transaction
• Support in the preparation of separate documents for the governance bodies: Audit Comittee, Strategic Committee and Board of Directors
• Coordination of the due diligence and the closing of the deal

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Context 

In a context of growing importance of EVs, our client’s core business (lubricant supplier) in thermal systems was set to be disrupted.

Driven by the belief that startups are a goldmine for its profound transformation, the client’s Innovation department wanted to explore the opportunity of creating a CVC.

Aster Fab’s mission was to support the client in its thinking and design the presentation to the board.

Mission

The final deliverable was structured in 4 steps:

• Benchmark and best practices to give the client food for thought on the variety of CVCs that exist and their key performance indicators.
• Investment strategy and thesis to support the client in defining these two key elements. On the one hand, we helped the client define the investment criteria (startup maturity, geography, portfolio model, ticket size, etc). On the other hand, we fine-tuned the topics of interest to reach a higher level of granularity.
• Structure and governance to support the client in the architecture of the CVC fund. Topics included fund size, level of independence, legal status, governance operating model, processes, document templates, etc.
• Calendar for structuring the workflows for the launch of the CVC.

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Context 

In a context of growing pressure on the grid, the Innovation department of a major European Transmission System Operator (TSO) wanted to set its innovation priorities for the coming year.

Convinced that the work done internally lacked methodology, Aster Fab’s was asked to map all the technologies of strategic focus.

Mission

We carried out a study into four steps:

• A megatrend analysis to paint a complete picture of all megatrends impacting TSOs in the short and long term. By combining this analysis with the group’s strategy, we were able to identify all the associated challenges for our client.
• Technology analysis to scout and navigate through the technologies to address these challenges. Through this analysis, we were able to prioritize and categorize the technologies and sub-technologies.
• Technology map to present in a visual way to the board the technologies of focus. 5 clusters, 27 technologies and 140 sub-technologies were mapped.
• Prospective analysis on 10 selected sub-technologies to give our client a first flavour of potential applications, the startups operating in the space and other weak signals of interest.

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Institut Choiseul – The new conquerors of the economy

It is a study carried out independently by the Institut Choiseul. It identifies, lists and ranks the 150 leading companies that are conquering their markets and highlights their leaders. The New Conquerors of the Economy ranking pays tribute to the structures that lie between the start-up nation and the CAC 40 companies. To carry out this ambitious and unique study, the Choiseul Institute called on numerous experts and screened several hundred companies in order to establish a ranking that respects the major geographical and sectoral balances.

The partners

Within the framework of Choiseul – The New Conquerors of the Economy, the Institut Choiseul has benefited from the support of partners whom we would like to thank: Forbes, Antidox, Aster Fab, BNP Paribas, BNP Paribas Banque Privée, BNP Paribas Développement, Mawenzi Partners and Progress Associés.

The support and confidence of all these players were essential to the completion of our work, the publication and distribution of this unique and innovative ranking.

We are delighted to be part of LeadershIP4SMEs, an EU research project under H2020, which aims to help IP-centric startups & SMEs better leverage their IP assets to access adequate funding.

Intellectual property rights (IPR) can be an ignored value due to intangibility and missing ways / methods to consider it for the funding and investment of SMEs and start-ups. The EU-funded LEADERSHIP4SMEs project will support innovative SMEs and start-ups to improve and strengthen, and thus valorize their IPR, facilitating their access to adequate funding that is vital to their growth. The project will set a platform of specific tools to:

• Strategically manage and place IPR in the business model and plan to attract
  funding;
• To define the most value-creating business strategy;
• To better value and protect their intangible assets;
• To generate business and encourage collaborations;
• As well as to help identifying financial guarantees, at regional, national and
  European level.

The platform relies on a compilation of the best practices in the domains of IPR management, business acceleration and funding that allows a better valuation of IPR and acts as an online hub of support from IPR, innovation and business support, and private and public funding and cooperation.

In addition to the implementation of this platform, a support program for startups and SMEs is being deployed, with the aim of operationally helping beneficiaries to effectively leverage their IP assets to stimulate their growth.

The LEADERSHIP4SMEs consortium is made up of 8 European partners with complementary expertise about intellectual property protection and the financing of companies with high growth potential: Aster, BCR, bwcon, Bugnion, CNRS Innovation, Iceberg, INNOVA, KMU Forschung Austria.

Context 

As part of its transformation efforts, our client had developed a series of digital initiatives to deliver added value to its clients. In particular, it had tested digital twin solutions with a few clients, but had not defined the commercial model for these services.

In this context, our client wanted to undertake a reflection around the ways to integrate digital services into its offering and define a pricing model.

Mission

We organized a workshop to:

• Align the participants on the importance of monetizing and capturing the value of the services provided to its clients
• Provide a thorough and prospective view on market trends in digital twin business models to identify potential options
• Illustrated the case with business models of digital solution startups in the industry
• Frame a thinking canvas to help the client identify new business models to test with its clients

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10+ people

We helped our client to acculturate 20 team members to Digital Twin services.

1st offer

We helped our client to launch its first Digital Twin offer in Q4 2020.

Context 

The rise of digital technologies has not only driven change in cities but has also helped reshape our interactions with our environment and the places where we live and work: it has allowed us to move from a very linear pace of life – where one activity is done in a place dedicated to it – to a more fragmented conception – where a single place must be able to accommodate multiple activities. The recent pandemic, with its impact on our mobility, has certainly been a catalyst for this trend. Homes have been turned into workstations, offices are suddenly depleted, stores adopted click & collect or adapted their delivery supply chains, and so on so forth.

Our client, a major French player in the construction industry, wanted to investigate how the hybridization of buildings could enhance the potential use of buildings.

The mission

We carried out a deep dive study divided into three steps:

• A market study to paint a complete picture of all the megatrends related to building hybridization. We defined this blurry notion, and analyzed what market characteristics are (new business models, technologies, use cases)
• A startup landscape to identify the innovative players driving the hybridization market forward, with their own definition and approach
• A startup scoring to establish recommendations on the most relevant options for collaboration (R&D agreement, commercial partnership, investment, acquisition, etc.)

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