Article “La Tribune” : OliKrom wins the Aquitaine Regional Accelerator

Regional Accelerator: who are the winning startups of the 1st promotion?

The new acceleration program founded by the New Aquitaine Region, called Up Grade, unveiled this Monday evening the names of the 5 high-potential startups that will benefit from its support.

Scaling up and fully tackling the international market: this is a systematically complex phase for all startups that aim to go from startups to scale-ups, and thus leave the status of a “small” company to achieve more important commercial ambitions. The lack of tools identified by ecosystem players has led to the creation by the Regional Council of New Aquitaine, as part of its Start-up Region roadmap, of an acceleration program dedicated to nuggets seeking to optimize their growth, especially internationally. Called Up Grade, this program completes the existing support and financing chain. It was built by the Unitec technology park, which is also in charge of running it. More specifically, its activity is based on 3 points:

• Accelerate the commercial deployment of supported startups in France and abroad
• Put in place the skills and organizations (HR, production, quality, legal) to enable them to meet the demand and secure the company
• To obtain the necessary financial resources to carry out these actions and to consolidate these companies in the region

Directed by Perrine Laquèche, Up Grade is aimed at startups under 6 years old, “with international ambitions and scale” whose products or services have already begun to be commercialized in high-potential markets, and who have a solid team. The acceleration program, which is mainly individualized, will support startups for 12 months. In addition to the support of “startup managers” who will help the nuggets in their development, the Regional Council has brought together several experts and partners who will contribute their skills, including the Banque Populaire Aquitaine Centre Atlantique, Ventury Avocats, EY, CIC Sud-Ouest, Fidal, KPMG, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Development and Innovation Agency, Bpifrance, and the French National Institute of Intellectual Property…

The five startups of the first Up Grade class were presented this Monday evening at the Centre Condorcet in Pessac, headquarters of the Unitec technology park, by Alain Rousset, President of the Regional Council of New Aquitaine and François Salin, Vice-President of Unitec. They are:

Dynvibe

Based in Pessac, Gironde, Dynvice is one of the pioneers of what is called social media intelligence, in other words the analysis, transformation and concrete use of data from social media. A mine of information that is still under-exploited and that allows the company, through the different tools it markets, to position itself as a real observatory, in real time, of consumer trends. Founded by Anne-Cécile and Nicolas Guillemot, Dynvibe works with brands such as L’Oréal, LVMH, La Redoute… With 80% of its research conducted internationally, the company employs 17 people and has a turnover of more than 1 million euros (110% growth over the past 2 years).

Entomo Farm

Grégory Louis and Clément Soulier created Entomo Farm in 2014, after being among the winners of the 101 Projects competition. The two co-founders are pursuing the goal of creating an agricultural and industrial sector in France around the insect, with services ranging from breeding, industrial transformation of these insects into flour, oils and biostimulants. Founded in the suburbs of Bordeaux, Entomo Farm has moved to Libourne on a pilot site of 4.000 m2. Employing 30 people, it is currently seeking to develop and structure a network of partner farmers who will have the mission, in return for a fee, to ensure the breeding of insects in addition to their activity. To this end, it recently signed a partnership with Ovalie Innovation, the R&D subsidiary of the two major cooperative groups Maïsadour and Vivadour.

Evolving on the cybersecurity market, Eshard publishes analysis and validation software protecting embedded solutions. Working for players in the finance, defense, aeronautics and connected objects sectors, the company analyzes the risk and security of their products and identifies solutions to improve their protection. Based in Martillac near Bordeaux, but also in Marseille and Singapore, Eshard has developed a special expertise in securing embedded software, in particular by analyzing the level of security of consumer connected objects and the compliance of mobile applications. Eshard was founded by Hugues Thiebeauld and Georges Gagnerot, who have just been joined by a new partner, Jean-Luc Khaou, and is heavily involved in R&D in the fight against computer attacks and hacking.

OliKrom

The startup from Pessac, near Bordeaux, has developed intelligent pigments. More precisely, they change color, reversibly or not, depending on changes in temperature, pressure or light. The technological breakthrough proposed by OliKrom opens up infinite fields: aeronautical parts whose paint changes color when it has been overheated or subjected to too much stress, walls that change color depending on how the sun hits them, road markings that capture daylight and restore it at night. Olikrom, profitable since its first month thanks to a long period of technology transfer and maturation perfectly executed by its founder Jean-François Létard, employs 14 people and sees many large groups knocking at its door. The company has chosen to design and produce its own inks and industrial paints made from its intelligent pigments.

Rhinov

The startup, based in Poitiers since 2013 and also installed in Bègles for more than a year, is now one of the “heavyweight” startups in the Bordeaux metropolis with a total staff of 43 people. Rhinov offers Internet users, who send it a plan or photos, to obtain 3D interior design simulations carried out by professional interior decorators, for 99 €. Created by Xavier Brissonneau and Bastien Paquereau, Rhinov currently registers 1,300 projects each month on its website. Rhinov initially targeted professionals, with a BtoB offer launched in 2014 and an online interior design service to enhance the potential of properties requiring design or decoration work. It opened its service to individuals last year, providing its immersive services as well as the list of furniture, objects… used for 3D projections, with prices and links to merchant sites

Link to article La Tribune.fr from Mikaël Lozano