A dynamic activity
Founded in 1991, INPG Entreprise SA is the private subsidiary of Grenoble Institute of Technology.
It is the third company specialised in the transfer of technology of a University ever created in France.
Our core activities cover three complementary business segments: consultancy and research contracts that enable our industrial clients to explore the latest scientific innovations, promotion of business applications stemming from international level research, support to licences or patents and particularly capital investment in high-tech start-up companies. In July 2008, INPG Entreprise SA became the first company specialised in transfer of technology to be approved at a national level. As a result our clients are now allowed to double their crédit d'impôt recherche (special research tax credit) introduced CEO Henri-Marc Michaud.
The turnover of the successful 6-employee-company reached 8 M€ in 2010 (1m€ in 2004).
From 100 to 120 business projects are examined every year by IESA investment committee and only 2 to 3 projects are selected and supported in different ways including capital investment.
Almost all selected start-up companies were granted national prizes from France's higher education and research ministry which promotes business innovation. INPG Entreprise SA is now recognized as a major detector of highly promising start-up organisations.
Innovation is very dynamic in France but investment in favor of starting companies is critical explained Jean-Louis Brunet, president of Business Angels of Grenoble.
Innovation is the meeting of an idea and a market. INPG Entreprise SA is at the service of the researchers and students of Grenoble Institute of Technology. It fosters innovation and professionalizes business creation.
This activity has been largely developed since 2004. Our target is to reach a portfolio of 50 start-up companies by the next 10 years! concluded Paul Jacquet, head of Grenoble Institute of Technology.
Acerde, presented by founder and CEO Didier Pique
Acerde is the leader of the manufacturing of refractory metals and ceramics, based on a HTCVD (High Temperature Chemical Vapor Deposition) process. Applications are numerous and all related to very high temperature, extreme wear or chemical resistance.
Didier Pique graduated from ENS Electrochemistry and Electrometallurgy and received his Ph.D. in Materials (Grenoble Institute of Technology-SIMAP) in 1983. He created ACERDE in 2006.
Calixar, presented by co-founder and CEO Emmanuel Dejean
CALIXAR helps pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies as well as academic life sciences organizations to preserve and resolve the original structure of proteins during target discovery stage. CALIXAR provides a range of services based on innovative technologies for production, extraction, solubilization, purification, stabilization and crystallization of functional membrane proteins / antigens. It was created in January 2011 and INP Entreprise SA joined CALIXAR team as both investor and member of the strategic committee.
DeFactoTechnologies, presented by par Roger Billiet, financial manager
DeFacTo Technologies is an innovative chip design software company developing breakthrough technology to dramatically enhance the DFT process and increase the testability of integrated circuits (ICs) and systems on a chip (SoCs).
Design processing technologies, presented by leader Eliane Bigeon
Design Processing Technologies was created in 2002. It provides software solutions and services to world industry to help with the design during predimensioning and feasibility studies' stages in which 80 % of the risks on the production costs are committed.
Thanks to code generation and trial and error automation process, software Pro@DESIGN allows savings of time for a 3 to 10 factor in preliminary design.
Eveon, presented par Vincent Tempelaere, chairman
Created in December 2008, Eveon dedicates itself to the design of innovative injection medical devices based on the needs and specifications of pharmaceutical and biotech laboratories.Grenoble Institute of Technology and laboratory IMEP-LAHC have been co-partners to the Eveon research projects from the start.
H3C Energies, presented by head Jean-Charles Colas-Roy
The company is specialised in energy auditing, carbon footprint estimations, renewable and new energy system feasibility studies (solar thermal and photovoltaic, wood energy, combined heat and power...) and assistance for setting up and monitoring of operation and maintenance contracts. H3C Energies also offers assistance for High Environmental Quality projects (HQE) for existing and new buildings and economical and contractual assessments for optimization of energy supply contract.
« We were 4 friend engineers at Grenoble Institute of Technology and we decided to create a company specialised in energy. We launched the project in 2004. Today H3C Energies has 80 employees and we've just won a prestigious project with Château de Versailles after a recent business with Aéroports de Paris... » concluded leader Jean-Charles Colas-Roy.
Hydroquest, presented by CEO Jean-François Simon
Hydroquest was created in 2010. It designs, manufactures and supplies complete water turbine farms for rivers, estuaries, man-made channels and oceans. The Hydroquest water turbines are derived from the HARVEST concept and use the hydrokinetic energy of water streams. The result of ten year multidisciplinary R&D in collaboration with Grenoble Institute of Technology and EDF, Hydroquest energy solutions offer many advantages compared with other hydrokinetic alternatives.
Kapteos, presented by CEO Lionel Duvillaret
Kapteos is a spin-off company of IMEP-LAHC laboratory: it was founded in November 2009. It develops optical solutions for electric field and temperature measurements at the state-of-the-art for B2B markets including energy, medical and defence sectors. Based on miniature pigtailed optical probes, Kapteos sensors permit to make non invasive electric field measurements from quasi DC up to 18 GHz and for magnitude up to several MV/m.
Luxol, presented by president Jean-Baptiste Chevrier
LUXOL imagined a technology which enable to integrate photovoltaic elements into standard building products such as tiles. LUXOL has developed a highly efficient crystalline silicon cells encapsulation process into non flat surfaces, such as standard roof tiles. The technology offers to the Building Integrated Photovoltaic market a traditional building element that can be installed within the roofers' state of the art. The LUXOL photovoltaic tile is aesthetic, perfectly integrated with no risk of water leakage. The installation is quick and easy and avoids any change of the roof skeleton.
Qualirec 38 SA, presented by director Pierre-Michel Blanco
The company was created in the 1990s and is known throughout Europe for its expertise in the recycling of big bags used in the chemical industry. Awarded ISO 9001 certification the start-up recycles waste from large industrial groups. Qualirec 38 also has an exemplary social commitment and employs people in difficult situations for a maximum of 2 years. The target is to allow rapid re-integration into the labour market..
Recupyl, presented by Gérard Veillon, former vice-president of department « business promotion » - Grenoble Institute of Technology.
Recupyl has developed an innovative recycling technology based on hydrometallurgy that reduces the environmental impact of the recycling process. With operations in France, Poland, Italy, Spain, Singapore, and the US, Recupyl has carved out a leading position in the global Battery & Accumulator recycling market. Recupyl's focus on innovation is backed by extensive R&D and a broad patent portfolio. Recupyl demonstrated that nuggets could be extracted from waste! concluded Gérard Veillon.
Sleepinnov, presented by president Jérôme Argod
Founded in 2003, Sleepinnov provides expertise in the field of sleep-related disorders and the associated cardiovascular consequences and daytime functioning impairment. They offer medical, technical and logistic expertise and consultancy plus leading products such as the BlueNight® Oximeter: a portable system including an oximeter sensor and a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant).
Tiempo, presented by president Serge Maginot
Tiempo was founded on July 2007 by Serge Maginot, former R&D director at Synopsys, Inc. and former general manager of Leda S.A., and Marc Renaudin, former professor at Grenoble INP and former head of the CIS research group of the TIMA Laboratory (research labs from Grenoble Institute of Technology, CNRS and Joseph Fourier University).
Tiempo offers a technology for the design of asynchronous and delay insensitive integrated circuits.The circuits are fully clockless, meaning that they are self-controlled and their behaviour is governed by signal transition handshakes and signal levels memorization. Because the circuits do not rely on a knowledge of timing, functional correctness is ensured regardless of any actual delay through gates and wires. This makes Tiempo's circuits very resistant to perturbations that traditionally impact timing, such as the manufacturing process, or changes in voltage or temperature.
Vesta-System, presented by founder and CEO Xavier Brunotte
Vesta-System was incorporated in 2011. Its technology emerged from the G-SCOP and G2Elab laboratories. Their key vision is that another step to address the global energy and environmental challenge may be cleared providing adapted and innovating energy software solutions to optimize power systems, from design to management.
Special thanks to all participants and organisers - particularly staff from INPG Entreprise SA - who made the day a success!