Nestled in the heart of a small business area in Hyères, the very discreet startup Wise-integration could well revolutionize the daily lives of electric bike enthusiasts.
The company co-founded in 2020 by four employees and ex-employees of the CEA of Grenoble is an offshoot of the Leti laboratory, specializing in miniaturization technologies. And caught the eye of the Savoye Group which develops electric bikes.
“We took the challenge of manufacturing new types of components that improve the efficiency of electric chargers, by dividing the heat emitted during charging by three”explains Thierry Bouchet, engineer and doctor on leave from the CEA for business creation, CEO and co-founder alongside Dominique Bergogne, Florian Couvin and Rym Hamoumou.
To achieve this, the quartet, which relies on around ten patents – including part filed by the CEA – is banking on gallium nitride (GaN), a semiconductor different from lithium. Its characteristic is to emit less heat. “It is also rarer than silicon but we need very small quantities”adds the leader from Hyères.
Las Vegas CES
After a first proof of concept which did not go any further with a view to developing a wireless charger on behalf of the Ministry of Defense, Wise-integration had already entered into a contract, following the CES in 2020 in Las Vegas, with the German industrialist Hager, interested in creating a very powerful charger.
“But the maturity of the product was not sufficient. To go further, the company had to be more solid”specifies the entrepreneur.
The team therefore returned to CES in 2022 with, this time, a more successful product in its suitcases: an electric bike charger integrated into the battery on board the two-wheeler, which simply plugs into an outlet once you arrive at your destination or during a break. Enough to attract the Rhône-Alpes cycle manufacturer who ordered around a hundred chargers from the Var startup.
“Ultimately, we will only sell the components and the microcontroller program, but here we have produced the complete charger with a subcontractor from Rhône-Alpes”, continues Thierry Bouchet. Because this equipment can give real visibility to the company, in the midst of raising €10M to recruit and accelerate the marketing of its components.
“We are going to reach €500k in turnover, but only through the sale of products, after having done a lot of service.” Wise-integration hopes to achieve profitability by 2025 and is putting its control program, the digital heart of its innovation, on the market this year. “Which, added to the two components that we offer, will allow us to differentiate ourselves.”
Because from Hyères, the head office of the company of which the Region is a shareholder just like Super Nova and Leti, the startup targets four markets: the general public with chargers for various devices, mobility including electric cars, industrialists and their need for energy conversion and data centers.
If the production of microcontrollers is subcontracted to Taiwan, the team of twenty people, shared between Grenoble and Var, should quickly grow.