CES La Vegas 2023 is held from Thursday to Sunday.
This show is the best-known global event in the new technologies sector, an opportunity for companies and start-ups to present their innovations.
Neoplants, born in 2018, in the Station F incubator in Paris, is about to offer its first indoor depolluting plant.
For the two co-founders, their message is clear: “Biology is the most advanced technology in the world and it must tomorrow be part of the solutions to fight against global warming.
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“For too long, advances in technology have come at the expense of our environment.
Our team considers nature to be the most sophisticated technology, immediately poses Lionel Mora, CEO and co-founder of Neoplants.
It is now essential to use our human talent by innovating in order to consider it as an ally and to work with it, rather than to consume it.
To achieve this, he therefore imagined with his sidekick Patrick Torbey, CTO in charge of R & D, an innovative product, within the Entrepreneur First incubator at Station F in Paris: the depolluting plant for the house or office, whose DNA has been modified to capture not only CO2, but also the four main indoor air pollutants.
After four years of research, Neoplants is about to offer pre-order during the first quarter of 2023, the first product in its range: the Neo P1.
This biotechnological plant must enter the world at CES in Las Vegas where the two co-founders have planned to present it.
“It's a breakthrough innovation that combines deeptech, biotech and is aimed at the general public.
We don't fit into any box, ”analyzes Lionel Mora again.
He is counting on this tech summit to spread his message: “Biology is the most advanced technology in the world and it must tomorrow be part of the solutions to fight against global warming.
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"Working on a project that makes sense, with a positive impact"
The two bosses of the Neoplants start-up met in September 2018 and the idea immediately took shape.
“I learned to use genome editing techniques, which allow you to change the genetics of an organism, to add or remove characteristics.
I wanted to show the power of these tools to have a positive impact in the world and in people's lives,” says Patrick Torbey, who holds a doctorate in genetics from the Ecole Normale Supérieure on rue d'Ulm.
For his part, Lionel Mora was coming out of four years at Google in London, where he worked on the launch of new product categories.
“As a good self-respecting Millennial, I wanted to work on a project that makes sense, with a positive impact.
At the time, we had very beautiful plants around us at Station F, and the click happened very quickly while talking.
For us, the noblest and most powerful function to give to plants was to purify the air.
We never got back from that conversation.
Neoplants was born.
A laboratory in Saint-Ouen about to open
Then began four years of development for the two entrepreneurs, marked by a first fundraiser in the summer of 2019 and a second in the summer of 2021. “The beginnings were complicated, we had no resources, Patrick squatted the labs students for research," recalls Lionel Mora.
A first partnership with the Paris-Saclay Institute of Plant Biology enables them to move forward.
"It was a real chance to rub shoulders with French public research teams on a daily basis and to benefit from the infrastructures made available for three years", continues the co-founder of Neoplants.
“From our first fundraiser, we had the luxury of being able to choose our investors, and in particular a Silicon Valley fund, True Ventures, which had never invested in a French start-up.
At that time, our main objective was to prove that our idea was technically viable”, adds Lionel Mora.
Two years later, Neoplants launches its second fundraising for a project about to be realized: to open its own headquarters in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis) and build one of the most advanced biotechnology laboratories.
"There are now almost 25 of us and it was important for us to plan for the longer term in independent premises", further specifies the CEO.
Why will Neo P1 not be available in France?
If they claim that their "neoplants" are indeed tech products, the two entrepreneurs do not lose sight of their main objective.
“Today, we are developing the first generation of biotechnological plants, which are not only capable of capturing but also of eliminating pollutants from the air.
The idea is to use this first use case to develop the fundamental technologies, and then move from indoors to outdoors, from air quality to climate,” they recall.
OUR FILE THESE las vegas
But impossible for the moment to find the Neo P1 in France in 2023, the first product stamped Neoplants will be launched on the American market.
“European regulation currently takes three and a half to four years from the filing of the marketing authorization file.
Which is an eternity for a box like us, regrets Patrick Torbey.
We are two French founders, now with a laboratory and all R & D based in France, we bring in talent from all over the world, but we can't wait that long to market our product.
"Even if the French Tech Green20 program, of which we are a part, brings us a lot, it is much more pragmatic to launch ourselves in the United States, where regulation is only done on scientific bases,
game
”, adds Lionel Mora.
While waiting for the Neo P1 to arrive on our side of the Atlantic, plant lovers, who regularly kill them with over or under watering, can draw inspiration from the user experience of Neoplants.
“We added a reservoir in the pot, which has two functions: to maximize the exchange of air between the plant and the substrate and to allow watering independently for two weeks”.
In short, the perfect solution to reduce the risk of mortality of our dear plants by 90 to 95%, according to Neoplants experts.
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