00:00Et maintenant, nous allons passer à l'entreprise tech solutions pour une meilleure future.
00:04Merit Dendez joins nous pour notre segment, Tech4Change.
00:15Et Merit, vous n'avez pas seulement les solutions, vous aussi vous avez un guest pour nous.
00:20Absolument.
00:21Hi Marjorie, je suis absolument heureux de vous présenter Lionel Mara ici sur le set.
00:25Il est le co-founder et le CEO de Neoplans.
00:29Neoplans est l'un des 18 projets featured dans l'impact mile ici à Viva Tech.
00:34Et je ne suis pas exageré quand je dis que cette company a été making international headlines pour l'année
00:39dernière.
00:40So, nous devons trouver un peu plus d'entre eux.
00:42Absolument.
00:43Je peux voir ce qui est ici.
00:45C'est ici.
00:46C'est growing.
00:46C'est alive.
00:47C'est un parfait segue.
00:48Parce qu'il a l'air comme un normal, living plant.
00:51Et c'est en many ways.
00:52Mais c'est pas exactement votre typical plant.
00:55Lionel, peut-être que vous parlez un peu plus de ça.
00:56Oui, nous travaillons sur la première génération de plantes qui sont bio-enginées pour purifier l'air.
01:02Donc, nous travaillons both sur le métabolisme et sur le microbiome de l'air.
01:08Un de nos produits est équivalent à 30 réguliers d'air d'air d'air d'air d'air d
01:14'air d'air.
01:15Now, if we think about why, we often think about pollution outside, like when I leave my house, I think,
01:19oh gosh, you know, I'm running and now I'm getting all these pollutants.
01:22But indoor pollution is a real problem.
01:24Can you explain to us a little bit about the problem and what this plant tackles in particular?
01:29Yes.
01:30Indoor air pollution is up to five times higher than outdoors, where it's already quite bad.
01:35And as on average, we spend about 90% of our time indoors, this makes indoor air pollution a serious
01:41issue.
01:41And it leads to asthma, allergies, cancers and millions of premature deaths every year.
01:46And you were just telling me earlier, where do these pollutants come from?
01:48Because I was thinking, oh, my house is pretty clean, but in fact, all houses are affected.
01:52Yeah, exactly.
01:54So we target the four main pollutants, which are called VOCs, for volatile organic compounds.
01:59And they are constantly emitted from a lot of things we have indoors.
02:02Paints on the walls, pieces of furniture, or even household products that we use on a daily basis.
02:07So tell us a bit about this technology.
02:09So it's bioengineered without having a science degree.
02:13Tell us a bit what you do to make these plants suck out some of that pollution.
02:17So today we look in nature for organisms that are able to not only capture these pollutants, but to use
02:24them to grow.
02:25And we take out the DNA sequences from these organisms, and we insert that within the plant so that it
02:32develops these fantastic capabilities.
02:35So that's the first part.
02:36The second part is adding some of these microorganisms around and inside the plant to supercharge its air purification capacity.
02:45I don't know about you, Marjorie, but I would like a plant that's, like, having a double impact in my
02:49home.
02:49I mean, absolutely.
02:50I'm definitely seeing my home suites on in such a different light right now.
02:55I'm, like, okay, trying to review in my head every single piece of furniture or painting that I need to
03:01get rid of.
03:02Or maybe I need a plant.
03:04Absolutely.
03:05I'm just wondering, though, you know, when I go to the nursery sometimes,
03:07I see, like, different tags of not bioengineered plants that are saying, oh, this one helps purify your air.
03:13Does this, does it, do we need this?
03:16So one of our products is equivalent to up to 30 plants of the best described air purifying plant out
03:25there.
03:26The problem with these plants is that not only are they fairly inefficient at capturing the pollutants,
03:32but they don't know what to do with them.
03:35So they will end up storing the pollutants in the cell and accumulate them, and then they can't do anything.
03:40Our plants don't capture only the pollutants, but they use them and recycle them, turn them into useful compounds.
03:47And that's the power of it.
03:50I was thinking about this project, and I thought, just one thing, is developing a technology like this,
03:56which is obviously very useful, slowing down progress in not having those pollutants in that furniture,
04:02in those different household products, oh, we can just suck it out so we continue business as usual.
04:06Is there a risk that that could happen?
04:09What I think is that, first of all, we have to change the way we live.
04:14And I think it's maybe weird to say it at a big tech conference, but this is the starting point
04:21for everyone.
04:22Once we agree on this, then comes innovation, because there is existing problems that we have to fix anyway.
04:28And what we are bringing is solutions that are sustainable by design,
04:34that use nature, that work with nature to bring something, to bring a solution to a very large-scale problem.
04:41So we have to work, complement each other, kind of change our way of life, and have tech come to
04:46the forefront as well.
04:47And have I got time for a final question, Marjorie?
04:49Absolutely. Final question.
04:50Where are you in this startup adventure?
04:53And this is your first time at VivaTech.
04:54What are you looking for here?
04:56So we've been around for more than four years and a half,
04:59and we aim at launching and shipping the very first batches of plants at the end of this year in
05:06the U.S.
05:07We would like as many people as possible to take a look at our new website, neoplants.com,
05:12and maybe join the wait list for this first product, Neop1.
05:15Just one last question. Can it die?
05:18That was definitely my question, though.
05:20Because, I mean, I'm so bad at keeping plants inside my home sweet home again.
05:24I mean, I've got to make it die.
05:25Yeah, but this is it.
05:26I will. I know.
05:27It's the same for me, don't worry.
05:29And so we made it so that the final product is sold into what we call the shell,
05:33which has a water reservoir.
05:35So if you actually forget about your plant for 20 days, it's not a problem.
05:39The plant won't die.
05:40And we estimate that we solve 98% of the watering problems out there in the world.
05:48So it's okay. It's fine for you.
05:51Well, it is guaranteed.
05:52Thank you so much, Diane.
05:53Thank you so much, Marit.
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