00:21Good morning, good morning, good morning, everyone.
00:27Yes, I have a lot of energy this morning.
00:30Welcome back to the Discovery Stage.
00:33Day 3, day 3, day 3.
00:36Yes, we are in.
00:38For those of you joining us for the first time today, welcome.
00:44My name is Eric.
00:45I'm your host for this stage.
00:47And for those of you watching us live, thank you for joining us.
00:52Yesterday, we covered energy, climates, and health.
00:58Today is bigger.
01:01Space, quantum, computing, AI, frontier technology.
01:07Things some people still call science fiction.
01:12They are wrong, ladies and gentlemen.
01:15Nine demos this morning, all in a tech beyond the obvious team.
01:21And this afternoon, we move to creative, cultural innovation, a full day.
01:28Ten minutes per startup.
01:30Real demos, real founders, live here at the Discovery Stage.
01:36Let's start with the first one.
01:38Our first guest is Nemesis Technology, a French startup.
01:42They built a smart actuator for satellites using shape memories,
01:49alloys a special metal that changes form on command.
01:54Their tools are what unlock antennas and solar panels once a satellite reaches orbit.
02:02Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Alain Auker and Fabia Villigue from Nemesis Technology.
02:13Gentlemen, the floor is yours.
02:16Hello, hello.
02:17How are you?
02:17Good morning.
02:21Good morning.
02:22Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
02:23Fabia Villigue, Nemesis Technology, and Alain Auker, our CEO, founder.
02:28We are happy to open the session today.
02:31We will start immediately with the demo because what matters is not only what we say,
02:36but also what you can see.
02:39So what you see here on the desk is a satellite mock-up.
02:43What we will show during the demo is the solar panel opening,
02:49so the deployment of the solar panel, what Nemesis Technology is developing,
02:53are mechanisms to open all various parts that move on a satellite,
02:59so either a solar panel, antennas for communication, masks, or some payloads.
03:08We have installed different actuators on the system,
03:12so the trigger time is slightly different.
03:14The technology is all the same.
03:16We are going to come to that in a minute.
03:20So now here was a show the satellite now, once launched, would be fully operational.
03:29So what did just happen?
03:32First, when you launch a spacecraft,
03:35what is very important is that all the moving parts are totally locked during the launch,
03:41because during launch, the vibration level can go up to 50 G,
03:45so in order to not destroy any of those parts, they need to be very firmly hold.
03:51Then there is a command, which is electrical in our case,
03:55so we heat our material, and then it unlocks the system for finally deploying the payload and the antenna,
04:05or in our case, the solar panel.
04:09So the actuators themselves are really small,
04:13but if they don't work, the whole mission can be either significantly compromised or even not work at all.
04:21If a satellite doesn't have the solar panel, it's not powered, and so it doesn't work.
04:27Connectivity.
04:28If the antenna is not deployed for a communication satellite, it's not communicating.
04:34It doesn't work.
04:35And also we support some various scientific missions with various payloads
04:39that need to be deployed, locked, unlocked, and so on.
04:44So if our systems are not working, the mission consequence can be extremely high,
04:50up to losing totally the functionality of the satellite.
04:56So today, there's already a lot of satellites in orbit.
05:00Legacy solutions are working.
05:04But now we are launching more and more small satellites, smaller satellites, bigger constellations,
05:11so the scalability has now new requirements.
05:14Legacy systems, some are pyrotechnic-based, they are providing some high shock,
05:19they are one-shot, and they have some handling constraints during testing on ground,
05:24but also during launch.
05:25There are some electromechanical systems, those ones have more parts,
05:29adding weight and volume on a satellite, which is highly expensive to send in orbit.
05:35There's also some other legacy thermal devices, which have more limited thermal window,
05:42because the alloy we are producing, we really adapted it specifically for orbit use,
05:48so that it's not triggered at a temperature that can be experienced in space.
05:54For instance, in low orbit, the satellite, whether it's in the sun or in the shape,
05:59can be exposed to minus 120 degrees C to plus 120 degrees C.
06:05So it's a huge range, and it needs to operate all time.
06:09So now the new space requirements are really, we need to have something that is compact,
06:14reliable, ground-testable, and exportable for sure,
06:18because if you need to handle some exportability challenges,
06:21it's a burden for the number of satellites that are launched,
06:24and scalable needs to be produced very, very regularly.
06:30We have the smallest actuator that exists in the world.
06:34It's 4 grams, and it can generate up to 185 kilograms of mechanical power.
06:41So space is becoming really a geostrategic economy.
06:45We are moving from an exploration to infrastructure.
06:48Some history, in 1957, the first satellite was launched, so one satellite.
06:54It took almost 70 years to get a little bit more than 10,000 satellites in orbit.
07:00The plan is by 2030, in the next four to five years,
07:05there's going to be 50,000 satellites.
07:07So it's really scaling significantly quickly.
07:12Talking about technology, you cannot be at VivaTech and not talking about a little bit of technology.
07:17So what we do is we produce ourselves what's called the shape memory alloy.
07:24The shape memory alloy is moving depending on the temperature.
07:30And once the temperature increases, it takes back its form.
07:35So what you see are some examples.
07:38The power and the mechanical motion that can be created is significant compared to the size and the volume and
07:48the mass of the material.
07:51So again, various examples all illustrating the smart property of the shape memory alloy itself.
08:00Now, having the technology is good, but we also need to move from the technology into flight-ready hardware.
08:09So what we do at Nimesis, we have the whole vertical integration.
08:13So moving from producing the shape memory alloy, designing the actuators, manufacturing them, testing them,
08:21and qualifying them all for space-grade requirements.
08:26So the two strengths and what is very important is, one, our technology is very hard to copy.
08:36And two, we are able to easily scale while maintaining quality and on-time delivery requirements
08:43that are absolutely paramount for our customers.
08:47We are not only at an R&D stage.
08:50We are really already in orbit.
08:53There's already some of our actuators turning around the Earth or being sent on Mars or other FAR missions.
09:02Deliver more than 500 actuators, supported more than 10 space missions, more than 30 customers already today.
09:09We were on the Ariane 6 inaugural flight with some missions.
09:17We also supported several SpaceX missions.
09:20Our current production capability is around 40 a year.
09:25That means we have the whole production processes in place.
09:29What is really now important?
09:31So we deliver products.
09:33They are flown.
09:34Now we are ready to scale.
09:36We also are providing a whole set of products for various missions.
09:43So what matters to our customer is that it's not only selling an actuator.
09:49It really, we reduce the risk for the whole mission.
09:53Our value proposition at Nemesis is to have smaller mechanism, safer missions, and scalable space infrastructure.
10:05Our three strengths, as you saw, are the technology differentiator.
10:11We have the smart, we have proprietary and patented processes and alloys, fully vertically integrated.
10:19We are very credible, as mentioned.
10:21I will not give you the figures again.
10:24And we are ready to scale, to build those products in Europe for more sovereignty.
10:33Now, next step.
10:34So Nemesis, again, we are fully ready to scale.
10:40We convert some property of the material into actuator, doing them very simple, very reliable, very light.
10:51We are in the process of getting a funding raise.
10:56We have already secured more than 600K of business angels so far.
11:02And we will very soon officially launch a crowd equity funding.
11:07The landing page is already open.
11:09If you're interested and if you want to join our adventure and be closer to the stars, you can scan
11:17this QR code.
11:18You can register and you can get some parts of our equity.
11:27Again, just to summarize, we are ready.
11:30Technology is there, products are there, products are qualified, already available.
11:37Fruit is funding.
11:39Sorry.
11:40We will also allow to develop new products because there is a significant lever.
11:48We already have secured some France 2030 funding that will be open once we have finalized this fundraising.
11:57So time is almost gone.
12:01Alain and myself will hang around.
12:04If you have any questions following the presentation, we would be super happy to discuss and go into a little
12:11bit more details.
12:13Thanks a lot and have a nice day.
12:17Bye bye.
12:17Thank you very much.
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