A French Tech rising star that supports the energy transition

Syroco, a French Tech rising star whose pioneering achievements support the energy transition

Marseille, February 26, 2020 - Launched in 2019, Syroco, a scientific and technical lab, generates innovation through pioneering achievements. Founders of the startup include Alex Caizergues, world kitespeed champion and holder of multiple speed records on water, and Bertrand Diard, founder of French unicorn Talend and VC fund Serena Data Ventures. Based in Marseille, Syroco is implementing distinctive innovation dynamics to support the emergence of new technologies, which will serve the environmental and economic performance of the transportation and energies industries.

"Innovation is not replication. This is about reaching goals that existing art cannot achieve. Syroco was created to shoot for outstanding achievements. By aiming for goals beyond the limits imposed by current technologies, we intend to create the conditions to design breakthrough innovations, which will find concrete applications in industrial fields," underlined Bertrand Diard.

A unique and meaningful innovation platform

Syroco encourages innovation by promoting the expression of collective intelligence. The company provides its partners with a research platform to enable the implementation of breakthrough engineering solutions. This lab offers a unique working environment and gives access to an ecosystem whose dynamics are imprinted with a pioneering spirit: advanced modeling and simulation tools, reference data, project management, methodology conducive to innovation, to cross-pollination and to the proliferation of ideas.

With combined technological and entrepreneurial know-how, Syroco is today seeking to forge partnerships with key players in transport and energies, in order to identify applications that will offer sustainable exploitation prospects and will have a positive impact on the environment. Syroco is therefore committed to transforming the fruit of all its research into benefits for society.

Innovation applied to a first project

As a startup, Syroco aims for a paradigm shift, by launching ambitious bets and taking risks that companies traditionally based on less flexible, less daring models, or focused on short-term profitability cannot afford. For Syroco, breakthrough innovation only makes sense if it is applied. Based on this principle, the lab is mobilising its teams on a first project: the development of a completely innovative speed craft to break the world sailing speed record.

"This challenge can only be addressed by disruptive technologies. We need a completely new concept. With my partners, we have laid the groundwork for a pragmatic vision that reaches beyond a sports record, so that the innovation we generate brings value for the industry, but also for mankind and for the planet," added Alex Caizergues.

Syroco thus intends to offer an effective model for transferring the results of its research into the economic sphere through the generation of technical instruments and intellectual property. The lab therefore opens up to a broad pool of partners liable to take advantage of the technological advances that will arise from its work.

When boldness becomes a catalyst for innovation

Approximately fifteen strong, a team of experts (including researchers, engineers, designers, naval architects, etc.) has been assembled to work on the first project: the design of a speed craft capable of shattering the current world sailing speed record. After validating the feasibility and the foundational elements, Syroco has begun the development phase.

"Our initial research has already solved several problems we faced such as managing cavitation at high speed, supporting high mechanical stress, etc. This first project demonstrates well the potential of Syroco, in large part because the tools that researchers need to carry it out do not yet exist," added Alex Caizergues.

The speed craft project has already brought major innovations to naval architecture, demonstrating that the role of the foils, which has always been used to allow an aquatic vehicle to rise above water (like racing catamarans) could instead be used to anchor a craft to the water. Full-scale tests of each element of the speed craft, but also simulation and virtual reality programs, will be carried out throughout 2020, with sights set on a first launch in 2021.

About Syroco

Syroco is a scientific and technical laboratory that generates innovation through pioneering achievements. The startup was born from the encounter of complementary backgrounds: Alex Caizergues, Bertrand Diard, Florent Boutellier, a serial entrepreneur, operations and finance specialist, Olivier Taillard, a naval architect and racing boats designer, and Yves de Montcheuil, a technology marketeer who has been advising many successful startups.
The solutions and applications developed by Syroco enable players in the transportation and energy sectors to meet the economic and environmental challenges they face.