Entrepreneur First Paris’ 5th Demo Day

Faircraft is a sustainable, lab-grown alternative to animal leather

Leather is ranked as the #1 most polluting material used in the fashion industry, far ahead of cotton or polyester. In recent years, the fashion industry has been under pressure and consumers across the world are seeking more sustainable options.

Faircraft produces a sustainable, lab-grown, slaughter-free alternative to animal leather. With the same touch and feel but a greater performance, Faircraft’s leather production uses 90% less CO2 and fewer chemicals than animal leather.

CEO – Haikel Balti is a materials scientist and mechanical engineer trained at Arts et Métiers ParisTech and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to co-founding FairCraft, he has developed, scaled and managed deep tech hardware products targeting B2C and corporate clients.

CTO – Cesar Valencia Gallardo holds a PhD from Université de Paris where he studied Biochemistry, Mechanobiology, Microfluidics and Microbiology. Cesar  also worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the “Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes” (PMMH) laboratory and at the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics and Statistical Models (LPTMS) where he focused on Biophysics, Actin Mechanics and Material Science. He is a second time founder.

Bifrost is the most transparent, robust and efficient way for insurers and reinsurers to trade risk.

The multi-billion dollar reinsurance industry is the last market in financial services remains undisrupted, and industry professionals are still working like they used to 20 years ago. As a result, the role that brokers play in this market is way too important, and they are paid too much to make the transactions.

Bifrost aims to bring timely efficiency and transparency to the insurance industry using their leading market design technology.

CEO – Victor Moreau is a former strategy consultant. He previously worked at Oliver Wyman where he specialized in Financial Services, working with leading banks and insurers across 6 countries in Europe. He also acquired operational and business experience at Iziwork (a French job-tech start-up), as Head of Key Account Management & Strategy. He holds an engineering degree from CentraleSupélec.

CTO – Tristan Garrec holds a PhD in applied mathematics from the Toulouse School of Economics. Before joining the EF programme, Tristan worked as a post-doctoral research fellow of EDF and ENS Paris-Saclay and was a Game Theory lecturer at ENSTA Paris.

Even a large portion of the most developed countries in the world fail to pass the threshold of 15 MRI machines per million inhabitants recommended by the WHO. This leads to long wait times, as the use of MRI is restricted to the most urgent cases. And it is still impossible to use MRI on a large scale for prevention and explorations.

Chipiron recognises that the most efficient way to decrease the fatality rate of, for instance, brain-related diseases is a wider adoption of MRI for systematic prevention. They aim to make brain MRI as simple as a routine blood test to prevent several pathologie by creating MRI machines the size of cupboards, with ultra-sensitive magnetic detectors, that are cheap and do not require Helium or specialised rooms to operate. 

CEO – Evan Kervella holds a Master’s of Engineering from École Centrale Marseille and has 2 years of experience as a Data scientist in the industry. At just 21, he built an indoor geolocalisation application designed for retail. Evan also has an extensive network in the medical industry.

CTO – Dimitri Labat holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics of Condensed Matter from Université Paris Diderot, where he was a member of the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Physics. Before joining the EF programme, Dimitri was a modelled risk controller in insurance for the Bank of France where he carried out on-site and off-site checks on the risk modelling for insurance organisations.

SILINA brings a paradigm shift to the imaging industry by curving imaging sensors at industrial scale, enabling drastically improved cameras.

Flat imaging sensors create bad cameras. Many industries suffer as a result from poor quality images, bulky equipment, low sensitivity and high costs. The Silina team have created eye-inspired curved sensors that bring outstanding performance to all these pain points. 

Curved imaging sensors are the next major technological revolution of the imaging industry. They unlock the hardware limitations of any camera to bring a whole new level of image performance and device compactness. It is much easier to curve an imaging sensor than to curve the light onto a flat sensor. 

CEO – Michael Bailly is a former strategy consultant and industrial project director. He brings experience delivering FOAK projects to long-cycle industrial companies like the ones Silina will be targeting. He is also experienced in negotiating complex technical contracts with multiple stakeholders, just as they will need to align the goals of the camera integrators, the optical system designers, and the sensor manufacturers.

CTO – Wilfried Jahn holds a PHD in optical science and engineering from Aix-Marseille University. Prior to this, he worked on a number of projects involving scanning-imaging systems and laser machining and was a student at the Institut d’Optique. Before joining the EF programme, Wilfried was at the California Institute of Technology on a NASA Grant, where he worked on telescope alignment, performance and calibration.

DISCLAIMER: The information contained herein should not be construed as advice or an invitation to conduct investment activity. Investment in new businesses carries high risks as well as the possibility of high rewards. It is highly speculative and potential investors should be aware that no established market exists for the trading of shares in private companies. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. The value of investments can go down as well as up and investors may not get back what they originally invested. Before investing in a project about which information is given, potential investors are strongly advised to seek appropriate advice, including legal and tax advice, from persons authorised to provide such advice. Entrepreneur First Investment Manager LLP cannot provide advice to prospective investors on the merits and risks of investments.