SEAstart, the gas pedal for naval and maritime start-ups
Officially launched on October 3, 2019, SEAstart is GICAN's start-up gas pedal. Twelve start-ups for promotion #1 and fourteen for promotion #2 stood out after a selection process lasting several months, and were supported by GICAN.
The need for GICAN to set up a specific start-up support program arose from a twofold need:
- Manufacturers are increasingly turning to external innovation to meet the needs of their national and international customers, and even public institutions are adopting a specific innovation strategy, such as the French Ministry of Defence's Defense Innovation Agency.
- Many start-ups are unaware of the duality of their innovations and applications, whether civil/military, or the duality between their original and maritime fields of application.
For these reasons, GICAN felt it necessary to support promising start-ups and innovative SMEs to help them become part of the French naval industrial fabric, whether civil or military.
Selective conditions
The young innovative companies targeted are those offering :
- Technologies and solutions for the naval and maritime industry (shipyards / equipment manufacturers): integrating and modernising the industry's supply chain;
- Technologies and solutions for the maritime sector (shipowners / ports / shippers / marine energies): contributing to the sector's value proposition;
- Adapting new technologies to the shipbuilding industry and the marine environment.
For members, the benefits are :
- Build an ecosystem of start-ups giving them access to innovations to respond more effectively to their operational constraints and the demands of their customers
- Make the naval sector more attractive and visible, to attract start-ups and new technologies and help meet the challenges facing our industry.
For start-ups:
Discovering the ecosystem and the challenges of our industry: visibility within the maritime ecosystem, relay at trade fairs and to the media by GICAN;
- Market opportunities: developing the civil/military duality of their solutions and privileged access to the decision-makers of the major public and private, civil and defence maritime players;
- Attracting private and public financiers to innovation players: intermediation towards innovation capital funds (seed or development) and public funding windows, monitoring opportunities;
- Expertise: links with GICAN members, knowledge of the needs of operations, practical experience on the ground, case studies;
- Participation in GICAN's day-to-day activities: in particular international development, SME/ETI Committee, HR Club, Research and Innovation Group, access to the GICAN Passerelle collaborative platform.
A look back at promotion #1:
Nearly forty start-ups expressed an interest in the project during the call for entries, and a selection panel was responsible for narrowing the field down to twelve. The selection panel was chaired by Fabien NAPOLITANO, Chairman of iXblue, and included Philippe GARELLI, Chairman of Altawest/Jeumont Electric, Emmanuel-Marie PETON, Head of Innovation at the French Maritime Cluster, Christophe AVELLAN, Deputy Director of the Mediterranean Sea Cluster, and the General Delegate of GICAN. The selection was made in line with the four main R&D priorities of the French Maritime Cluster: smart yard, smart ship, smart offshore industries and green ship.
The start-up members of the SEAstart accelerator for promotion #1 :
A look back at promotion #2:
More than thirty applications were received following the second call for projects. The selection panel included GICAN members, a shipowner, a competitiveness cluster and a government body. Florent BATTISTELLA, Chairman of Couach (member of the GICAN Board of Directors), was accompanied by Paul Delouche, Strategy Director of Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore (GICAN member), Arthur BARRET and Etienne MOLLIER, respectively Director of Engineering, Projects and Innovation (EPI) department and Innovation & Marine Engineer Coordinator of Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA). Frédéric RAVILLY, Project Manager and Philippe MONBET, Managing Director of the Pôle Mer Bretagne Atlantique, as well as Massis SIRAPIAN, Head of the Open Innovation Unit at the French Defence Innovation Agency (AID) completed the jury.
The start-up members of the SEAstart accelerator for promotion #2 :
