Gerondeau - Safran 2024 Awards awarded to INEN Robotics and Greyn

The 13th edition of the Jean-Louis Gerondeau-Safran Awards has rewarded two start-ups: INEN Robotics and Greyn for their innovations, respectively in healthcare and construction.

Created in memory of Jean-Louis Gerondeau (X 1962) and endowed with a total of 30,000 euros to be divided between a maximum of two projects, the Gerondeau-Safran Awards aim to encourage the emergence or maturation of innovative projects led by teams from the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the École polytechnique and the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, of which the École polytechnique is a founding member.

With INEN Robotics, Constantin Krempp (X 2014), a radiologist, and Philippe Bencteux, an entrepreneur, aim to improve the treatment of patients with early cancers in the digestive tract by robotizing endoluminal procedures.

"Colorectal, gastric and esophageal cancers are among the most common and deadly, but if detected early, they can be treated well with minimally invasive operations. To facilitate these complex operations and support gastroenterologists, we are leveraging the research carried out at a world-renowned center for medical robotics in Strasbourg (Laboratoire ICube) by developing a robotic platform that interfaces with an endoscope, equipped with two instruments : forceps and an electrosurgical knife", stressed Constantin Krempp.

The Greyn project, led by Damien Beaudou (École Centrale de Nantes - Master X-HEC Entrepreneurs), offers to provide concrete producers with a solution to reduce the risk of losses in transit by monitoring concrete consistency and optimizing its formulation.

"Nearly 7% of all concrete produced today is unusable because its consistency does not allow the material to be used properly. To combat this waste, we have developed an innovative technology that combines a hardware sensor with a machine learning algorithm", explained Damien Beaudou.

Designed to be retrofitted on concrete mixer trucks, this sensor enables continuous monitoring of concrete consistency, from production to placement, and rapid rectification of any concrete found to be unsatisfactory, even during delivery. In this way, Greyn could achieve a 6% reduction in the use of resources allocated to concrete production, savings over 220 million euros annually, and delivering a substantial environmental gain for the sector on the French market alone.

In addition to INEN Robotics and Greyn, 4 projects were among the finalists for the 2024 edition of the Gerondeau - Safran Awards: 

• Archismart Energy led by Lia Rochat (E 2023)

• Cervital by Quitterie Lelong and Gaspard de Fommervault (both X 2020)

• Cycles by Edmond Baratte (D 2023)

• Resilient by Matthieu Haguenauer (M 2024), Tom Verheyde and Lucas Letellier

All pitched their projects in seven minutes before answering questions from the jury.

Since its inception, the Gerondeau-Safran Awards have supported start-ups that are now making a name for themselves in France and abroad. In their respective fields, the winners of the 2013 edition have had particularly inspiring predecessors. 

In the building and civil engineering sector, Néolithe, which transforms non-recyclable waste into aggregates, completed its fourth round of financing of €60 million in early December 2023.

In the Health Tech sector, the Gerondeau-Safran prize has given a boost to start-ups such as Wandercraft (2012), Sensome (2013), Cardiologs (2014) or more recently PaIRe (2021) and Surge (2022).