The European Innovation Council (EIC), via its Business Acceleration Services (BAS) Corporate Partnership Programme, aims to bridge the gap between innovative SMEs and large companies. That’s what happened following the first EIC’s Corporate Day with Holcim in January 2021, where a highly innovative small company called Nanolike secured a successful collaboration with Holcim – more specifically the corporate’s logistic department & venture platform Holcim MAQER.
Founded in 2012, Nanolike is a company that specialised in measurement technologies. To help seamlessly digitise logistic processes by providing an end-to-end monitoring solution from the sensor to the cloud, Nanolike intends to become a global leader in IoT logistics optimisation and supply chain automation for IBC, silos, and tanks. Nanolike’s innovative and reliable IoT systems sparked the interest of Holcim – the global leader in innovation and sustainable building solutions – that select the startup to participate in its EIC Corporate Day.
Ever since the initiative, Holcim’s logistic department, Holcim MAQER, and Nanolike joined forces and followed together with successful Corporate-Start-up collaboration interactions: a first exchange of ideas in the right environment during the Corporate Day in January 2021, an NDA signature, the development of a Proof of Concept (PoC) in Greece and first key performance indicators (KPIs) successfully evaluated in October 2021.
When asked about the Corporate Day event with Holcim, Jean-Jacques Bois (COO & co-founder) and Stefan Huber (Director of Sales Germany) at Nanolike both explained:
“The EIC Corporate Day was a very positive and fruitful experience for us, we had the opportunity to meet many relevant people for our business. Ultimately, we were able to be matched with the right partners for Nanolike.”
Concerning the deal itself and how the negotiations were conducted with the business partner, Stefan stated that:
“During the initial stages of the deal in 2021, we first got in touch with Holcim’s German Logistics team. The business relationship and its development came after both parties met a couple of weeks after the event itself. Three months later, our solution quickly passed to the testing stage. Due to the process’s speed, by August we were discussing the potential rollout stage. In a few months, we had our first key performance indicators evaluated by October, travelling to Greece to begin the rollout phase by January 2022 and eventually signing the first contracts with Holcim Greece, plus with other branches or subsidiaries of Holcim all over the world.”
When it comes to the impact of the deal and what it means for Nanolike, Jean-Jacques pointed out:
“The whole process happened quickly for us. Thanks to this successful and strategic deal with a key business player, we were able to develop some product specificities and improve them for different markets. Initially, our product was targeted towards agriculture but now our product can be used in the construction industry as well – with more features specifically dedicated to this sector. That’s why receiving validation from a big corporate like Holcim was important for us, because it gave us added value, making the deal we had with them very important for us.”
Future prospects
With the current business relations between the two companies and the positive advancements they are having, when asked about what their future expectations are, Jean-Jacques and Stefan mentioned that:
“Apart from trying to enter new business areas, we want to attract more visibility towards our company. So far, we’ve only had this EIC Corporate Day situation that led to the success we have now, and we want to repeat it.”
Additional information
About Nanolike
Headquartered in the South of France (Toulouse) with sales offices in Canada (Montreal) and in Germany (Munich), Nanolike was founded in 2012 by two French engineers, Jean-Jacques BOIS and Samuel BEHAR. European leader in the industry 4.0 with its monitoring solutions to digitize and optimize the supply chain of feed bins and IBC containers, Nanolike is constantly evolving. The winner of multiple awards for innovation and an active member of the IoT Valley in Toulouse, Nanolike has recently obtained recognition from the European Innovation Council with a grant of 2 million euros. Specialized in innovative measurement technologies and digital solutions, the company has multiplied successes on an international scale and provides complete IoT solutions to businesses in the farming, chemical and construction sectors.
About Holcim
Holcim builds progress for people and the planet. As a global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions, Holcim is enabling greener cities, smarter infrastructure and improving living standards around the world. With sustainability at the core of its strategy, Holcim is becoming a net-zero company, with its people and communities at the heart of its success. The company is driving circular construction as a world leader in recycling to build more with less. Holcim is the company behind some of the world’s most trusted brands in the building sector including ACC, Aggregate Industries, Ambuja Cement, Disensa, Firestone Building Products, Geocycle, Holcim, Lafarge, and Malarkey Roofing Products. Holcim is 70,000 people around the world who are passionate about building progress for people and the planet through four business segments: Cement, Ready-Mix Concrete, Aggregates and Solutions & Products.
About Holcim MAQER
Holcim MAQER is the industry’s leading Venture Client unit driving change through open innovation in the building materials sector. Holcim MAQER connects technology companies to actual use cases across the entire Holcim value chain, from quarry to the customer. Collaborating with startups, thought leaders and corporations, Holcim MAQER finds the most impactful technologies to help build a smarter, greener, and more inclusive world.
About the EIC Business Acceleration Services – Corporate Partnership Programme
The Corporate Partnership Programme was launched in 2017 as an exclusive business service to allow EIC-funded companies to boost their network and meet relevant decision-makers from the largest companies in Europe. Since 2017, 56 initiatives have been organised through “EIC Corporate Days”, “EIC Multicorporate Days” and enhanced cooperation initiatives as Planet.Tech or Energy4Planet with +100 corporate partners like: ABB, Airbus, BMW, CommerzBank, Enel, Ferrovial, Holcim, Medtronic, Philips, Roche, Solvay, Suez or Telefonica. Over 1200 EIC-funded startups/scaleups and +2500 high-level corporate representatives participated in these initiatives reporting an outstanding number of business follow-ups in less than six months, including numerous pilots, proofs of concept and other business collaborations. If you’re looking for new opportunities in Europe related to this program, make sure to keep an eye on our events page.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.