A story of neuroscience and algorithms
Deeptech startup based in Bordeaux (France),
we are the first company in the world
to provide decision support and agricultural automation services
based on plant electrophysiology.
History
The development of electroencephalography techniques (the measurement of electrical signals in the brain) has led to a profound change in our understanding of brain function and has enabled the development of diagnostic tools that are now available in hospitals around the world.
Couldn’t the transposition of these techniques to other biological signals, plant signals, have the same impact on our understanding of plants and the development of applications for agriculture ?
This idea won the SWO3 startup competition dedicated to agro-technologies in 2016 and is at the origin of the creation of Vegetal Signals in Bordeaux a few months later and its entry into support by the Unitec technopole.
Built in 2017 the company’s first sensors showed the impact of water stress on tomato signals, a first proof of concept established very early 2018. 2018 is also the year of the first experiments in the field, on vineyards and on wheat.
In 2019, Vegetal Signals demonstrates the feasibility of monitoring sugar levels at veraison in grapevines and obtains a first signature of mildew infection.
At the same time, the company is working on phenotyping methods on wheat, corn and sunflower as part of a project accredited by the AgriSudOuest Innovation competitiveness cluster. In 2020, the Lamarck 1 phenotyping station is inaugurated, capable of monitoring the activity of 512 plants in parallel.
The development of the Hydroscore application is based on trials conducted since 2018, in collaboration with many prestigious players such as IFV Pôle Méditerranée, the Angibaud group, Château Montrose, the Magrez group or the University of Stellenbosch and the Winetech agency in South Africa.
Team
Coming from R&D, the company relies on
a highly qualified and inter-disciplinary team
Fabian Le Bourdiec
Foundator
Marine Le Moigne
PhD Agronomy
Lead Agriculture & Agronomy
Noëllie Gelin
Agricultural engineer & oenologist
Agriculture & Agronomy
Paul Bui Quang
PhD Statistics
Lead Models & Machine Learning
Lamiaa Ouzzine
PhD Bio informatics
Models & Machine Learning
Coralie Picoche
Phd Maths appliquées Models & Machine learning
Jean-Etienne Morlighem
PhD Biotechnologies
Lead Tech integration
Gabriel Guillocheau
PhD Bio informatics
Real-time Data Pipelines
Denis Le Hegarat
Electronic engineer
Hardware design
Robin Coste
Senior Technician
Hardware design
Riska Madisse
Administration & finance
Marjorie Dabrin
Business Development Viticulture
Advisory board
Anahita Shaffii
Neurobiology
Thomas Lewiner
Automatic learning
Benoît Sineau
Strategy
Maeleen Poitrenaud
Business development
« Using neuroscience techniques, we have developed sensors and analysis methods that allow us to continuously monitor plant activity and identify their needs in terms of water, fertilization or phytosanitary treatments. »
Fabian Le Bourdiec
VEGETALSIGNALS Foundator
Awards
Innovation Circle (Belgium) 2021 – Support Program
AgriFoodNest Israel 2021 – Laureate
France-South Africa Tech Bridge Program 2021 – Laureate
FoodTechMatters London 2020 – Laureate
Innovaday 2019 – Laureate
La Tribune Wine’s Forum 2019 – Young Talent
Winetech pitching den 2019 – Winner
SA Innovation Summit Africa Cup 2019 – 2nd Price
SA Innovation Summit Ambassade de France – Vinitech Price
VitiRev 2019 – Laureate
H2020 DIVA 2019 – Laureate
Aquitaine Amorçage – Seed Program
Pôle Agri SOI 2018 – Labellised
Univ. de Bordeaux 2018 –IDEX Label (initiative of excellence)
Technopole Unitec – Support Program
Forum Croissance Verte Region Nouvelle Aquitaine 2016 – Innovation Laureate
SWO3 startup competition 2016 – Winner