Innovator
Matthieu Desbois-Renaudin likes to invent. While studying engineering at INSA Lyon and on an exchange at McGill University in Canada, at the age of 21, he co-designed a solar water pump system for remote homes in Africa. Then in 2007, after going through innovation laboratories for Valeo, he patented a hydraulic power transmission system for construction machinery at Bosch Offroad Construction, which enabled a 5% saving in energy consumption. In 2018, he returned to the lab, this time at the CEA. But frustrated that his prototypes weren’t coming to fruition, he decided to go into entrepreneurship and market his own patented immersion-cooled battery. Wattalps was born.
Eco
As a teenager, he built his commitment to the environment by reading a Science & Vie junior on energy. “I then realized that the system was limited and that it was necessary to find replacements,” he explains. In 1995, with his driver’s license in hand, he searched at all costs for the car that consumed as little fuel as possible. “It was a Citroën AX!” he remembers with amusement. His commitment to the environment gradually grew and intensified when he met his wife. “I’m committed, but she’s much more committed. She made me respect the environment.” Today they live with their four children in a mountain village surrounded by nature.
Altruistic
Confronted with difficult trials at a very early age, with the loss of his sister and his father, he quickly becomes aware of the fragility and preciousness of life. “That gradually made me become more and more interested in our environment and ecological issues,” he explains. But for him there is no question of leaving anyone behind: “I want to help create a sustainable world in which we can all live with dignity.” Whether it is the most precarious in France or in developing countries. “My goal is to serve the collective!”
Pragmatic
Whether they’re renovating their home or innovating in the workplace, what entrepreneurs love is working with their hands. His love of handicrafts was passed down to him from his grandfather, who lent him his tools for crafting. “I find the most relevant solutions in this concrete local reality!” And this concreteness is also needed in his ecological commitment: “Environmental regulations are also an opportunity for France to regain its industrial sovereignty.” For him, who has been de-industrializing since the Paris region has experienced, with the ecological transition France has lost enormous know-how that can be found. “For me, ecology is both a planetary and economic necessity! Otherwise we will have to pay dearly for it…”
Sporty
Football in the schoolyard, volleyball, basketball, then pole vaulting, climbing, skiing and much more today… Matthieu Desbois-Renaudin developed his team spirit through sport. “Shared ambition is important and I understand the mechanisms that lead to collective achievement,” he explains. A field lesson that he puts into practice today at Wattalps. “The search for common solutions makes decisions more informed,” he says.