Bird & Bird has advised French deep-tech company Greenerwave on its €15 million Series A financing round.
Greenerwave is a French deep-tech startup that has emerged from Institut Langevin, an academic laboratory attached to the École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles (ESPCI Paris) and the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). Greenerwave develops connectivity and detection solutions based on a disruptive technology that is cheaper and more energy-efficient than conventional antennas.
The company has completed a new round of financing, eight years after raising nearly €1 million in seed funding from the CNRS and business angels. New investors in this Series A funding round include Fonds Innovation Défense, managed by Bpifrance, Safran Corporate Ventures, Intelsat, BNP Paribas Développement and Plastic Omnium.
Greenerwave designs solutions that are both competitive and energy efficient. Its patented designs are recognised worldwide by major industrial players and organisations. Its products meet the needs of a wide range of sectors, including Satellite Communications and Telecommunication Networks, Defence, Aerospace and Automotive.
The start-up, which aims to accelerate its growth and become a world leader in low-energy connectivity, will allocate the funds raised to the industrialisation of its first product - a flat, electronically steerable, low-cost and low-energy antenna for Ku-band satellite communications - and to extending its product range. This innovative technology is expected to radically transform several sectors in France and overseas, including defence, space, automotive and telecommunications. Greenerwave, which currently employs 85 people, including 50 engineers, has already doubled its workforce in the last year, and plans to continue recruiting, to establish its product and sales teams.
In a context where the need for anytime, anywhere connectivity is increasing and where the slightest network interruption can cause security, financial and organisational damage, Greenerwave is positioning itself as the European leader thanks to its revolutionary, low-cost and easy-to-integrate technology. It optimises the transmission and quality of wireless signals in three major areas: telecoms and terrestrial and non-terrestrial (satellite) connectivity, radar imaging and the Internet of Things (IoT), while improving the energy efficiency of equipment by making it more cost-effective, environmentally friendly and less dependent on semi-conductors.
Bird & Bird provided intellectual property advice to Greenerwave in this latest transaction, with a team led by partner Thierry Lautier and associate Eva Kessi from the Bird & Bird Paris office.
The legal side of the fundraising was handled by Edwards & Praly, led by partners Olivier Edwards and Lucie Praly and associate Jeanne Plé, also supported by Plasseraud IP, including intellectual property adviser Patrice Loubat and patent attorney Laurence Loumes.
