Hydrogen fuel cells: INOCEL launches with Mike Horn

The young company is the result of a collaboration between the adventurer and the CEA in Grenoble. It has just announced the increase of its capital by 10 million euros.

From a sports project to an entrepreneurial adventure. The start-up Inocel has just announced a capital increase of 10 million euros. The genesis of this company, created in May, began with a collaboration between the adventurer Mike Horn and the CEA in Grenoble. The former wanted to “decarbonize” the Dakar Rally by winning it with a hydrogen car, so he called on the Innovation Laboratory for New Energy Technologies and Nanomaterials. The project then branched out to focus on the technology developed: a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC).

“The cell we are developing is particularly efficient and powerful, which is not usually the case for PEMFCs,” says Jules Billiet, Inocel’s deputy CEO. Hence the desire to move quickly towards industrialization, even if it means putting the Dakar project on hold. “We are targeting three segments: maritime transport, land transport – such as trucks, construction equipment or excavators – and stationary transport, such as generators,” he says.

Demonstrator by the end of 2022

Another decisive factor in the creation of Inocel is the arrival in the project of Mauro Ricci, who founded and directed the Akka Technologies group for thirty-eight years. In addition to his experience as a manager, he brings the major part of the funds of the round table. He now chairs the start-up’s advisory board, which also includes Mike Horn and four others. The company is managed by a tandem composed of Stéphane Rabatel and Jules Billiet.

The schedule is ambitious. “Two demonstrators are underway, one of which will be presented at the end of the year at the Paris Boat Show,” says Rabatel. The “100% technical” team already has about twenty people and should grow by another fifteen before the end of the year. Pre-production models should be launched in the second half of 2023, with industrial production scheduled for 2024.