Interview with Henri Delattre CEO and Co-Founder of Global Smart Rescue. This start-up offers an interesting technological solution to manage communications in case of cataclysmic events or conflicts…
[Emmanuel M]: Hello Henri, thank you for accepting this interview. Before talking about your Global Smart Rescue adventure, could you give us a quick overview of your background?
[Henri Delattre] : As an optician, I developed an investment gold trading company (5 agencies under the Comptoir National de l’Or franchise) with an average annual turnover of 10 million euros.
The co-founder, a friend, came looking for me to create and develop this young technological company two years ago. I quickly made the choice, in view of the potential and the interest, including human interest, of the project, to finance in early stage and in seed during this period (which is coming to an end) of development.
[EM]: In concrete terms, Global Smart Rescue, what is the concept?
[HD]: Our original observation is that, during natural, technological or human disasters (conflicts), the loss of communication means and vision of events on the ground increases the human and material toll.
Our patented solution combines newspace and AI (with the use of iot satellite) in order to keep a minimal communication and monitoring of physical parameters between the field and the emergency services, the commands, etc…, and this even in case of blackout of the usual networks or white zone.
We manage alerts and remote operations through messages and actions sent by humans, operators, and automated on variations of abnormal environmental parameters (eg variation of temperature and / or pressure, accelerometer, etc. …)
We have therefore created the Little Alert Box with hardware and analysis software. Moreover, with our experience on the needs of the field, we will soon propose a set of 360 solutions on Rescue, crisis management and network resilience.
[EM]: Who are your competitors?
[HD]: Paradoxically we have competitors on some of our technical bricks, but few have integrated this complete vision that we have developed, so our system works by satellite IoT, short messages, texts or data currently of 256 bytes.
Our closest competitors are either heavy and expensive satellite communication systems, or simple terminals without intelligence in data processing.
I would add that artificial intelligence requires data collection, and for that you need hardware in the field, which not everyone does.
[EM]: You are located in Labège (near Toulouse), what are the reasons?
[HD]: The SICOVAL offered us the opportunity to have access to premises in the PROLOGUE business incubator. We are also financed in part by the BPI (PIA3), Airbus Développement and ESA BIC
In my vision of a company, I preferred independent premises as offered by PROLOGUE rather than being in the offices of incubators.
[EM]: Despite its name, Global Smart Rescue is a French company (capital and French law)? Is its technology French ?
[HD]: Yes, both in capital and in law (SAS), as well as the shareholders and our technical partners Kalisio Vizion and T-OPS.
Nevertheless, in the hardware there are many supplies which are not yet French or even European
[EM]: For you, are the concepts of Digital Sovereignty important points in your vision of your development?
[HD]: Of course, it is even in my DNA, moreover we see the importance of focusing on our French sovereignty and if this is not possible on Europe. And this is a demand, even a condition more and more strongly expressed by our future customers. Nevertheless, this impacts the final cost of the solution, what I plan to do is to propose various more or less sovereign versions.
[EM]: From what I understand of your technology, it is a question of being able to maintain a network in operation in degraded mode. Can France still be innovative and sovereign in its digital infrastructures?
[HD]: That’s right! innovative certainly, there is a real demand for sovereignty nevertheless the cost is often a key element in the decision making of actors even in case of important RIO.
And there is much to do in improving the resistance of digital networks in these times of climate change and war…
[EM]: Can France still play an innovative and driving role in digital infrastructures?
[HD]: I think France will remain very innovative and has beautiful infrastructures like the CNES but I believe that we should be more chauvinistic in the decision making of both private and public contractors. For business we should take more example on the American patriotic aggressiveness.
[EM]: Coming back to Global Smart Rescue, could you give us some key figures?
[HD]: Two years of development to get to pre-industrialization (hardware is long)
There are ten of us in the company.
Between the different funders already mentioned 400 000 € invested
Our first contract signed this month for 50 000€.
[EM]: What is your 5-year vision?
[HD]: Intelligent aggregation of heterogeneous data and its collection (hardware) are a major issue and we are on it and the proofs of interest reinforce our forecasts of a turnover in 5 years exceeding 100 M€.
[EM]: We are coming to the end of this interview, what would be your conclusion?
[HD] : GSR has been around for two years and two major crises in the world, our team and I are convinced that GSR provides solid solutions in a difficult world.
