France-based, Chouette is developing a vine monitoring solution & decision support tool for winegrowers. In essence, the startup offers winegrowers the option to acquire, rent or lease a DJI drone &/ sensors for their tractors to monitor vines. The time saving is significant: “to survey four hectares of vines on foot takes a day, but only one hour with the drone”. The vines are scanned (with AI) for multiple fungi & diseases, impacts from drought or frost, as well as checked for plant maturation (& estimated future yield). Historical data is used to anticipate protection of the most sensitive areas by e.g. enabling optimal use of phytosanitary treatments & fertilizers, thereby lowering production costs &...

Renaissance Fusion aims to build a stellarator fusion reactor - which is different to more commonly used tokamak designs - by developing two innovative technologies. The 1st technology concerns the use of liquid metal, which sticks to the inner walls of the reaction chamber & insulates them from extreme heat & radioactivity (with lower maintenance costs). Currently, the startup can create liquid lithium-based walls 1cm thick, but significant development remains before they can be used in nuclear fusion, which requires a thickness of 30-40cm. The 2nd technology relates to high-temperature superconducting coils, which generate strong(er) magnetic fields (& potentially allow a smaller reactor to achieve the same performance as a larger one). To do so,...