Meeting with Thomas Vanquaethem, Deputy Managing Director, in charge of development and operations for Europe, of the company Chargepoly, the start-up whose objective is to democratize andto optimise charging infrastructure by offering the best service. In the midst of an energy transition, their mission is to accompany companies and professionals in their carbon-free mobility projects.
Who are you ? And where does your entrepreneurial spirit come from?
I am Thomas Vanquaethem, Deputy Managing Director of the company Chargepoly, in charge of development and operations for Europe. I joined the company in March 2023 after a dozen years in the energy sector (including the last five years in infrastructure and electric vehicle charging services). Entrepreneurship is essential to provide rapid responses to the gigantic challenges we face (decarbonization of the economy and reindustrialization to name but a few). In addition to that, the human adventure behind entrepreneurship is very rich.
In short, it makes you want to get up in the morning!
How was your business born?
The Chargepoly company was created in 2019 by its CEO Hadi Moussavi, former director of Air Liquide and internationally trained in the management of companies with high technological content. The company's overall mission is to offer fast charging solutions that meet the challenges of massive electrification of vehicles, from light vehicles to heavy goods vehicles.
The strongest challenges that we have identified are: the scalability of our solutions and advanced vehicle management to meet customer needs over the long term; the low impact or even positive impact integration of installed kW into the electricity network and finally the dynamic management of distributed energy via our solutions for a competitive and carbon-free kWh.
Based on these findings, unique proprietary solutions were developed by Chargepoly (and some patented). Our capacity for innovation was recognized by an award at the CES in 2022 in the Transport and Mobility category, we were also finalists for the INPI trophies in 2022.
Who are your clients ? And what need are you meeting?
Our customers are fleet or station managers who must respond to complex and dynamic charging constraints over time (which will tend to become more widespread with the increase in demand).
We support them in the precise definition of their use cases in order to implement a solution perfectly suited to their needs today and tomorrow. Our specificity as a designer and assembler of charging stations is to have focused on synergy with the distribution network and the means of production.
Our company has found a particular resonance with commercial fleet managers for transport and logistics who, due to the size of the batteries and the power required, encounter these problems more quickly than others. We are progressing quickly on projects with operators of bus fleets or household waste dumpsters, for example.
How can your solution improve the existing Supply Chain?
Our solution allows Supply Chain players to remove the technical and economic barriers of charging for the electrification of vehicle fleets. Electrification is a major vector of CSR policies for Supply Chain companies and can also become a very important competitive lever in the medium term (which explains why players like DHL or Amazon have announced massive investments in this technology for their fleets).
Where are you today in the development of your company? And what is your action plan?
We wish to develop our company along two main commercial axes: the first axis is the direct sale of products and services to fleet and station managers, the second axis is the sale of kWh with a logic of third-party investment in public stations or private.
In both cases, we wish to remain close to the owners of the operating stations in order to guarantee the performance of our products and to get the best from our services, particularly in energy management and distribution network services.
What are the key success factors for a start-up in the field to become a leading player at European level?
Spontaneously I think of:
- Proximity with customers to remain competitive and meet their needs
- Attractive corporate values for the talents of today and tomorrow
- An overview of the issues with an ecosystem approach to address them
There are surely others!
Learn more: https://www.chargepoly.com/
