Woodoo, a forward-looking industrial start-up for the wood industry

Published the 06/12/23 | Territorial life

The Aube-based industrial start-up, Woodoo, inventor of decarbonized materials made from wood for the construction market, is one of the 125 high-potential French companies selected for the French Tech 2030 program.

Woodoo: Augmented Wood as the Future of Construction

“Woodoo’s ambition is to valorize natural materials through new composite technologies. We offer sustainable alternatives to carbon-emitting construction elements such as steel or aluminum,” explains Sébastien Frin, VP Corporate. Woodoo has developed “Solid,” a material made from veneer wood of secondary species, transformed and assembled into a more compact, resistant, and lightweight form compared to other materials. This allows for easier and faster construction with less material, while maintaining the same performance. “We achieve strengths that go up to more than 20 times that of concrete, with a carbon footprint that is more than 200 times lower than that of aluminum,” explains Alexandre Gilet, R&D engineer. The goal is to replace elements in construction (steel, concrete, aluminum) that are highly emitting in carbon for the building industry. “In the long run, our material should enable us to build taller, faster, cheaper, emitting less CO2. There is great potential in structural applications and modular construction in particular,” concludes Alexandre Gilet.

From a Successful Incubation at the Technopole de l’Aube to the Deployment of Two Demonstrator Sites in Troyes Champagne Metropolis

Founded in 2017, Woodoo is a biotechnology company located in SudChampagne. “We were incubated at the Technopole de l’Aube and at the University of Technology of Troyes, where we had our R&D laboratory until 2019,” explains its president, Timothée Boitouzet. Then it was necessary to find suitable real estate for the prototype phase, near the Technopole park. “The joint efforts of local actors: the Technopole, BSC, the Departmental Council, and SIABA, allowed us to set up a suitable platform in an existing building in Rosières-Près-Troyes,” says Timothée Boitouzet before adding, “2023 marks the culmination of these six years of development with the success of a €31 million fundraising. We can now start the pre-series and industrialization phase.” The company relies again on Business Sud Champagne, with its in-depth knowledge of the region and its economic actors, to find the best solution: renting an activity building, sharing premises with other industrial companies, or construction. It will ultimately be the opening of a new production site in a 2,000 m² building rented in La-Chapelle-Saint-Luc, before the construction of a dedicated industrial building.

Woodoo, one of the Ten Founding Actors of the Sud Champagne Wood Cluster

Aware that Woodoo’s success is fully part of the collective success of the entire Wood sector, the company naturally responded positively to the proposal of two local industrialists and the BSC agency to create and participate in a collective bringing together professionals from the Wood sector, now called “Sud Champagne Wood Cluster.” The cluster’s ambition is to create synergies among actors to increase territorial added value and densify the sector. An ambition also shared by Woodoo!

“When we proposed to Woodoo to participate in the construction of a wood sector in Suth Champagne: efficient, innovative, and environmentally friendly, the company immediately volunteered to work on its emergence (diagnosis, definition of challenges, prioritization of actions), and then to co-facilitate certain workshops where it could bring added value,” says Philippe Charmont, responsible for the animation of the Sud Champagne Wood Cluster for BSC. The collective must be a winner for all stakeholders: companies, the local sector, and the territory. Christelle Petitjean, Supply Chain Manager, co-facilitates the Augmented Wood workshop: “Climate change leads all actors to question the future of their supply, their practices, and the needs to be met. New technologies are emerging that can provide solutions. These workshops, bringing together end-users, transformers, managers, forest owners, and technology providers, are crucibles to test and develop new applications for new uses, and perhaps new species.”