Supply chain start-up in the spotlight: DCbrain

DCbrain

DCbrain is a publisher of network optimization software for complex networks (including gas, water, electricity and heat as well as logistics) based on big data and artificial intelligence (AI). The team is headed up by Arnaud de Moissac (CEO, photo)) and Benjamin de Buttet (business developer). The start-up’s software is based on graph database models and machine learning/deep learning tools that analyse historical data and transform raw Internet of Things (IoT) data into an ‘internet of streams’. This approach creates a digital version of any complex network.

The two ergonomic easy-to-use interfaces allow users – industrial players, networks or infrastructure managers – to visualize the physical flows in their networks in real time, model different scenarios, identify anomalies, predict incidents and test the evolution of networks (new clients, volume increases, incidents, etc.). This supports faster decision-making and ultimately optimizes the routing process, resulting in increased operational, energy, maintenance, engineering and financial efficiency within a secure network.

DCbrain is already used by major companies such as Enedis, GRDF, Areva, ID Logistics and Total. In November 2015, DCbrain won the ERDF Start-up Contest (‘Smart Electric Grid’) in the big data category, and in March 2016 the company was selected to join Total’s incubation programme, ‘Plant 4.0’. The start-up also collaborates with the DAVID laboratory (Data and Algorithms for Smart and Sustainable City) at the University of Versailles/Saint Quentin, with Télécom ParisTech, and with Microsoft BizSpark+.

Cash injection

Since being founded in Paris, France, in 2014, DCbrain has expanded its scope to include managers of distribution networks and energy transport, industrial players and logistics specialists. In February 2018, the scale-up received €1.5 million in series A financing. This follows a first launch in 2016 with the European company InnoEnergy, accelerator specializing in energy, and DCbrain’s historic investor. The new cash injection will be used to secure its market-leading position in France and to accelerate its European development, initially based on the opening of an office in Brussels covering the Benelux area.

Expansion in the rest of 2018 will continue on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) followed by Germany, facilitated by InnoEnergy’s network of European business developers. The latest funding has come from Aster, the Ville de Demain fund managed by Bpifrance in the framework of the Programme d’Investissements d’Avenir, and from other investors.