An IMN start-up: MOTTRONIX

28 April 2026| Events-PMN

The fruit of 20 years of research at our institute, we are pleased to announce the official creation of the MOTTRONIX start-up!

This start-up embodies the culmination of a collective effort within the MOTT-IA research project, which enables the transfer of technology from the academic world to the socio-economic world, an essential process for fostering innovation and meeting the major technological and environmental challenges of today and tomorrow.

Co-founded by CNRS researchers from thePMN team, Laurent Cario (CEO) and Julien Tranchant (CTO), in collaboration with Etienne Janod and Benoît Corraze, the start-up aims to revolutionize electronics by developing sustainable solutions for AI, in line with current societal, environmental and economic challenges.

For 20 years, researchers at our institute have been studying Mott insulators, quantum materials with exceptional properties: these electrical insulators are capable of becoming conductors with extremely fast transition times under the application of low-voltage electrical pulses.

These new electronics, known as “Mottronics”, can be used to create Mott memories for information storage, or to manufacture energy-saving hardware neural networks for embedded artificial intelligence (Edge-AI). Faced with the explosion in digital data storage requirements and the resulting energy consumption, the development of new, more frugal and faster technologies has become a major challenge.

MOTTRONIX is part of this dynamic, offering microelectronic devices based on quantum materials that significantly reduce the energy footprint of electronic systems. More generally, the start-up aims to bring out new electronics that will significantly reduce the energy consumption of electronic devices for AI.

The MOTT-IA research project is financially supported by the Pays de la Loire Region, Nantes University and CNRS.

The MOTTRONIX start-up is supported by SATT Ouest Valorisation and the KIVO and Atlanpole incubators.

To find out more about MOTTRONIX: www.mottronix.com

Photo copyright: Nantes Université