Green Tech: Audrey-Laure Bergenthal of Euveka On How Their Technology Will Make An Important Positive Impact On The Environment

An Interview With Jilea Hemmings

Fashion and manufacturing brands have serious sizing and waste problems. Euveka proposes a robotic IoT solution capable of capturing physical morpho data with high accuracy. Unlike 3D and virtual simulation, the solution enables the creation of a garment prototype in the exact size of the client, reducing immediately by 40% the waste rate in manufacturing and retail, and thus engage into a greener and more responsible fashion to their customers.

In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Audrey-Laure Bergenthal, a woman entrepreneur in the tech industry in France who fights to put some sense back into fashion with the help of an evolving mannequin able to capture and reproduce morphological data.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?

When I was a little girl, I was rather wise and a good student. Nothing to report. I studied law and art history simultaneously, from Aix-en-Provence to Paris, to become a lawyer specializing in intellectual property. Trainee at 23 in a large law firm on Avenue Montaigne and admitted to Harvard for postgraduate studies, my young life all mapped out seemed as smooth as a bobsleigh track. What more? I lacked nothing but the dizziness of the stranger.

In 2011, while I was observing boutiques on Boulevard Saint-Germain (Paris), I saw that their wooden mannequins remained unchanged for centuries, and there were often too thin to present clothes. I said to myself “Eureka” (which a few years later became Euveka, the name of my company) because at that moment I became aware that models hadn’t changed for centuries. And it was not surprising, in these conditions, that many people could not find clothes adapted to their morphology.

Overnight, I quit everything and radically changed direction — bye-bye Harvard — and set off on the adventure. I immersed myself for four years. I prepared a BTS (Brevet de technicien supérieur, in French) in styling and pattern making then worked for the most varied brands to develop the broadest vision of the market of the fashion industry.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

When I created Euveka, I had no idea that this innovation would be coveted by other industries and technology sectors. In 2018, when we won a CES Awards in Las Vegas, we attracted a lot of people. In addition to being approached by fashion brands, we had the great surprise of being contacted by NASA, the military, and medical services to develop safer and more suitable workwear.

I realized then the impact of this technology and that it would go far beyond the apparel industry.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My family has supported and helped me a lot.

In particular, my recently deceased father inspired me with his taste for entrepreneurship. When you have a Romanian father in political exile fleeing the Ceaușescu regime, who arrived penniless in France in 1968 and became a successful entrepreneur, you can allow yourself a certain admiration for taking risks … I learned a lot from its ratings.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Nothing is impossible with a valiant heart” — Jacques Coeur

This motto has accompanied me throughout my career and represents me well. With willpower, a burning desire to make things happen, nothing is impossible.

Last year we went through a complicated period because of the lack of funding from the industry in France. We were close to filing for bankruptcy because of our R&D costs. Many vultures were circling around our project to buy our technology at a lower cost. I saved my company, I never gave up, and today we’re back on track thanks to our customers and the media coverage of our appeal.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

• Courage: I have been leading this fight for more than 10 years.
• Unconsciousness: Reproducing the evolution of a human body is more difficult than it seems!
• Benevolence: Surrounding yourself well is important. I had the chance to meet great people on my way.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive impact on the planet and the environment. To begin, which particular problems are you aiming to solve?

Fashion and manufacturing brands have serious sizing and waste problems. Euveka proposes a robotic IoT solution capable of capturing physical morpho data with high accuracy. Unlike 3D and virtual simulation, the solution enables the creation of a garment prototype in the exact size of the client, reducing immediately by 40% the waste rate in manufacturing and retail, and thus engage into a greener and more responsible fashion to their customers.

How do you think your technology can address this?

Matching brands data and clients data is key to build a global, inclusive, and sustainable supply chain. As all bodies and garments have a proper unique fit, fashion players need to address with more agile and real-time process their markets while controlling their costs, their impacts and being more performant with all their clients no matter the size. Euveka sets a global, responsive, and sustainable fitting norm enabling customers to identify what fits them no matter the size of the garment and helping professionals to sell the right product to everyone without risk of returns and unsold.

Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?

I am part of the generation that saw the start of fast fashion. At the time, it was a real revolution for young people because we could make ourselves cool with inexpensive looks.

Then, more and more information about the underside of this industry was released. It was a shock. I did not realize how bad our consumption habits were becoming. In addition, I often heard people around me, including my mom, complaining that they could never find clothes that fit them. From there, I was interested in designing plus-size clothes for my mom. I found it absurd that with billions of clothes produced each year people still complain about not being able to dress. It was true. A real ordeal.

When I noticed that our garments were still being made on wooden mannequins that didn’t look like anyone else and hadn’t changed for centuries, I understood that the fashion industry did not take into account the diversity of bodies and that it was not surprising to have exorbitant rates of returns and unsold goods.

How do you think this might change the world?

I think producing by knowing your market is the key. Preventive equipment is needed upstream of the value chain, from the design stage, to avoid creating unsold futures. We must give tools, the means, to the model makers, to the manufacturers who are on the ground. You must go to the heart of the reactor. Technology will help this still very archaic industry. At our level, we are proud to note that our solution is changing the codes of fashion!

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

We reassure you: it is not expected that our robot mannequin will design garments himself! Everything looks perfect on the screen but what is beautiful in this profession is that we will always need the expert eye to control the fit, the rendering of a garment. Our solution was co-developed with the main stakeholders: model makers, those who are in the shadows and who are asked to perform feats with a simple wooden dummy. In addition to being an ecological and cost-effective solution for brands, this tool is a real daily facilitator for those hands who can finally banish repetitive tasks and concentrate on their creation.

Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”?

1. Sometimes, certain people will not understand your project, either because they do not understand the stakes of the industry on which your product relates either for any reason (example: financials). Be confident.
2. Developing a technology that has a real social and ecological impact requires time and adequate resources. Before considering possible sales, numerous prototypes and tests were necessary 6 years of R&D and patenting. Be patient.
3. Your idea must fill suffering. At Euveka we fight for more inclusive and environmentally conscious fashion industry by enabling manufacturers and retailers to produce and sell better in all sizes. Go to your future customers, survey them! Be attentive.
4. You are going to be faced with several steps, but they are there for a reason. Sometimes you will have to start from scratch because no one has gone as far you have been. This is the right path, listen to yourself. Be strong.
5. And the most important thing: Be open-minded. You will meet many people on your way — including wonderful encounters — who will be there to help you in your project. Connect to your professional sphere and dare to go and ask for advice and opinions. Surround yourself with people who have the same values as you.

If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?

I would share with them the legend of the hummingbird, by Mr. Pierre Rahbi:

One day, legend has it, there was a great fire in the forest. All terrified animals, aghast, watched the disaster helplessly. Only the little hummingbird was bustling about, fetching a few drops with its beak to throw them on the fire. After a while, the armadillo, annoyed by this derisory agitation, said to him: “Hummingbird! Aren’t you crazy? It’s not with these drops of water that you are going to put out the fire!”

And the hummingbird replied: “I know it, but I’m doing my part.”

Rather than doing nothing to face current environmental, social or economic problems because we feel powerless or because we think that the solution must come from others, we can act with our skills, at our scale … And even taken in isolation our actions may seem ridiculous, it is thanks to the sum of hummingbirds that things could change.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I would love to talk with Ben Horowitz, Marc Andreessen and Richard Branson because of their entrepreneurial skills and their ability to dream big.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

• Website: https://www.euveka.com/en/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/euveka_smartmorphosizing/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/euveka/?viewAsMember=true

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.