In the paddocks at the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge, for some of those fine-tuning prototypes it could be the starting point of a career. This was the case for Maëlle Truchement, Simon Dorthe and Marc Guynot, the founders of Nemo-Systems. These former participants turned entrepreneurs are returning with technology that will be fitted to boats competing in the 2026 edition. We spoke to Maëlle Truchement, the startup’s co-founder and CEO.
The journey began a little over a year ago when Marc Guynot and Simon Dorthe came up with the concept of the NEMO Datalogger, a system capable of collecting and utilising data aboard electric boats. As the project took shape, they identified a potential that went way beyond the competition. I joined them to develop the business, strategy, and communication aspects, so that is how Nemo-Systems came into being.
We have developed a data logger that collects essential real-time data on a boat’s performance with regards to voltage, current, energy consumption and its GPS position. Our goal was to address two strategic aspects: to achieve highly accurate GPS tracking for the race management side; and be able to measure the boat’s energy efficiency. We wanted to understand what a boat’s energy consumption would be, how that energy would be used and how we could subsequently leverage that data.
Our technology will be installed on all the boats competing in the event. For the Energy Class teams, we will provide detailed monitoring of energy performance. For the other categories, the system will enable real-time tracking. All this data will be centralised on a platform developed by Nemo-Systems to facilitate race monitoring and performance analysis. These data loggers will communicate with our platform via 4G and our servers, so we can process the data and visualise the race. We will be able to see the efficiency data, current consumption, location and ranking for each boat.
In terms of design, we kept it as simple as possible to ensure it was easy to integrate into boats. We used the most sustainable materials available and adopted a long-term approach, so that it can be incorporated into the more ambitious projects we aim to develop in the future.
For the next edition, we would like to develop it further to optimise its integration, but also to incorporate AI capabilities, a topic that is becoming increasingly relevant. We also aim to develop an onboard camera option, with access to the driver, to have all real-time data together via a dashboard. This would essentially be a screen allowing them to visualize their position in the race.
It’s a fantastic opportunity. We were selected from around a hundred applicants and are among the five finalists. We very much look forward to seeing how it goes and hope now to join the incubator to get closer to the Monegasque ecosystem.
It’s an emotional moment. We first discovered this event when we were still engineering students. Today, we are returning with our own company. It shows that with ambition, hard work and discipline, it is possible to turn an idea into a concrete solution that earns its place at the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge.
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