Munich Startup: What does Point Twelve do? What problem do you solve?
Flower of Durfort: Point Twelve is a IoT and SaaS platform that enables manufacturers of energy-intensive goods to easily and continuously certify their production as “green.” For manufacturers of sustainable fuels, gases, chemicals, fertilizers, and materials such as steel and cement, Point Twelve promises a 90 percent time savings in the entire certification process for low-carbon products. We'll initially focus on producers of a commodity at the heart of industrial decarbonization: hydrogen.
Our solution makes it easy for these producers to prove the renewable origin of their energy, dynamically quantify carbon emissions based on operational data, obtain government-recognized certificates, and thereby achieve the highest environmental premium.
All of this is done cost-efficiently and predictably, rather than with manual, costly, non-transparent, unpredictable, and non-scalable certification and verification processes.
Point Twelve combines knowledge of energy markets with technical know-how and product design
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Flower of Durfort: Indeed! It's about embedding sustainability into the technology stack of a company's production site. That's a real challenge. Our unfair advantage probably lies in our team—a diverse and competent team at the interface between "regulation" and "tech." We offer a good mix, combining knowledge of energy markets and regulation, technology development, and user-centric product design. This distinguishes us from pure "tech" or "tech-first" teams, which we believe cannot succeed without specialist knowledge. It's not (just) about building a complex technology. It's about solving an industry-wide problem where both limitations and solutions lie in regulation.
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Flower of Durfort: Point Twelve is a 3P story: People, Purpose, and Passion! It's the story of three Frenchmen based in Munich who are passionate about the energy transition and highly motivated to decarbonize the industry faster. It's the story of "falling in love" in the professional sense, when we founders met while working on joint data and technology projects at E.ON. And ultimately, it's also the story of three people who met on the brink of war in Ukraine and took on the challenge of putting all their energy and skills at the service of a meaningful cause: industrial decarbonization, energy security, and industrial leadership in sustainability.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Flower of Durfort: Starting from scratch! Because we wanted to gain the most comprehensive understanding possible of the challenges we wanted to solve. We followed all the rules of the trade and conducted 80 customer and expert interviews before we had even written a single line of code. We are big fans of the "Lean Startup" methodology.
Green certification should be dynamic, continuous and transparent
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year and where in five years?
Flower of Durfort: Our goal is to demonstrate that green certification can be designed in a dynamic, continuous and transparent manner and can be embedded in the company's production operations.
We're initially focusing on a key component of industrial decarbonization: hydrogen. Within a year, we aim to have rolled out our SaaS solution at enough hydrogen production sites to demonstrate how we transform complex supply chain data into understandable, verifiable sustainability reports supported by government-recognized certificates. And we'll do all this in the most streamlined and automated way possible for manufacturers. Within the next year, we want to demonstrate that by solving this challenge for hydrogen, we're also solving a broader problem.
In five years, we want Point Twelve to be the reference technology for traceability and verification of the decarbonization of industrial products. Like TÜV, only better, faster, technology-supported, and agile!
Munich: Caring and challenging
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Flower of Durfort: A healthy mix of "caring" and "challenging." Although we are not from Munich, we have found an extremely well-suited ecosystem for our growth here. We were at the Technical University of Munich in Xpreneurs AcceleratorHere, we have not only found great talent and extensive expertise in the energy transition, but also numerous industrial partners and startup allies.
And because a startup is first and foremost driven by the people who drive it forward: Munich turns out to be a very good place to raise children! Point Twelve was founded by three young parents and nature lovers who strive to balance family and work. Would we in Paris be able to head to the Alps almost every weekend to recharge our batteries? Certainly not!
Munich Startup: Hidden champion or shooting star?
Flower of Durfort: Shooting star!
Update from January 2024: The startup was renamed “Atmen”.
