Technoport’s Automobility Incubator offers more than workspace. Voltcore founder Fabrice Bertinchamps explains why the right infrastructure can make or break deep-tech scale-up.
Could you please provide an overview of your professional background and explain what drives your current work?
Fabrice: I have over 20 years of experience in the global chemicals and advanced materials industry, with senior leadership roles in strategy, Research & Development, business development, and Profit & Loss management at companies such as SABIC and TotalEnergies. My career has focused on scaling innovation from research to industrial reality, transforming portfolios, and building market-driven organizations. What motivates my work today is applying this experience to deep-tech ventures like Voltcore, where advanced materials can deliver measurable gains in energy efficiency, sustainability, and user comfort across mobility and consumer applications.
Could you describe the origin story of your venture? What were the circumstances, insights, or experiences that led to the initial conception of this idea, and how has it evolved from its inception to its current form?
Fabrice: Voltcore was born from a clear industrial insight: conventional copper-based heating systems are heavy, inefficient, slow to respond, and poorly aligned with modern lightweight and sustainable design requirements. Together with the founding team, we identified the opportunity to replace metal-based heating with polymer-based conductive filaments and fabrics that deliver faster, more homogeneous heating while being lighter, recyclable, and easier to integrate. Since its inception, Voltcore has evolved from a materials concept into an industrially validated platform with multiple PoCs across automotive, mobility, and consumer sectors.
What factors led you to pursue the incubator model for developing your venture? More specifically, what aspects of Technoport’s Automobility Incubator made it the optimal choice for your needs, whether in terms of resources, network, expertise, or strategic positioning within the mobility sector?
Fabrice: Joining the Technoport’s Automobility Incubator was a strategic decision driven by four key factors. First, its proximity to automotive and mobility players in Luxembourg enables direct engagement with OEMs, Tier-1s, and applied research partners. Second, it offers strong access to public grants and financial support critical for deep-tech development. Third, the availability of an on-site industrial production hall allows us to host our first manufacturing lines. Finally, shared offices, meeting rooms, video-conferencing, and town-hall facilities provide cost-competitive access to a complete industrial and corporate setup from startup to scale-up.
Based on your experience and journey thus far, what would you consider the most valuable piece of advice or insight you could offer to entrepreneurs who are either starting out or navigating the early stages of building their ventures?
Fabrice: My main advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to anchor innovation in industrial reality from the very beginning. Deep-tech success depends not only on technological performance, but on integration constraints, cost structures, and customer adoption cycles. Validate assumptions early through pilots, build teams with complementary skills, and remain flexible in execution while staying clear on long-term vision. Finally, choose ecosystems and partners that accelerate learning and execution, not just funding, as speed of industrial validation is often the decisive factor.
