Jirogasy, manufacturer of sol(id)aires computers
Founded in 2017 by the Kasay brothers, start-up Jirogasy (literally “Malagasy light”) produces solar kits and computers in Madagascar. The company employs around 15 local electronics and product design talents and has an on-site production line to create its “Jirodesk” solar generators and computers.
A first of its kind in Madagascar, born of the brothers’ desire to reconnect with their homeland.
We were born in France to a French mother and a Madagascan father. We wanted to show that you could start out in a country like Madagascar with very little money and end up creating tech objects in a place where, on the face of it, nothing was being done for them, and do it for a cause that makes sense.
What sets the start-up apart is its commitment to helping the people of Madagascar by democratising access to electricity and IT in the most remote areas. For example, Jirogasy sells its solar-powered computers to NGOs that are developing digital access in the island’s secondary schools.
By mid-2021, the two founders want to expand their company, improve their products, create new ones and offload the engineering side of the business, which until now they have supervised from Madagascar. They turned to France: “With the health crisis, Madagascar’s borders were completely closed for a year and a half. It was impossible for us to expand on the African continent from a country that had turned in on itself. Setting up in France made it much easier for us to export our products”.
The aim is to open an innovation and R&D centre to support Madagascan engineers, while continuing to produce in Madagascar.
Jirogasy solar kit
JirogasyLille, its ecosystem and talent pool
Our region quickly emerged as the ideal location for the start-up, which that same year won the “Energy Actors for Africa” call for projects launched by the Hauts-de-France Region. Jirogasy was entrusted with the electrification and digitalisation of Madagascan villages. As part of the project, Jirogasy got in touch with the MEDEE cluster, dedicated to the electrical engineering ecosystem, as well as Nord France Invest and Hello Lille.
Thanks to the support of the Invest team, Jirogasy was able to identify the metropolis it wanted to set up in before contacting the Euratechnologies teams.
There’s a real sense of emulation here and you feel that this is where you belong. We very quickly visited the premises and met an energy start-up incubated at Euratech. Unlike Station F in Paris, which is rather impersonal, here you have support and you feel that you can be in contact with many different players.
The start-up is now just waiting to move into a 30m2 office, scheduled for March 2022.
Once the location has been chosen, all that’s missing is the staff to be recruited. To do this, Jirogasy will be able to draw on a vast pool of talent: “We’re recruiting engineers and export sales people to develop partnerships with African solar players. In the Lille area, we can count on a large number of engineering and business schools, as well as institutions such as Sciences Po, to find the talent we need.
So far, the start-up has formed a partnership with the Junia engineering school to develop its electrification projects in African villages with the school’s students. Initially, Jirogasy will recruit its first engineer for a six-month work placement. By the end of 2022, the ambition is to recruit 4 new talents in Lille to continue developing projects such as marketing products to the general public in Madagascar. This is an important step for the start-up, which also hopes to raise funds this year and recruit around twenty people over the next 3 years.
