PME Innovation | Batteries to fly, roll or float

Much effort is currently being devoted to the electrification of transportation, but still very little to electrify everything else. A small company in Sherbrooke designs and manufactures batteries for uses that are poorly served by the market.

The idea

It was on a motorcycle that Félix-Antoine Lebel arrived at SysNergie, the company he founded in 2022 with two partners, Pascal Messier and Louis Pelletier. Passionate about electric vehicles, Félix-Antoine Lebel had the ambition to make an electric motorcycle that would be faster than the gasoline motorcycle. His electric motorcycle, which was his final project for his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the Université de Sherbrooke, led him to specialize in batteries.

SysNergie wants to electrify “everything that flies, rolls, floats or does not move, but which does not find ready-made solutions on the market”, summarizes the founder who describes himself and his team as electrification enthusiasts.

The product

One of the young company’s first customers was the Canadian Coast Guard, which wanted batteries for its navigation buoys. Foxtrot, another young company that emerged from the University of Sherbrooke, also called on SysNergie’s expertise to help it power its heavy-duty moving platforms.

Custom solutions are still offered by SysNergie, but the company has also developed three standard lithium-ion batteries, in small, medium and large formats that can be used for multiple purposes. “This could be industrial robotics, agricultural vehicles, drones or telecommunications stations,” illustrates Félix-Antoine Lebel.

The future

Since its inception, the company has benefited from a favorable context for everything related to the environment and electrification. It is also benefiting from the growing desire to free itself from the all-powerful Chinese supplier. “The growth we are experiencing is beyond our expectations,” says Félix-Antoine Lebel.

With its six employees, SysNergie has been living since its beginnings on available public aid programs, its own funds and its sales revenues. The program for the future looks busy. The company wants to increase its production and aims to build a factory next year. The search for external financing will become essential, which does not scare the company’s co-founder. “We can say: look what we have done with limited means, imagine what we could do with your investment,” he illustrates.

In the same year, Félix-Antoine Lebel would also like, if possible, to complete his doctorate.

But what won’t happen is a sale of the company. “We want to be a Quebec flagship,” assures the entrepreneur. “I want to still be here in 25 years.”