With its compact solar panels designed in Wallonia and tested as far afield as Greenland, Sunslice has established itself as a key player in mobile energy. The company, founded by two young engineers from UCLouvain, has literally made a space for itself in the sun in a market dominated by American giants.
Emerging from the lecture halls of UCLouvain, Sunslice is now a European benchmark player in portable solar energy solutions. At the helm of this young Walloon company, Henri Gernaey and his partner Geoffroy Ghion embody a generation of entrepreneurial engineers driven by a simple yet powerful ambition: to take energy everywhere.
“While studying civil engineering at UCL, we took part in the StarTech programme, supported by the Walloon Region,” recalls Henri Gernaey. “It was an initiative to raise awareness of entrepreneurship. It was partly thanks to this that we embarked on a small solar project, which at the time was very free, with few constraints.”
This first challenge gave rise to a real vocation. The young engineer continued the project after the final presentation and brought his friend Geoffroy Ghion along for the adventure. Together, they took part in several university competitions and won two prizes, a strong signal that encouraged them to take the plunge. “At that point, we said to ourselves: why not give it a try and start a company?”
So in 2017, shortly after submitting their dissertations, the two friends founded Sunslice. Their initial idea was to design an ultra-portable, wallet-sized solar charger for modern adventurers. A crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter attracted the attention of more than 400 potential buyers, but failed to reach its financial target. “That didn't discourage Wing, who believed in us and gave us our first convertible loan. That’s how the wheels got into motion, little by little,” says Henri Gernaey.
From a student idea to a vision of sustainable energy accessible everywhere
Since its inception, the company has expanded its range from pocket chargers to more powerful solar solutions. “We cater to hikers, cyclists, digital nomads, but also humanitarian and military organisations.” Sunslice is now developing products capable of powering laptops, campervan equipment, and even remote sites.
Their mantra sums up their philosophy perfectly: “Sunslice, Energy Anywhere.” “We try to offer solutions tailored to all uses, always with the same idea in mind: to provide energy everywhere,” explains the co-founder. This guiding principle is accompanied by a deliberately measured growth model. “We haven’t raised a lot of funds. Our progress hasn’t been meteoric, but it’s been stable, steady, and on a human scale. That’s what we prefer: keeping our feet on the ground and knowing where we're going.”
Today, the company has five employees, including three full-time staff, and generates revenue of around €1 million. This is a respectable performance for a self-financed start-up that has chosen sturdiness over haste.
From Wallonia to the four corners of the world
Based in Louvain-la-Neuve, Sunslice designs all its products in Belgium. Manufacturing is mainly carried out in China, while Tunisia handles part of the manual production, particularly for leather and sewing. Storage and logistics remain based in Belgium, from where shipments are sent all over the world.
The customer base reflects this diversity: cyclists, military personnel, hikers, filmmakers, and ordinary travellers seeking energy independence. Some use cases are out of the ordinary, starting with IMAQA’s polar mission in Greenland. “Their working environment perfectly illustrates the robustness of our products. In their film, you can see our solar panels covered with 20 centimetres of snow, sometimes in ice storms. It’s an extreme use case and it works very well,” says the engineer. This scientific expedition, conducted with an international consortium, aimed to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of climate change. Sunslice also saw it as a concrete way to validate its technology. “The idea was to prove that our system could hold up, charge any type of device and remain effective in an environment where energy is scarce and precious.”
Autonomous energy for a changing world
The war in Ukraine also caused a spike in demand, driven by fears of power cuts. “Our portable electric generators and solar panels have been a real hit,” acknowledges the CEO. This situation has increased public interest in autonomous energy solutions and prompted Sunslice to accelerate its development.
Today, the start-up is exploring a new field: telecommunications. “We are working on solutions that combine energy and connectivity, with portable Starlink-type satellite antennae for humanitarian and government organisations.”
Sunslice’s partners already include Decathlon, as well as several major Swiss retail chains such as Transa, which specialises in outdoor and adventure gear. “We also have several projects underway with major European distributors in the outdoor sector,” adds Henri Gernaey. Europe remains the company’s main market, with France in first place. But the brand has already conquered other horizons: the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. “These markets are further away, so we’re not stimulating them heavily, but they are promising,” says the co-founder.
Responsible innovation that rivals the market giants
True to its engineering DNA, Sunslice invests heavily in research and development. “We’re not just a company that resells existing modules. We devote a lot of time to technical research, development and the continuous improvement of our products.”
When the company launched in 2017, the market was already saturated with big names. “At the time, the number one was Goal Zero, an American company that we looked up to as a role model. Today, it’s quite symbolic: we’re replacing their products on the shelves, where they have left the European market.” This is a great achievement for the Belgian start-up “We’ve gradually managed to catch up with and even replace the major competitors we could see when we started out. We’re really proud to have reached up to those who were initially our role models.”
In just a few years, Sunslice has made a place for itself in the sun, both literally and figuratively. Starting out as a simple student project, the Walloon start-up has proven that innovation, thoroughness and perseverance can take you a long way. Even to the furthest corners of the globe.
This article was written by Rodolphe Masuy for Revue W+B no.170 published quarterly by Wallonie-Bruxelles International.
