Dracula Technologies wants to replace the batteries in small sensors and tags, a market it puts at €10 billion. The company, founded in Valence in 2011, prints organic photovoltaic cells, flexible solar cells made from carbon-based inks, that power such devices from indoor light. It sells them under the name LAYER.
The European Innovation Council granted €1,622,881 towards a €2.57 million project that ran from October 2022 to September 2024. According to the CORDIS report, it reached a power conversion efficiency of 25% under indoor light, validated inks with non-toxic solvents and announced a 2,500 m² factory. In October 2025 the company completed a €30 million Series A, with the EIC Fund joining as a new investor, and in June 2026 it announced a multi-year order from Paragon ID.
Company file
- Legal entity
- Dracula Technologies, SIREN 538 758 236, Valence
- Founded
- 12 December 2011
- CEO
- Brice Cruchon
- Products
- LAYER organic photovoltaic modules; LAYER Vault with storage
- Investors
- Banque des Territoires (France 2030), MGI Digital Technology, EIC Fund
- Named customer
- Paragon ID
- EIC project
- LAYER, 1 Oct 2022 to 30 Sep 2024, closed
- Staff (2024)
- 32
Where Dracula Technologies Stands Today
In June 2026 the identification company Paragon ID placed a multi-year order for "several hundred thousand LAYER organic photovoltaic modules per year" for battery-free Bluetooth tags, which the companies called a move from pilots to large-scale deployment. The Series A release said Dracula was fulfilling "multi-year contracts with global industry leaders" in smart buildings, asset tracking and sensors, and that its factory, which it calls the world's largest dedicated to printed organic photovoltaics, would quadruple capacity to 600 million cm² a year with yields close to 95%.
The Technology: Solar Cells Printed Like Labels
The cells are printed from "100% organic ink formulations", according to the CORDIS report, which describes flexible modules less than 5 mm thick, inks tuned for indoor, outdoor and mixed light, an integrated flexible supercapacitor for storage, and a partnership with the printing-equipment maker MGI to reach "200,000 modules/week". The efficiency figures are the company's own.
"With this support, we will strengthen our industrial base in France, lay the groundwork for future manufacturing closer to key markets."
Brice Cruchon, CEO, Dracula Technologies, October 2025What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows
The project promised "an organic photovoltaic module that generates energy from ambient light" produced at industrial scale. The report lists the optimised process, two industrial ink partners, three business lines (prototyping, module production and licensing), more than 60 recruits, €5 million from the French state's "First Factory" programme, and the 2,500 m² Green MicroPower Factory with capacity for 150 million cm² a year.
- Industrial inks and processDeliveredNon-toxic inks validated.
- High indoor efficiencyDelivered25%, company-reported.
- Production capacityDeliveredValence factory.
- Volume customersDeliveredParagon ID multi-year order.
What Has Happened Since the Award
The Money
The October 2025 extension, reported by pv magazine France as €15 million of additional money, was led by Banque des Territoires for the French state's France 2030 programme, with MGI and the EIC Fund. The public register summary on Pappers shows net losses of €0.83 million in 2023 and €1.28 million in 2024 and 32 employees, but not revenue.
What cannot be checked
Dracula's revenue, how many modules it actually ships, the value of the Paragon ID order and the EIC Fund's investment are not public.
Why Europe Should Care
Printed indoor solar cells are a small market where a European company claims the largest dedicated factory. The EIC grant paid for much of the industrial development, and the French state and the EIC Fund have financed the scale-up that followed.
What the project promised
An organic photovoltaic module that powers devices from ambient light, made at scale.
What the record shows
A factory in Valence, a €30M Series A with the EIC Fund and a multi-year volume order; revenue not public.
The Verdict
From lab to factory
The LAYER project did what the EIC paid for: it made the printing process industrial and the company built a factory. The volume orders now coming in are the test of whether the capacity is needed; the revenue figures that would settle it are not published.
Dracula Technologies has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on company statements, French company data, trade press and EU project data, linked throughout.
