Une innovation liégeoise primée aux Avant garde Awards 2026 à Milan JT de QU4TRE TV 03 06 2026

The Liège-based startup Mabalise just won a special mention from the jury at the Avant-Garde Awards 2026 in Milan for its biodegradable connected labels. There are quite a few concepts behind that last sentence. So, what exactly is a connected label? Why are some more environmentally friendly than others? NFC, RFID—what do these terms mean? We'll ask Philippe Henin, the man behind the Liège startup. You offer connected labels. What is a connected label? Because we all encounter them in our daily lives, actually. We use them every day. Let's talk about NFC technology, for example, which you just mentioned. Everyone has an NFC card in their wallet, their bank card, which allows for contactless payment. That has an antenna, an NFC card, basically. There's an NFC antenna if you use this technology. NFC technology is primarily used in the banking sector for contactless payments because it's very secure. It's used in the user experience. It's also used in the fight against counterfeiting. I see here in the image, for example, that RFID tags are used. That's the other technology. Explain it to us. This one is also familiar to many people. It's a technology that came onto the market 50 or 60 years ago, the first security tags. You know, when someone forgets to remove it and you go through the security gate and it beeps. Yes, exactly, it beeps. So, that was RFID technology. And now, we see it on bottles, this kind of product. You go to Zara, to Decathlon. There you go, Decathlon. This is a Decathlon checkout system. You put your purchases in it. And the label communicates with the point-of-sale system. That's RFID. And that's what you sell. But your labels are also biodegradable and eco-friendly. Yes, they're biodegradable and compostable. You can put them in your compost bin at the bottom of the garden. Is that new? Yes, that's something completely new. We've had the product for two years. Now, it's starting to gain traction. Being able to say, "I have eco-friendly labels to offer you," let's put it that way, is an attractive point for the customer. The hope is that they'll communicate with it? Generally, companies that want connected packaging are reluctant to use traditional labels because it prevents the cardboard from being recycled. And often, they have an ethical charter. They say, "We have an eco-friendly product, a product that respects nature." And then, if you put a label on it that's made of several layers of different plastics, that's a problem. So, they say, "Look, we have labels that are biodegradable, compostable, and recyclable with paper." They generally communicate about that. And it's very much in line with current trends, both the digital aspect and the eco-friendly aspect. Who are your clients? Well, I can't mention any brands because we have... Client profile, it's not the tiny local business, I imagine. No, because in fact, we mainly work with, my core target market is, industries that use paper and cardboard packaging, primarily the cosmetics and luxury sectors. Tomorrow, we'll finish with that. In this sector, in the world of connected labels, are there things coming that you're already working on? There are things coming, we're already working on them. There's R&D happening because, in fact, 0.2% or 0.3% of the label is the electronic chip. And we're already working on labels that won't have this electronic chip. And what will it be replaced by? By ink. That's already the case in some. For our labels, the entire antenna part is ink. And there's still a tiny bit, 0.2% or 0.3% of the label, which is an electronic chip. It's the only part that isn't 100% recyclable, but it's validated by certification bodies because it's so minuscule. And we're already working to eliminate this tiny part, so that it becomes 100% recyclable instead of 99.5%. What do we wish for you? Ma Balise and you, in the short term, you're the only employee, you're the founder, CEO, employee—whatever you want to call it. What do we want, briefly? For it to grow, to keep the momentum going. We participated in three international trade shows, and we won awards at all three. So that means there's market demand behind it. And I think that in a year or two, we'll be hearing more about Ma Balise in the public sphere.