Portraits of Female Entrepreneurs: Marie Feroux – Structuring Energy Projects to Better Manage Their Impacts

Marie Feroux is an entrepreneur at heart. She quickly found her way to École Polytechnique’s X-UP incubator with her start-up, Osborne Systems. She founded the company less than a year ago with her husband and two other partners. 

Osborne Systems is a platform that enables manufacturers to design their oil and gas flow measurement systems with greater precision. It falls within one of X-UP’s key areas of focus: the energy sector. The incubator specialises in supporting deep-tech start-ups in this sector. 

Osborne helps manufacturers in this sector to design flow measurement systems more quickly, reliably and in compliance with regulations by digitising and automating the design of measurement systems. This is a process that is still largely carried out using manual and fragmented procedures. ʻI worked for Guidant Measurement, an engineering, procurement and construction firm based in Dubai, serving the energy sector and industry in general. Among other things, I was responsible for developing the CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) division and establishing partnerships in the Middle East and Europe,ʼ explains Marie Feroux. Faced with these challenges, she identified the limitations of current methods, which are complex, poorly structured and extremely time-consuming. She therefore devised a solution capable of structuring and automating these studies. The result is time and money savings for companies, as well as better risk management. ʻThere are thousands of documents to read through to get the dimensions right, and all within a very tight deadline if we want to respond to tenders. This level of precision is essential not only for achieving the best performance, but also for ensuring the safety of engineers working on oil and gas installations. Failing to take a single line of a document into account could cause a fatal accident.ʼ She then left her company to return to France and become the CEO of Osborne Systems, which she founded with three others: her husband Pierre-Adrien Feroux (Head of Business Development), Stanislas P. du Chassin (Chief Financial and Strategy Officer), and Stéphane Decenciere (web developer and AI specialist).

Three months after its foundation, the team of this deep-tech start-up joined the X-UP Create programme at the École Polytechnique incubator in October 2025. ʻWe’ll be receiving support from the incubator until July next year. It’s been an incredible journey so far! We’re receiving excellent training through workshops on legal and financial matters, market research, and much more. Thanks to X-UP, we’ve been able to tailor our product more effectively to meet the needs of our future customers. I’m making the most of this experience to learn and gather all the information we need for our project. As an entrepreneur, it’s impossible to know everything. It’s essential to surround yourself with the right people, with those who are better than you, in order to progress,’ says Marie Feroux. She's certainly a go-getter, but a thoughtful one!

Her in-depth knowledge of energy was gained through extensive experience in the industry at TotalEnergies, at its research centres in Pau, France, and Alderley, Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. ʻI completed a PhD in fluid dynamics at the ISAE-SUPAREO engineering school in partnership with TotalEnergies and ONERA. In particular, I studied multiphase flow measurement using experimental models to improve the accuracy of flow rate measurements for certain types of flows (gas, water and oil),ʼ she explains. Building on this research, she has continued her career abroad as an engineer at Alderley, where she is responsible for selecting the most suitable technology for metering and measurement systems, pipe sizes and pressure loss levels. This involves a significant amount of analytical work, prompting her to explore ways of streamlining these processes to enhance efficiency.

At Osborne Systems, she is addressing a major challenge in the sector by structuring and automating design studies to ensure project reliability and accelerate implementation. This start-up is already beginning to gain recognition. After securing a €90,000 French Tech Emergence grant from Bpifrance last year, Osborne Systems has now been awarded the French Tech Seed label by Bpifrance and French Tech in recognition of its technological rigour and long-term vision. ʻWe are very proud of this recognition! It would not have been possible without the support of École Polytechnique and the team at its Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, X-Novation Center, as well as our network, mentors, and loved ones.ʼ

However, Osborne Systems isn’t Marie Feroux’s first business venture. She previously set up a food court in Zanzibar with her husband and three other partners: @Bento_Zanzibar. ʻWe bought several shipping containers. We created a food court where each container offers a different culinary speciality. Now, the place is a sort of little village with shops, hairdressers and tattoo artists, and events are regularly organised there. It’s very popular with locals and tourists,ʼ she tells us enthusiastically. It's a project she undertook without even knowing the country. ʻA friend told us about Zanzibar’s economic potential. So we seized the opportunity!ʼ It's a venture that she continues to manage remotely today.

What are your passions?

Marie Feroux: I’m naturally very sporty, and I love travelling. I played tennis for many years at university, and now I’ve taken a fancy to padel.

I also discovered Thailand while doing an internship as part of my engineering degree at ISAE-SUPAREO. I really love the country, from its culture and atmosphere to the kindness of the Thai people, its diverse cuisine and stunning landscapes with magnificent mountains. 
 

Who inspires you on a daily basis?

I don’t have any particular role models, but I really admire the founders of Mistral AI* and Pennylane** for what they have achieved. Starting from scratch, they built everything up themselves to create the successful companies we see today, which have made a name for themselves in the tech industry.

Which personal attribute best characterises you? 

Determined! Once I've decided to take on a project, nothing can stop me. I’m resilient and dynamic; obstacles don't scare me. I love taking on new projects and sometimes throw myself into them headfirst. 

*Mistral AI was founded in May 2023 by two graduates of the École Polytechnique, Arthur Mensch and Guillaume Lample (class of 2011). It is a pioneering French start-up in the field of artificial intelligence.

**Pennylane was co-founded in 2020 by five École Polytechnique alumni. It specialises in production software for chartered accountants and management tools for executives.