05.16.19
Three days of face-to-face collaboration with AkzoNobel experts have opened doors for international startups to "paint the future" with their innovations.
Concluding the industry-first challenge, five startups were rewarded with Paint the Future Awards from AkzoNobel:
- SAS Nanotechnologies (US) - joint development agreement;
- QLayers (Netherlands) - business agreement;
- Interface Polymers (UK) - business agreement;
- Apellix (US) - joint development agreement;
- Alucha Recycling Technologies (Netherlands) - sourcing agreement
In addition, challenge partner KPMG awarded Octo (Netherlands) with the KPMG Scale-up Track Award.
Each award comes with the intention to continue working with recipients on sustainable business opportunities. These developments will be the first to emerge from a new innovation ecosystem that will help AkzoNobel delight customers while further pushing the boundaries of the paints and coatings industry.
"We're very excited to continue our collaborative journey with the recipients of the Paint the Future awards," said Klaas Kruithof, AkzoNobel's chief technology officer and chairman of the Paint the Future jury. "Together with these startups, we're going to drive innovation in paints and coatings beyond expectation, imagination and generations. With the power of an entire ecosystem behind us, big things are on the horizon."
The solutions that captured the jury's imagination were smart coatings from SAS Nanotechnologies; an automated printing head for coating large surfaces from QLayers; di-block polymers that tune surface functionality from Interface Polymers; the autonomous drone from Apellix; Alucha Recycling Technologies' solution for turning waste into bio-oils and minerals; and Octo's digital solutions for inspections.
The challenge received 160 submissions from around the world. Of those, 21 startups from Canada, China, France, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the UK and the US were invited to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to accelerate their solutions before making their final pitch to the jury.
