The Start-up Challenge
An opportunity to present innovative and impactful solutions to use materials smarter, less and longer.
> Competition rules and jury composition
The nominees of the World Materials Forum Start Up Challenge 2019
AERONAUTICAL SERVICES (Roma, Italy)
Customized nano structured materials for extreme tasks and related mathematical models to predict the performance of such materials noticeably in the field of high temperature shielding & fireproof, electro magnetic waves absorbing & shielding and Sound Absorbing.
ALIGNED CARBON (San Jose, California)
Carbon Nano Tubes that would support further transistor scaling (so called Moore Law) thanks to their integration into the semiconductor manufacturing process (in combination with FinFet).
ASTRILEUX (Berkeley, California)
Advanced materials for EUV Lithography to manufacture ICs at 7 nm and smaller.
DEMETA (Rennes, France)
New class of polymer manufactured from a underutilized by-product of the petroleum industry (dicyclopentadiene), with a simpler production process, lower carbon and energy footprint and superior performances (toughness, lightness) than existing materials (epoxy, polyester, vinylester or PU).
FLUENCE ANALYTICS (New Orléans, USA)
Big Data to monitor real time polymer reaction and achieve optimum reaction efficiency/product quality thanks to adjusting process variables such as temperature, pressure, reagent feed rates, and reaction time.
FREDSENSE (Calgary, Canada)
Innovative, faster and more sensitive (1ppb) electro chemical sensors for detecting very low concentrations of Arsenic and other contaminants in industrial water such as for gold mine effluent treatment.
FULL MOON (Stanford, California)
First low power and low cost sensor capable of quantifying and differentiating between various molecules with 1st used case in detecting leaks of natural gas with the same performance as existing expensive IR spectroscopic sensors.
HYMAG’IN (Grenoble, France)
Hydrothermal oxidation of ferrous wastes into high performance magnétites for water treatment.
KEBOTIX (Cambridge, USA)
Combining data and AI with robotics to discover and create advanced chemicals and materials at a faster rate and at the push of a button.
MATERIALSZONE (Israel)
Research platform for Scientific Data and AI modeling with the aim to accelerate the advent of new technologies thanks to harvesting, interpreting, and exchanging materials science related data.
MEMBRASENZ (Bochum, Germany)
Gas-separating membranes to be used in alkaline electrolysers (in order to split water into H2 and oxygen) while achieving excellent gas barrier properties and with 50% higher ionic conductivity compared to state of the art Zirfon membranes.
MOMENTUM TECHNOLOGIES (Dallas, Texas)
MSX membrane Technology (reverse osmosis) that extracts high purity rare earth oxides from a wide range of magnetic waste feedstock (MRIs, cell phones, electric motors) without requesting the use of high temperatures or pressures.
MOSAIC MATERIALS (Emeryville, California)
Separation technology that reduces the capital and operating expenses of carbon capture from nearly any mixture, including large point sources, natural gas, biogas, and ambient air.
NAWA (Le Rousset, France)
Electrode material that combines nano/clean technologies for a Carbon Battery that stores more electricity, more rapidly - telephones, cars, renewable energies, buildings.
OPUS 12 (Berkeley, California)
Technology that bolts onto any source of CO2 emissions and with only water and electricity as inputs transforms it into chemical products such as ethylene & methane.
SAFI Organics (Kenya)
Novel chemical process in order to break down cellulosic chains 100 times faster than traditional composting without any external energy or heat and locally produce a substrate sufficiently organically rich to support microbial growth and retain nutrients moisture in the soil effectively.
TRIMATERIALS (Brescia, Italy)
Paints that prevent buildings from collapsing in an earthquake.