Star­tups pre­pare to wow AkzoNobel’s Paint the Future jury

Being held in Ams­ter­dam from May 14 to 16, the event – hos­ted by AkzoNo­bel and chal­lenge part­ner KPMG – will give par­ti­cipants the chance to col­lab­or­ate with industry experts and fur­ther their solu­tions. The ulti­mate goal is to part­ner with AkzoNo­bel on sus­tain­able busi­ness oppor­tun­it­ies. ​“We were ecstat­ic to receive a total of 160 sub­mis­sions and build an incred­ible innov­a­tion eco­sys­tem” says Klaas Kruithof, AkzoNobel’s Chief Tech­no­logy Officer and Chair­man of the Paint the Future jury. ​“It’s the kind of col­lab­or­a­tion that’s going to take us bey­ond what we pre­vi­ously thought pos­sible. Now we’re look­ing for­ward to explor­ing the selec­ted 21 oppor­tun­it­ies in more detail at what will be an excit­ing accel­er­at­or event when we get togeth­er in Ams­ter­dam.” First look at the par­ti­cipants Respond­ing to five real-world chal­lenges, the selec­ted 21 par­ti­cipants entered the fol­low­ing innov­at­ive solu­tions that could poten­tially change the game in paints and coat­ings: Cir­cu­lar solutions 

• Alucha Recyc­ling Tech­no­lo­gies (the Neth­er­lands) – turn­ing waste into bio-oils and minerals
• Caf­feInk (the Neth­er­lands) – pro­du­cing sus­tain­able dark pig­ments from cof­fee grounds
• Cyanet­ics (the UK) – cap­ture and bio-based con­ver­sion of CO₂from steel­works
• PILI (France)– renew­able and long-last­ing col­ors from biomass

Enhanced functionality 

• Cyp­ris (the US) – chem­ic­al tech­no­logy to deliv­er the phe­nomen­on of struc­tur­al color
• Dark­side Sci­entif­ic Inc. (the US) – illu­min­ates any sur­face with light-emit­ting coating
• Inter­face Poly­mers (the UK) – tun­ing sur­face func­tion­al­ity with di-block polymers
• NANOAIR SOLU­TIONS S.L. (Spain) – air-puri­fy­ing coat­ings that clean themselves
• SAS Nan­o­tech­no­lo­gies LLC (the US) – self-heal­ing micro­cap­sules as anti-cor­ros­ive pigment
• Syn­mat­ter (the US) – smart tech­no­logy for cor­ro­sion pro­tec­tion and anti-fouling 

Life sci­ence infusion 

• Chro­masol (the US) – light-activ­ated anti-micro­bi­al coating
• Hoek­mine B.V. (the Neth­er­lands) – eco-friendly col­ors from bio­lo­gic­al materials
• Ocean Sci­ence (HK) Lim­ited (China) – coat­ing with highly effect­ive nat­ur­al anti-foul­ing agent
• SGMA (the UK) – non-tox­ic, dur­able anti-micro­bi­al pro­tec­tion for surfaces

Pre­dict­able performance 

• AOMS Tech­no­lo­gies (Canada) – optic­al fiber sens­ing sys­tem for cor­ro­sion in hid­den areas
• Octo (the Neth­er­lands) – digit­al solu­tions for inspec­tions using sensors, drones and AI

Smart application 

• Action Paint (the UK) – eas­ily remov­able paint that pre­vents dam­age to the surface
• Apel­lix (the US) – autonom­ous drone that cleans and coats surfaces
• Archipelago Tech­no­logy (the UK) – pre­cise drum applic­a­tion using thou­sands of nozzles
• Qlay­ers (the Neth­er­lands) – auto­mated print­ing head to coat large sur­faces in any weather
• Trans­forma Robot­ics (Singa­pore) – mobile robot that scans, plans and paints interiors

All the par­ti­cipants will join the May event in per­son for an intens­ive, inter­act­ive exper­i­ence includ­ing work­shops, mas­ter­classes and col­lab­or­at­ive ses­sions – cul­min­at­ing in a case for col­lab­or­a­tion presen­ted to the event jury. Jury with broad expert­ise A spe­cially selec­ted jury will bring their expert­ise in innov­a­tion, digit­al tech­no­logy, busi­ness, sci­ence, mar­ket­ing, invest­ment and cus­tom­er exper­i­ence. ​“Each jury mem­ber brings some­thing unique to this jour­ney,” adds Kruithof. ​“Their com­bined exper­i­ence will help us select the star­tups with the most excit­ing poten­tial to shape the future of paints and coat­ings.” Source: AkzoNo­bel, Media Release, 11.04.2019