Entries show the growing impact of deep tech in all areas of innovation

Hello Tomorrow has announced the finalists of its nineth Global Challenge, a global competition for early-stage deep tech startups. The jury reviewed over 4,000 applications and identified 70 projects with technological innovation, economic viability, leadership, and a positive impact on industries, planet, and society. These startups tackle complex health challenges, climate change mitigation, and create circular materials. They use synthetic biology, quantum technology, artificial intelligence, and robotics to reshape industries and demonstrate resilience amidst economic and geopolitical challenges.

"The huge number and high quality of the startups we selected, coming from every corner of the globe, confirm that deep tech has resisted the global downturn we are seeing in regular tech. This, combined with deep tech’s resilience in venture capital, with $15 billion raised year-to-date in 2023, show that the world will always value companies using unique technology to solve society’s greatest problems, whatever the economic environment,” said Arnaud de la Tour, co-founder and CEO of Hello Tomorrow.

These startup finalists will all be pitching their solutions to a jury at this year’s Hello Tomorrow Global Summit, on March 21st and 22nd in Paris. Ten startups will win in-kind prizes (customised coaching sessions and personal introductions with relevant investors and potential partners/clients), and the top three startups will win one of the three equity-free prizes: €100K Grand Prize, €30K 2nd prize and €20K 3rd prize, and a final prize awarded by Hello Tomorrow’s Strategic Partner BCG, consisting of one year of BCG deep tech support through strategic coaching.

Discover 70 ground-breaking projects classified by Hello Tomorrow and its partners into ten categories:

Advanced Computing & Electronics supported by Intel Ignite, Murata and imec.xpand

• Aligned Carbon (United States) Enabling the semiconductor industry to enter its new material age by unlocking the power of carbon nanotubes
• FononTech (Netherlands) Reshaping 3D microelectronics with ultra fast printing resolutions
• Mignon Technologies (United Kingdom) Energy-efficient semiconductor architecture enabling truly powerful and explainable intelligence on any device
• Phanofi (Denmark) Building sustainable optical interconnect solutions for datacenters and high-performance computing
• Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech (Spain) Building analog quantum application specific solutions to bring quantum benefits today
• QPT (United Kingdom) Next-generation power electronics for high-power electric motors
• VitreaLab (Austria) The brightest and most energy-efficient laser-based displays for AR and VR

Aerospace supported by Safran:

• Cosmic Aerospace (United States) Building an all-electric aircraft with unprecedented efficiencies
• Evitado Technologies (United States) Building an automation platform for airport operations to mitigate risk and increase safety and efficiency
• ION-X (France) Developing a new type of small satellite propulsion with an ionic liquid electrospray thruster
• Orbital Matter (Poland) Making manufacturing in space possible with 3D printing technology to be used in orbit and on the moon
• Zero-Error Systems (Singapore) High reliability semiconductor integrated circuits that optimize performance, cost and power consumption 

Sustainable Construction & Infrastructure supported by LEONARD, Vinci Group’s Innovation Platform

• Adept Materials (United States) Developing climate-regulating construction materials for more sustainable buildings
• ClimAd Technology (Netherlands) Optimizing energy use with smart glass films that enable heat and light management in buildings
• ecoLocked (Germany) Turning buildings into carbon sinks
• Kestrix (United Kingdom) Using mass thermal image capture and AI to scale building retrofit
• Mimicrete (United Kingdom) Developing self-healing concrete solutions that autonomously repair cracks
• Photio (Chile) Using nanotechnology to simulate the photosynthesis process on any surface
• Ultra High Materials (United States) Ultra-low carbon high-performance concrete delivering 80-90% less CO2 and better durability at lower cost

Digital Health & Medical Devices supported by Nitto

• Cellectric Biosciences (Austria) Developing a platform for automated, electromagnetic cell manipulation to empower faster precision medicine
• Clarity (France) Developing a non-invasive neuromodulation medical device to slow down the progression of Alzheimer's Disease
• Concr (United Kingdom) Solving data to enable precision medicine for all
• Imaginostics (United States) Non-invasive, quantitative imaging technology to assess vascular structure and function anywhere in the body
• inHEART (France) Developing an AI-enabled digital twin of the heart for image-guided ablations
• MetSystem (Denmark) Developing a platform to predict cancer metastasis and determine the best treatment
• Robeauté (France) Developing a microrobot for novel therapies in hard-to-reach areas of the body

Energy supported by GTT

• Aquature (United Kingdom) Creating clean fuels and green chemicals from liquid waste
• Bspkl (New Zealand) Solving manufacturing challenges to help clean hydrogen achieve scale and affordability
• eightinks AG (Switzerland) Scalable manufacturing platform to unlock mass production of breakthrough battery materials and designs
• HSL Technologies (France) Innovative hydrogen carrier that transports and stores hydrogen safely like any conventional liquid
• ICODOS (Germany) De-fossilizing chemistry and shipping via lowest cost e-methanol production
• Mantel (United States) Developing the first molten salt-based carbon capture technology
• Tozero (Germany) Bringing lithium-ion battery waste to zero

Environment & Biodiversity supported by L’Oréal

• Advanced Bacterial Sciences (United Kingdom) Using natural microorganisms to replace harmful chemicals across industries
• Algal Bio (Japan) Cultivating algae's potential to bring novel solutions to health, food supply and global warming issues
• Archireef (Hong Kong) 3D-printed reef tiles with eDNA for quantifiable marine restoration
• Carbon Atlantis (Germany) Low-cost electrochemical approach for Direct Air and Point Source Capture
• Geolabe (United States) Building the first system able to monitor most emitted methane at a global scale
• Morfo (France) Restoring native, resilient forest ecosystems with machine learning, computer vision and forest engineering

Food & Agriculture supported by Avril & Supernova Invest

• Agrobiomics (Denmark) Harnessing the power of soil bacteria and metabolites as new biostimulants for better crop production
• Biocentis (United Kingdom) Developing eco-friendly genetic solutions to safely control the world’s most dangerous insect species
• Esencia Foods (Germany) Seafood without fish, created using mycelium biotechnology
• NoPalm Ingredients (Netherlands) Making palm oil without palm trees, through the fermentation of sustainable microbial oils
• Perfat Technologies (Finland) Offering food producers a new kind of solid fat with a superior nutritional profile
• Pheronym (United States) Creating an all-natural, highly effective insect control leveraging pheromone spray
• Yeastup (Switzerland) Upcycling the by-products from beer-brewing processes into high-quality, nutritious ingredients

Industrial Biotech & New Materials supported by Syensqo

• Alt Biotech (France) Paving a new path for bioproduction
• Cambrium (Germany) Creating novel material building blocks with previously inaccessible functionalities
• Cascade Biocatalysts (United States) Catalyzing greener and cheaper chemical manufacturing with longer lasting enzymes
• GuaTecs (France) Natural latex derived from guayule plants producing stronger, softer, and non-allergenic products
• Naturbeads (United Kingdom) Biodegradable, sustainable and cost competitive cellulose microparticles to replace plastic microbeads
• Origin by Ocean (Finland) Getting rid of harmful algae in the oceans and turning it into everyday goods
• TopoLogic (Japan) Developing innovative electronics using topological material

Industry & Machines

• Descycle (United Kingdom) Creating innovative metal recovery & recycling methods with eco-friendly chemicals
• FabNS (Brazil) Empowering nanotechnology through nanoscale imaging and characterization
• InSpek (France) Improving bioprocesses through real-time monitoring with optical microchip sensors
• Photosynthetic (Netherlands) Enabling mass production-speed additive manufacturing at the micro-scale
• Sensemore (Türkiye) Designing AI-powered tools to analyze machine health and predict malfunctions
• Terecircuits (United States) Next gen materials supporting microassembly and mass transfer for displays and advanced electronics
• XtaLight (Singapore) Developing a novel optical microscopy inspection technique tailored for all metal- and alloy-related industries

Medical Biotech & Pharmaceuticals

• Axolotl Biosciences (Canada) Providing high-quality reagents for 3D-printing human tissue models
• Jurata Thin Film (United States) New packaging to allow long-term storage of vaccines and biologics at room temperature or higher
• Narval (United States) Designing synthetic antibody mimetic proteins to replace conventional antibodies in novel therapeutics
• Neobe Therapeutics (United Kingdom) Breaking down tumors through engineered live biotherapeutics
• Orakl (France) Leveraging tumor avatars that combine biology and clinical data to identify and optimise new cancer therapies
• Psylo (Australia) Psychedelic-inspired medicine to treat mental illness
• WhiteLab Genomics (France) Leveraging AI to accelerate and de-risk gene and cell therapies