Less than 24 hours after winning Paint the Future awards, three startups have already signed their letters of intent to continue working together on sustainable business opportunities with AkzoNobel.
The startups had the unique opportunity to explore their solutions with their mentors and industry experts through each phase of the global startup challenge, including an intense three-day bootcamp. Now having signed the letters of intent, they will develop their solutions even further with AkzoNobel.
“The winning startups are joining our go-to-market acceleration program, connecting them to a global network of people and resources,” said Menno van der Zalm, director of the AkzoNobel Incubator. “Over the next six months, we’ll work together to validate their solutions for our customers and develop a joint value case.”
The following three solutions won over the international jury of experts and business leaders:
Winner: SolCold
The solution from Israeli startup SolCold is a sustainable self-cooling coating based on anti-Stokes. It uses the sun’s energy to keep the inside temperature much cooler without having to use any electricity.
“As a group of engineers and scientists, we know how to do R&D very well,” said Yaron Shenhav, CEO of SolCold. “But what we lack is the ability to mass-produce and scale our very innovative product. So collaborating with AkzoNobel is the perfect fit.”
Winner: Aerones
Latvian startup Aerones brings a robotic solution to wind turbine maintenance. Their crawling robot allows technicians to safely and efficiently perform inspections, cleaning and repairs at height.
“We had a great experience, and as we made new friends this week it started to feel like a real family,” said Janis Putrams, CTO and co-founder of Aerones. “We’re excited to work together with AkzoNobel to improve the generation of renewable energy — we would like to surprise our clients with a solution that combines our technology and AkzoNobel’s unique expertise in protective coatings.”
Winner: SprayVision
From the Czech Republic, SprayVision brings a data-driven approach to optimizing spray application of paint, offering customers full control over the process. The solution helps to reduce environmental impact by saving material and improving quality.
“What a great week, it exceeded our expectations,” said Petr Jahn, CEO of SprayVision. “We learned a lot from connecting with the other startups and getting such challenging questions from the AkzoNobel team. They’ll introduce us to completely new fields we’re not currently active in, which represent big opportunities for collaboration.”
This Paint the Future global startup challenge launched in 2021 and attracted 245 submissions from 62 countries. The first global startup challenge was held in 2019, followed by regional challenges in Brazil (2020), China (2021) and most recently in India (2022).
For more information about the Paint the Future startup challenge, visit letspaintthefuture.com.
