The materials that build our world — cement, steel, aluminium, glass, pulp and paper, and the metals and advanced materials that run through every value chain — are also among the hardest things on the planet to decarbonise. Their production is energy-hungry, capital-intensive, and locked into infrastructure designed to last for decades. Cutting emissions here is not a matter of swapping one component for another; it demands new heat sources, cleaner energy inputs, circular use of scarce resources, and far better visibility into what plants actually consume and emit.
This is precisely the terrain of the second HARD2SCALE cohort, which turns its focus to the Materials & Resource Industries — cement, steel, advanced materials, aluminium, pulp and paper, glass, and metals. The programme offers selected startups tailored business and technical guidance, open innovation workshops with industrial partners, matchmaking with corporates and investors, access to public funding, and investor-readiness support, alongside immersive ecosystem visits to Finland and France. Participation is free and takes no equity, with a deliberate emphasis on innovators from emerging and moderate EU innovation ecosystems. Below, we introduce the ten startups shaping the second HARD2SCALE cohort and the problems they are built to solve.
ACR Materials
Austria
For hydrogen to scale as a clean energy carrier, the technology that converts it back into power has to become affordable. ACR Materials develops next-generation materials for the core components of hydrogen fuel cells — including gas diffusion electrodes — aimed at making clean hydrogen fuel cell technology cheaper and more scalable for the energy transition.
AddLine Technologies
Bulgaria
Cement and concrete are among the most carbon-intensive materials in the built environment, and much of that footprint comes from how they are formulated and used. AddLine Technologies brings industrial 3D printing automation to low-carbon cement-based materials, enabling more precise, lower-carbon construction and reducing the material waste inherent in conventional building methods.
ContainerGrid
Germany
Circularity only works if materials can be tracked, moved, and accounted for reliably — and if compliance can be proven. ContainerGrid provides a platform for digitising circular supply chains, combining AI-driven material flow logistics with virtual material accounting. It helps manufacturers and recyclers orchestrate reverse logistics and demonstrate compliance, giving circular models the traceability that regulation and customers increasingly demand.
DMAICapp
Romania
Statistical process improvement is a proven route to efficiency and lower waste, but the tools have long been the preserve of specialists. DMAICapp is a cloud-native, AI-assisted Six Sigma/DMAIC workspace that lets frontline and process engineers run analyses such as design of experiments, process capability, and Gage R&R, and generate audit-ready reports — all through a conversational, no-code interface that puts process excellence within reach of the people running the line.
G-Plus
Italy
Industrial heat is one of the largest and most stubborn sources of industrial emissions, and steam in particular is central to countless production processes. G-Plus develops high-temperature steam heat pumps that upgrade low-temperature renewable or waste heat into carbon-free industrial steam. The result is a route to decarbonising process heat for hard-to-abate industries without abandoning the steam infrastructure those plants already rely on.
Infinite
France
Waste-heat recovery is one of the largest untapped decarbonisation levers in heavy industry, yet assessing where and how to deploy it has long been slow, expensive, and expert-dependent. Infinite offers an AI-powered waste-heat-recovery simulator that turns that assessment into a fast, affordable decision — helping industrial operators identify viable recovery opportunities before committing capital.
Kerionics
Spain
Green hydrogen is a critical input for decarbonising energy-intensive industry, but producing it efficiently on-site remains a barrier. Kerionics develops high-temperature Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell (SOEC) systems for on-site green hydrogen production, targeting the energy-intensive sectors where a reliable, efficient hydrogen supply can displace fossil inputs.
Ligneasy
France
Kraft pulp mills generate large volumes of lignin that are currently incinerated rather than valorised. Ligneasy’s patented, sulfuric-acid-free lignin separation technology integrates into existing pulp mills without disrupting operations, recovering high-value lignin for use in resins, packaging, and thermoplastics — converting a burned by-product into a bio-based feedstock and a new revenue stream for the pulp and paper sector.
Thermodraft
Greece
Enormous quantities of usable energy leave industrial and marine sites every day as waste heat. Thermodraft captures and valorises it, combining Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) engines with high-temperature heat pumps to recover low- and medium-temperature waste heat and convert it into electricity or reusable process heat — turning a persistent loss into a source of clean, on-site energy.
Watergenics
Germany
Water is a critical and often overlooked input in resource-intensive industries, and monitoring it typically means slow, periodic lab sampling. Watergenics offers AI-enhanced, real-time monitoring of process, waste, and feed water, replacing that lag with instant water-quality data — enabling faster decisions, tighter resource use, and earlier detection of problems.
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