5 things we have learned evaluating 5,000 startups & organizing the biggest virtual event dedicated to emerging technologies

We just put on the biggest virtual event of the year dedicated to emerging technologies a.k.a. deep tech.

The COVID crisis made it a very difficult journey for us, having to postpone our event twice and totally shift our model to become 100% virtual, all while not being able to be together in our office.

But for many other people, the journey was even more difficult, and this crisis has made us realize the hard way that humanity is still very dependent on our environment. It’s hard not to see the COVID crisis as a preview of what is about to happen with other crises, such as climate change or biodiversity loss, at a much slower but also much deeper level. So even though this year challenged us, in terms of ‘how’ we do things as well as ‘what’ we are doing, it confirmed our ‘why’: we need to work together to solve the toughest challenges we are facing today, and we need new technology to give us the power to win.

We need to work together because these crises are global, and so require a global response with the combination of all our resources to have the required impact.

We also need new technologies, as we know that changing our habits and leveraging mature technologies will be necessary, but not sufficient.

To tackle climate change, a report published in July 2010 by the International Energy Agency shows that mature technologies can meet only 25% of the emission reduction required to put the world on a sustainable path to net-zero CO2 emissions.

We need new technologies to change the way we produce food, the way we power our industries and transport people and goods, to an extent which cannot be achieved with mature technologies.

Solutions are already here, and new ones are being developed every year.

This year’s 14 finalists of the Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge, that pitched last week at our Global Summit, give an illustration of the solutions to tackle climate change, public health and industrial challenges.

To fight climate change, this year’s Grand Winner, Agora Energy Technologies from Canada, is developing a new class of ground-breaking battery technology, namely a CO2 Redox Battery that directly transforms CO2 captured from industrial sites into a less detrimental form during the charging and discharging cycle of the battery. In doing so, they tackle the climate crisis on two fronts: enabling the energy transition to renewables by providing a large scale energy storage option, and also by capturing CO2 from the air.

GBatteries Energy, another Global Challenge finalist also from Canada, is also working with batteries, to accelerate the use of electric vehicles by providing ultra-fast charging.

To replace fossil fuels and allow clean, electric mobility and other industrial applications, hydrogen is the other lever. Celadyne Technologies from the US is tackling one of the most important issues in this area, working on a new fuel cell membrane to reduce the cost of hydrogen-generated electricity.

More generally, the protection of our environment is well covered among the startups that made it to the finals of our Global Challenge this year.

Metalmark Innovations, from the US, is combating indoor air pollution with a platform technology making coating materials that effectively break down Volatile Organic Compounds, which cause chronic illnesses, cancer, and trigger heart attacks.

To feed a growing population while preserving our planet, Orbem from Germany combines artificial intelligence with MRI to save chicks from unnecessary death, revolutionizing the poultry industry, and Napigen from the US is using CRISPR technology to edit mitochondrial DNA to produce non-GMO hybrid seeds with unprecedented yields.

The other topic that was highly represented this year among our Global Challenge finalists was healthcare, leveraging advances in both artificial intelligence and biotech, often combining both.

AiDx Medical from the Netherlands is automating microscopic examination, making the diagnosis of tropical parasitic diseases accessible for everyone even in remote areas.

Osivax from France is revolutionising influenza prevention with a universal flu vaccine for both current and future Influenza A and B variants.

PhagoMed BioPharma from Austria is developing targeted antibacterials to treat debilitating diseases such as severe dysbiosis, cancers, and auto-immune disorders.

The startups we saw this year also bring new solutions to improve our industrial processes, on many fronts:

Teratonics from France develops a novel non-destructive testing solution that allows to detect defects inside and on the surface of a given object.

Greenerwave from France is developing flat panel antennas to unlock seamless broadband communication with ground terminals for Satcom and 5G.

Pasqal, also from France, is building highly scalable quantum processors with outstanding calculation power to solve complex problems, powering the second quantum revolution across many industries.

Cedrion from Spain designs and manufactures more efficient cooling solutions for electronic components.

Mission Control Space Services from Canada is developing a mission control software platform that enables automated space operations.

These are the startups that reached the finals of our Global Challenge, but there were more than 5,000 startups participating from 128 countries. So you can imagine the number of solutions that are coming!

The most important trends of this year were:

The innovations not only to capture CO2, but also to upcycle it, in order to run batteries like Agora Energy Technologies, to produce biofuels & packaging like LanzaTech, or to improve construction material properties like Carbon Upcycling Technologies;

Harnessing the power of synthetic biology, by turning microbes into living factories to produce biofuels, plastic alternatives for packaging, but also new types of food. This has the power to completely change value chains in all industries: healthcare, energy, food & agriculture, construction, and even luxury;

Exploiting quantum phenomena to build a new computing platform, secure our communication and design materials with unprecedented properties. Many startups are already working on improving the hardware, but also developing concrete applications such as simulating the behaviour of new materials;

Advancing Artificial Intelligence beyond the initial hype. AI is making machines more autonomous and enabling the analysis of large data sets which translates into a more user-centric, problem-driven approach in R&D.  

We urgently need to work together to bring these solutions to the market, and allow them to have a real impact

Startups are breaking into every industry, even where we would not expect them, such as nuclear fusion or steel production. This is due to much lower barriers to entry to perform cutting edge R&D in digital (e.g. with cloud computing), hardware (think 3D printing) and even biotech (you can design and order synthetic DNA online). There is also plenty of capital available and the entrepreneurial spirit is now spreading everywhere, even in the academic world.

The good news is that it unleashes unprecedented creativity, and brings agility and speed to transform these ideas into viable solutions. However, it also leads to more fragmentation of the resources that are required to scale up. So we need to connect the right people, the right organizations and at the right time, to make sure these resources converge to have a big impact.

We must combine the breakthroughs of research with the agility of startups, the financial resources of investors and the industrial and commercial power of large companies to make it happen, and to create value for both the organizations and society at large.

We need to foster a dialog at every level of society

Emerging technologies have incredible power to shape the future for the better. But they can also be misused, whether it’s intentional or not.

That’s why we need to anticipate those potential uses, and have an open discussion at a societal level to make sure this future we are shaping is a collective choice, and not a consequence of the choices made by a few.

On top of preventing potential issues, anticipating the consequences and being transparent about it would also help build a genuine dialog within the society. Such a dialog is important to make decisions based on a common understanding rather than fear, which is still a dominant driver of the debates around nuclear, GMOs, vaccines, and more.

That’s why we at Hello Tomorrow do what we do, organizing our events, and putting forward innovation programs for large companies. To play the role of an orchestrator of the deep tech ecosystem, and a partner to navigate it.

Thank you

We could definitely not have been through this tough year without the support from our partners who supported us in all our decisions. Thank you for your trust BNP Paribas, BCG, L’Oréal, Bpifrance, DSM, Safran, ArianeGroup, Airbus Ventures, Léonard, IFPEN, Bayer, SNCF, French Tech, Merck, Choose Paris Region, ESA, & Joy Ventures.

Arnaud & the Hello Tomorrow Team who is working every day to make it all possible.