Akzo’s Imagine Chemistry Challenge yields two potential partners

In the Netherlands, AkzoNobel says the inaugural year of its Imagine Chemistry Challenge has been a success with two of the three 2017 finalists advancing toward formal partnership agreements with the chemical major.

The Imagine Chemistry Challenge invited startups to submit innovative ideas for the change to collaborate with the Akzo.  “We had hoped to get 40 submissions when we launched the Imagine Chemistry Challenge in 2017,” Peter Nieuwenhuizen, chief technology officer, AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals, tells HAPPI. “We received 220, it was nearly overwhelming! It demonstrates that companies can collaborate when everyone is treated as an equal.”

Nieuwenhuizen adds that AkzoNobel is close to a heads of terms stage with Ecovia, one of three finalists. Renmatix is in a similar position, he adds.

For 2018, AkzoNobel is soliciting solutions for sustainable small particle technologies; wastewater-free chemical sites, and intelligent chemical plants, among others.