Staying ahead in today’s economic environment requires not just following trends but also actively looking for disrupting opportunities. At the forefront of this transition are innovative startups and companies disrupting key industries by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, blockchain, and more.
We created this in-depth report with the goal of supporting your innovation efforts. You get to know 30+ startups and companies working across industries like manufacturing, mining, and chemical processing. Sift through our list by going through individual industries or using industrial clusters (like heavy, process, and service industries).
This article was last updated in January 2025.
How We Researched and Where this Data is from
- Leveraged the StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, an AI- and Big Data-powered innovation intelligence platform covering 4.7M+ emerging companies and over 20K+ technologies and trends worldwide.
- Analyzed our 3100+ industry reports on innovations to gather relevant insights and create a master technology-industry matrix.
- Cross-checked this information with external sources for enhanced accuracy.
Want to Download Our Master Tech-Industry Matrix?
Top Startups & Companies by Industries [2025 & Beyond]
- Heavy Industries
- CLE – Manufacturing
- Enzymatic – Construction
- Nditive3D – Oil and Gas
- PHNXX – Utilities
- LOXO – Automotive
- Lumo Analytics – Mining
- Astral Systems – Energy
- VENET TECHNOLOGIES – Aerospace
- Praedico – Railroad
- Terzago Robotics – Shipbuilding
- Process Industries
- Mealiways – Food & Beverage
- Blue Nature Bio – Chemical
- Vital3D – Pharmaceuticals
- Fronka Tech – Materials
- GEMESYS – Semiconductor
- ALGAESYS – Water & Wastewater Management
- Light Industries
- Service Industries
- Occubee – Retail & eCommerce
- Kvantify – Finance
- OBORTECH – Logistics
- Saha – Tourism & Hospitality
- NeuralAgent – Transportation & Mobility
- WiRE – Real Estate
- ATLAS – Media & Entertainment
- Connect the Dots – Healthcare
- Interdisciplinary Industries
- RialtoLabs – Agriculture
- Greenstone Biosciences – Biotechnology
- Circlepac – Packaging
- Ambiflo – Telecom
- WiData – Smart Cities
Heavy Industries
The global economy is based on heavy industries, which are well-known for their size, intricacy, and vital role in development and infrastructure. They are currently facing issues with adopting sustainable practices and updating legacy systems.
Emerging companies in this sector integrate innovative technologies to reduce emissions and increase productivity. These solutions include autonomous systems, real-time asset monitoring, centralized data management, and more.
CLE – Manufacturing
- Solution: Machine Learning-based Factory Automation
- Unique Selling Point: CLE combines machine learning and hybrid structured light and phase shift technology to reconstruct images from weak signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) reflections. It scans bright and dark objects simultaneously to provide a real color-textured point cloud.
- Benefits: Allows automotive manufacturers to automate glass insertion and wheel mounting.
- Founded: 2021
- Location: South Korea
Enzymatic – Construction
- Solution: Enzymatic Construction Material
- Unique Selling Point: Enzymatic develops a self-healing and carbon-negative alternative to concrete. The enzyme inside it creates a new matrix to fill cracks using carbon dioxide (CO2).
- Benefits: Extends the life of structures and reduces the environmental impact of the construction industry.
- Founded: 2022
- Location: USA
Nditive3D – Oil and Gas
- Solution: AI-powered Safety Monitoring
- Unique Selling Point: Nditive3D uses sensors, a digital twin, and AI to monitor oxygen levels, humidity, temperature, CO2, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
- Benefits: Enables gas leak detection in oil and gas plants to improve worker safety.
- Founded: 2022
- Location: Canada
PHNXX – Utilities
- Solution: Decentralized Grid
- Unique Selling Point: PHNXX offers a grid-in-a-box solution for off-grid renewable energy generation.
- Benefits: Provides the agriculture, mining, and construction industries with an uninterrupted energy supply.
- Founded: 2022
- Location: Australia
LOXO – Automotive
- Solution: Mapless Autonomous Driving Technology
- Unique Selling Point: LOXO mapless technology utilizes sensors and algorithms to detect objects, people, and animals. It also features a fallback solution for teleoperation. The company is also expanding to Germany to address a USD 504 billion market.
- Benefits: Eliminates the need for pre-mapping areas and, in turn, allows automotive companies to save time and costs while improving safety.
- Founded: 2021
- Location: Switzerland
Discover 10 automotive industry trends and 20 more startups.
Lumo Analytics – Mining
- Solution: Laser-based Site Scanning and Analysis
- Unique Selling Point: Lumo Analytics’ solution enables geologists to perform instant and on-site analysis for more efficient planning of mining activities.
- Benefits: Minimizes environmental impact, saves money, and accelerates mineral discovery.
- Founded: 2021
- Location: Finland
Uncover 8 mining trends and 16 more startups.
Astral Systems – Energy
- Solution: Compact Fusion Reactors
- Unique Selling Point: Astral Systems develops a multi-state fusion device where fusion occurs in both the plasma and the solid-state lattice. It features high particle flux and improved fusion rates.
- Benefits: Accelerates nuclear research and enables applications like large-scale medical isotope production, fusion neutron materials damage testing, and transmutation of existing nuclear waste stores.
- Founded: 2021
- Location: UK
VENET TECHNOLOGIES – Aerospace
- Solution: Urban Air Mobility (UAM)
- Unique Selling Point: VENET TECHNOLOGIES’ modular UAM platform leverages AI and digital twins to analyze local and micro-weather conditions as well as building-generated vorticities and sound propagation.
- Benefits: Allows city planners to calculate best paths and coordinate operations for vertiports and electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) networks in urban spaces. For instance, the company signed a deal with EHang Holdings, a Chinese flying taxi company, to integrate their eVTOL vehicle into VENET TECHNOLOGIES’ network ecosystem.
- Founded: 2023
- Location: Spain
Praedico – Railroad
- Solution: Centralized Rail Data
- Unique Selling Point: Praedico’s software centralizes rail data to create rail network digital twins and predict defects. As a result, the software improves asset management and rail modeling.
- Benefits: Enables rail companies to reduce risks and development time while increasing asset availability and value.
- Founded: 2023
- Location: Netherlands
Terzago Robotics – Shipbuilding
- Solution: Naval Robotics
- Unique Selling Point: Terzago Robotics’ naval robots automate polyurethane processing, painting, and hull sanding.
- Benefits: Shipbuilders are able to optimize workforce allocation and increase productivity.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: France
Process Industries
Sectors like food, beverage, medicines, chemicals, and semiconductors fall into the process industries cluster. They produce raw materials for other industries as well as produce end products for customers.
From the complex chemical reactions that create life-saving drugs to the precise engineering that refines fuel, process industries orchestrate massive-scale production. Their current challenges include environmental impact, resource inefficiencies, and shifting market demands. To address them, emerging startups are leveraging biotechnology, AI, and more.
Mealiways – Food & Beverage
- Solution: 3D Suspension Culture Technology
- Unique Selling Point: Mealiways utilizes non-GMO pluripotent stem cells to make cultured beef and fish in bioreactors. They replicate the taste, texture, and nutritional value of traditional meat.
- Benefits: Ensures responsible meat production for the food industry.
- Founded: 2022
- Location: Israel
Find 10 food and beverage industry trends and 20 more startups.
Blue Nature Bio – Chemical
- Solution: Grain-based Ethanol Distillery
- Unique Selling Point: Blue Nature Bio produces fuel and pharma-grade ethanol in its grain-based distillery.
- Benefits: The bio-ethanol blends in automotive fuel and distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) are repurposed as animal feed.
- Founded: 2022
- Location: India
Vital3D – Pharmaceuticals
- Solution: Nozzle-free, Cell Safe Bioprinting
- Unique Selling Point: Vital3D deploys 3D bioprinting to develop stents, organoids, grafts, and vascularized tissue models.
- Benefits: Enables the creation of improved micro-medical devices, biocompatible components, and large-scale tissue models.
- Founded: 2021
- Location: Lithuania
Discover 10 pharmaceutical industry trends and 20 more startups.
Fronka Tech – Materials
- Solution: Smart Nano Semiconductor Characterization
- Unique Selling Point: Fronka Tech’s FR1000 is a smart nano semiconductor characterization system. It allows researchers to conduct in-situ physical properties measurements for nanomaterials under changing external stimuli.
- Benefits: Broadens material scope to even investigate nanomaterials that oxidize upon exposure to air.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: Singapore
GEMESYS – Semiconductor
- Solution: Analog AI Chip
- Unique Selling Point: GEMESYS’ neuromorphic computer utilizes memristors to enable human-like computing and increase computing efficiency.
- Benefits: Low power consumption and better inference operations to train AI on mobile devices.
- Founded: 2021
- Location: Germany
ALGAESYS – Water & Wastewater Management
- Solution: Affordable Decarbonized Water Reuse
- Unique Selling Point: ALGAESYS’ water, nutrient, and energy recovery system utilizes algae and other natural phototrophic organisms. It also integrates solar energy to reduce costs and maintenance
- Benefits: Allows small municipalities, hospitality companies, and other institutions to make water recovery more cost-effective.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: Portugal
Explore 8 water management trends and 10 water treatment trends (and more startups).
Light Industries
Light industries, such as clothing, consumer electronics, and medical devices, have a direct impact on customers’ lives. They combine technology, functionality, and design to deliver products that address emerging customer demands. Due to the exponential speed of technological innovation, changing consumer preferences, and regulatory requirements, these industries are leading the way in rapid transformation.
Pable – Apparel
- Solution: Textile-to-Textile Recycling
- Unique Selling Point: Pable upcycles pre-consumer textile waste into new clothes without additional coloring.
- Benefits: Reduces the environmental footprint of the textile sector and advances the circular economy.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: Indonesia
INMO – Consumer Electronics
- Solution: Augmented Reality (AR) Smart Glass
- Unique Selling Point: INMO’s Air2 AR glass features binocular dual full-color micro-OLED and reflective waveguide displays as well as GPT integration. It also incorporates a 4-core 1.8 GHz processor, Bluetooth 5.0, and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) spatial positioning.
- Benefits: Wearers get access to live translations, hands-free navigation, teleprompting, and more.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: China
Uncover 10 electronics industry trends and 20 more startups.
Anaut – Medical Devices
- Solution: Precision Anatomy Mapping
- Unique Selling Point: Anaut provides Eureka Surgical Vision, an AI system that analyzes complex anatomical structures and highlights micro-structures. It also detects various anatomical structures and aids in cross-regional surgical procedures. Further, the company recently announced its regulatory approval by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
- Benefits: Allows surgeons to visualize anatomy from their perspective and direct surgical interventions for improved care delivery.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: Japan
Service Industries
The modern economy depends heavily on the service sectors, which include retail, eCommerce, logistics, hospitality, transportation, healthcare, and more. These industries have a close relationship with businesses and consumers.
That is why startups and established companies in this sector are leveraging technology to make their offerings more customer-centric and sustainable.
Occubee – Retail & eCommerce
- Solution: Sales & Demand Forecasting
- Unique Selling Point: Occubee’s platform manages product, store, sales, warehouse, and supplier data to optimize supply chain management. It provides short-term sales forecasts based on daily receipt sales and determines the store demand for specific products at a specific point of sale.
- Benefits: The platform automates allocation and replenishment to ensure product availability across online and offline channels. This, in turn, increases sales while reducing warehousing and logistics costs.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: Poland
Explore 8 retail industry trends and 10 eCommerce trends (and more startups).
Kvantify – Finance
- Solution: Portfolio Optimization
- Unique Selling Point: Kvantify’s portfolio optimization tool leverages quantum computing to analyze constraints like the number of stocks and ESG requirements. It also secured EUR 10 million in a SEED round led by Danish VC Dreamcraft, together with Lundbeckfonden BioCapital and 2degrees.
- Benefits: Provides investors with the latest information by reducing solve time during stock trading.
- Founded: 2022
- Location: Denmark
OBORTECH – Logistics
- Solution: Supply Chain Transparency
- Unique Selling Point: OBORTECH’s solution digitizes the supply chain to increase transparency. It combines blockchain-based data storage, a digital identity, shipment tracking, temperature monitoring, and more.
- Benefits: The decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs) improve operational efficiency, risk analysis, and dispute resolution while enhancing product traceability and provenance.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: Estonia
Saha – Tourism & Hospitality
- Solution: Autonomous Service Robot
- Unique Selling Point: Saha’s autonomous and cloud-connected robot automates food serving at restaurants and food joints.
- Benefits: Improves consumer experience and employee productivity.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: Turkey
Find 9 travel industry trends and 10 hospitality trends (and more startups).
NeuralAgent – Transportation & Mobility
- Solution: Distributed Autonomous Intelligence
- Unique Selling Point: NeuralAgent offers a decentralized AI-based network operating system that enables connected intelligence and autonomy.
- Benefits: Offers real-time communications (RTC) to the autonomous mobility, freight, and logistics industries. For instance, Airbus Defence and Space partnered with NeuralAgent to work on the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project.
- Founded: 2021
- Location: Germany
Explore 10 transportation and mobility trends and 20 more startups.
WiRE – Real Estate
- Solution: Real Estate Property Data Aggregation
- Unique Selling Point: WiRE’s solution provides insights into real estate market activity using property profiles and spatial analytics.
- Benefits: Enables real estate companies and insurers to make informed decisions, increase sales, manage risk, and automate reporting.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: Cyprus
Discover 10 real estate industry trends and 20 more startups.
ATLAS – Media & Entertainment
- Solution: AI-generated 3D Content
- Unique Selling Point: ATLAS develops a platform that allows creators to generate highly detailed 3D models from reference images and text. It also features AI tools to streamline end-to-end workflow from 3D concepts to runtime generation. The company was also awarded a grant from The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) for 3D generative AI innovation.
- Benefits: Accelerates production workflows while ensuring high-quality renders.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: Austria
Uncover 8 media and entertainment industry trends along with 20 more startups.
Connect the Dots – Healthcare
- Solution: VR-assisted Medical Training
- Unique Selling Point: Connect the Dots’ CTD Health is a training program that leverages VR to train medical personnel in basic medical skills, interdisciplinary interaction, and communication.
- Benefits: Enables trainees to leverage distraction-free surroundings for learning and removes performance anxiety through role-playing.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: Norway
Interdisciplinary Industries
Biotechnology, packaging, telecom, agribusiness, and smart cities are the sectors featured in the interdisciplinary industries. These unique sectors are examples of how various disciplines and technology provide comprehensive solutions to contemporary issues.
While each industry faces different challenges, the startup and technology ecosystem is enabling businesses to address these challenges with innovative approaches and solutions. By leveraging technologies like AI, IoT, and blockchain, startups are improving operations, sustainability, and supply chain operations.
RialtoLabs – Agriculture
- Solution: Soil Health Monitoring
- Unique Selling Point: RialtoLabs develops optical sensing technology that generates a chemical signature, which is analyzed by AI algorithms to identify sample characteristics.
- Benefits: Laboratories, agronomists, and farm consultants benefit from real-time data to better monitor land health and fertility. The on-site technology also increases sample throughput and reduces analysis costs.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: Ireland
Greenstone Biosciences – Biotechnology
- Solution: Human Physiology-driven Drug Discovery & Safety Testing
- Unique Selling Point: Greenstone Biosciences combines AI and human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to reduce animal testing, facilitate early testing, and more.
- Benefits: This dual approach enables low-cost testing and, in turn, accelerates drug development.
- Founded: 2021
- Location: USA
Circlepac – Packaging
- Solution: Biodegradable and Compostable Packaging
- Unique Selling Point: Circlepac converts agricultural waste into biodegradable and compostable packaging.
- Benefits: Allows food companies to reduce their carbon footprint and attract responsible consumers.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: Malaysia
Ambiflo – Telecom
- Solution: 3D Telecom Twin
- Unique Selling Point: Ambiflo offers a 3D digital twin tool that features a cloud-based digitization platform, an AI-powered site finder, and more. The tool allows telecom companies to create digital twins of existing sites as well as model new sites.
- Benefits: The tool centralizes site data, automatically finds the optimum locations for new cells, and auto-generates workflows.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: USA
WiData – Smart Cities
- Solution: Intelligent Monitoring System
- Unique Selling Point: WiData offers XPLORE, a wall or pole mounting sensor that automates accurate and reliable data collection in smart cities. It monitors public transport networks, the environment, and people.
- Benefits: Improves public transit network efficiency, air quality, and attendance monitoring to optimize city planning and management.
- Founded: 2020
- Location: Italy
Where to Find Top Startups & Scaleups?
Traditional manual startup search is time-intensive and hit-or-miss. That is why innovation teams need to leverage specialized external teams or SaaS-based tools to scout relevant startups and scaleups more efficiently.
Our Discovery Platform is an AI and Big Data-powered innovation intelligence platform covering 4.7M+ startups, scaleups, and tech companies alongside 20K+ technologies and trends worldwide. It offers you tailored insights through enriched company profiles, including firmographic data such as founding year, team size, total funding, and much more in real-time. Book your free demo and ensure that you always have the most current, reliable innovation data at your fingertips.
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