SET Award 2026’s Industry Innovators
Heavy industry has long been cleantech’s most underfunded opportunity. The processes that make steel, cement, chemicals, and food are energy-intensive by nature, geographically anchored, and deeply resistant to disruption. But the SET Award 2026 Industry category shows that disruption is coming anyway. Its 20 companies are attacking industrial emissions from every angle: AI platforms that cut energy use without touching hardware, carbon removal technologies targeting permanent geological storage, and circular economy solutions closing material loops that have been open for decades.
The hybrid model dominates at 40%, the highest of any category, reflecting that industrial decarbonisation demands both physical intervention and digital optimisation. Revenue grew 2.8 times in a single year, outpacing Clean Energy’s 1.7 factor, and headcount grew 73%, the fastest of any SET100 category. According to the latest figures from Net Zero Insights, the cohort has raised a combined total of over $290 million across 13 companies with disclosed funding.
Geographic spread is the most diverse in the SET100: Europe at 40%, Latin America at 15%, and Asia-Pacific and Middle East/Africa each at 10%, reflecting that industrial decarbonisation is inherently local, requiring integration with existing facilities and supply chains. The top challenge is talent, with competition for specialised engineering expertise ranking higher here than in any other category.
Three themes run through the category. AI-powered optimisation is delivering 30-50% efficiency gains in data centres, manufacturing plants, and cold storage without requiring hardware replacement. Carbon removal technologies are targeting hard-to-abate emissions through direct air capture and enhanced rock weathering. And circular economy solutions are closing material loops through rare earth recycling, polymer upcycling, and battery cathode regeneration.
Winner: Cyclic Materials – Closing The Rare Earth Loop
Rare earth elements are the invisible backbone of the clean energy transition. They sit inside the permanent magnets that power wind turbines and electric vehicles, the components of data centres and defence systems. China currently controls over 90% of global supply, and demand is projected to increase nearly sevenfold over the next decade. Less than 1% of rare earths are recycled today.
Cyclic Materials, based in Toronto, is changing that. Its advanced recycling technology recovers rare earth elements from end-of-life products, including electric vehicles, electronics, and renewable energy equipment, delivering a circular supply chain that matches the quality and cost of mined materials without the environmental impact. Backed by $167 million including a $75 million Series C, and with commercial facilities opening across North America and Europe, Cyclic is the only company simplifying rare earth recovery at scale. In a world racing to decarbonise while depending on materials it can barely source, that is a genuinely strategic position.
encentive – Making Factories Flex
Factories are not designed to be flexible. Their energy consumption is largely fixed, their processes run on schedules, and their relationship with the electricity grid is passive. encentive, based in Germany, is changing that with flexOn, an AI platform that connects all relevant on-site energy assets, analyses consumption data alongside electricity prices and weather, and automatically shifts demand to periods when power is green and cheap.
The platform operates without specialised personnel and integrates seamlessly into existing systems, making adoption straightforward for industrial clients who cannot afford production disruption. Founded in 2020 and having raised over $10 million, encentive now employs 37 specialists and is growing fast. In a market where renewable energy is abundant at certain hours and scarce at others, the ability to shift industrial demand intelligently is not just a cost saving. It is a contribution to grid stability.
InPlanet – Farming Carbon Out Of The Air
Enhanced rock weathering sounds like geology. In practice it is one of the most promising approaches to permanent carbon removal available today. InPlanet, based in Munich, applies finely crushed basalt rock to farmland in Brazil, accelerating a natural process that captures CO2 and locks it away for over 100,000 years, while simultaneously improving soil fertility, reducing dependence on synthetic fertilisers, and boosting crop yields.
What makes InPlanet credible is its MRV infrastructure. Its proprietary platform quantifies, verifies, and issues certified carbon removal credits with scientific rigour, providing the transparency that carbon markets urgently need. Backed by €5.8 million and operating in Europe and Brazil, InPlanet is combining nature, science, and software into a solution that addresses climate change and agricultural resilience at the same time. For organisations seeking high-integrity carbon removal, it is a compelling option.
More Innovators Decarbonising Industry
AI and Digital Optimisation
- etalytics (Germany) optimises cooling, heating, and ventilation in data centres and manufacturing plants through its etaONE AI platform, delivering verified energy savings without hardware replacement
- Lucend (Netherlands) provides AI-powered operations software for data centres, identifying inefficiencies and cutting energy use and costs with no new infrastructure required
- DAITABLE (Slovakia) combines plug-and-play IoT sensors with AI analytics to give industrial operators real-time visibility into energy consumption and prevent costly demand peaks
- Enlog (India) monitors and controls energy use in commercial and industrial facilities through patented IoT devices paired with an AI cloud platform
- Skye (Sweden) connects factory operations directly to energy markets, automating demand shifts and grid service participation to cut costs and emissions simultaneously
- Gyre Energy (UK) combines AI with thermal energy storage to cut cooling costs and emissions for cold storage and data centre operators by up to 40%
Carbon Removal
- Gigablue (USA) uses engineered substrates to grow microalgae that capture CO2 and sink it to deep ocean sediments for centuries of storage, delivering verifiable marine carbon removal credits
- Octavia Carbon (Kenya) operates the first direct air capture facility in the Global South, powered by geothermal energy and storing captured carbon in basalt geological formations
- Yama (France) uses a hybrid electrochemical process powered by low-grade heat to capture CO2 directly from the air, cutting energy use by 65% versus conventional DAC systems
Circular Economy and Industrial Materials
- Litus (Canada) extracts lithium from brines using patented nanomaterials that selectively capture lithium ions, enabling recovery from sources previously considered uneconomical
- ICARBON (Türkiye) applies hydrothermal technology to recover raw materials from polymer and composite waste including rubber, polyurethane, and wind turbine components
- Nina Energy (Ecuador) converts agricultural and municipal waste into clean industrial fuel and biochar through modular pyrolysis biorefineries co-located at factories and treatment plants
Industrial Decarbonisation Tools
- HYTING (Germany) provides flameless hydrogen-based heating systems for buildings and industrial processes up to 300°C, replacing fossil fuels with zero emissions and up to 40% cost savings
- Stellaria (France) is developing a fast-spectrum molten salt reactor that uses liquid fuel for continuous operation, passive safety, and on-site heat and power for heavy industry and data centres
- TMA (Germany) digitises the tracking of hazardous assets like gas cylinders and electrical poles using ATEX-compliant RFID and AI, targeting a 15% reduction in transport emissions
- agriportance (Germany) provides award-winning software that digitises greenhouse gas and mass balances for biogas operators entering the European biomethane certification market
- EarnDLT (USA) offers a blockchain-based sustainability registry that transforms verified carbon and emissions data into auditable digital certificates for regulators and corporate buyers
The overall picture is one of an industry that can no longer afford to wait. Efficiency gains that would have required years of capital investment can now be delivered by software in weeks. Carbon removal is moving from research to commercial infrastructure. And the circular economy is finally closing loops that extractive industry left open for a century. The talent to do it remains scarce, but the technology is here.
