For the fourth year running, Swedish nonprofit Norrsken has released its annual list of the 100 most promising “impact” startups — those dedicated to achieving social or environmental change — globally.
The list was compiled from 1,400 nominations from 50 leading VCs, including newcomers Sequoia, Partech, EQT Ventures, Plural and Creandum, replacing Atomico, a16z, Balderton Capital, Khosla Ventures and the Obama Foundation. Of the 100 startups selected, 46 are based in Europe.
Making the 100 list are an eclectic mix of early-stage startups, which have raised up to €100m in funding, including drug development startup Cradle, datacenter startup evroc, material development startup Cusp.ai and spacetech The Exploration Company.
To add a spacetech to a list of impact companies, with the mission to positively impact 1bn people worldwide, isn’t controversial according to Norrsken co-CEO Sara Kappelmark.
“The Exploration Company is building space vehicles and infrastructure that is affordable and reusable, paving the way for a more open, inclusive and sustainable space race,” Kappelmark says. “Beyond this, space-based technology plays a crucial part in, for example, climate and environmental monitoring, agriculture and infrastructure planning,”
Germany, the home of the Exploration Company, leads the list with 17 companies, followed by 14 from the UK and France with 7. Sweden, the home country of Norrsken, has dropped from third place to fifth.
Nearly a third of this year’s group of startups are leveraging AI as a core part of their business model, almost twice the amount from last year.
“We’ve barely scratched the surface of what this technology can do. It can help optimise energy systems, accelerate drug discovery, detect diseases and decode biology faster than ever. It can power precision agriculture and dramatically reduce food waste,” Kappelmark says.
“It’s clear that founders and investors are increasingly recognising the transformative power of AI to solve problems that actually matter.”
Norrsken 100 is selected based on the framework set by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and related models like the Stockholm Resilience Centre Planetary Boundaries framework.
The 46 impact startups based in Europe
BioTech
Arsenale Bioyards (Italy): A biotech startup developing a full-stack biomanufacturing platform that integrates AI, precision fermentation, and modular infrastructure to scale sustainable alternatives to petrochemicals and animal-derived products.
Cure51 (France): The first worldwide database of cancer survivors to leverage their exceptional biological features and find new drugs.
Orakl Oncology (France): Startup that develops AI-powered patient tumour avatars to enhance precision oncology, enabling personalised treatment strategies and improving patient outcomes.
Clean Tech
Aerleum (France): Aerleum specialising in converting atmospheric CO₂ into e-methanol using a proprietary single-reactor system.
Dunia Innovations (Germany): Dunia combines cutting-edge AI algorithms with a proprietary self-driving lab to accelerate the discovery and development of novel materials for sustainable technologies.
evroc (Sweden): The company is developing a secure, sovereign, and sustainable hyperscale cloud infrastructure to meet the needs of European enterprises and governments.
Juna AI (Germany):Juna.ai develops AI agents that optimise industrial processes to reduce energy consumption and operational costs.
SeaPattern (Sweden): SeaPattern delivers systems that boost renewable energy from existing hydropower plants, increasing efficiency and reducing environmental impact.
Vind AI (Norway): Vind AI is a Norwegian startup providing an AI-powered SaaS platform that optimises wind turbine performance through predictive maintenance and real-time data analysis.
Climate Tech
Aerones (Latvia): Aerones develops robotic systems for the inspection, cleaning, and repair of wind turbines, enhancing maintenance efficiency and safety.
Again Bio (Denmark): A startup that converts industrial CO₂ emissions into valuable chemicals through a proprietary biomanufacturing process.
alcemy (Germany): Software for cement and concrete producers that offers precise quality predictions for mixtures and their ingredients before shipping out products, enabling companies to counterbalance fluctuations in the limestone and cement.
Arbonics (Estonia): Arbonics provides landowners and credit buyers with a verified, databacked way of collaborating at scale to remove carbon and protect biodiversity through forestry solutions.
Brineworks (Netherlands): A startup focused on developing a highly efficient, patent-pending seawater electrolyser to extract carbon dioxide and hydrogen from seawater, providing essential feedstocks for the production of e-fuels.
CarbonRe (UK): Uses AI-driven solutions to help industries like cement, steel, and energy reduce carbon emissions and improve efficiency.ons and improve efficiency.
Climate X (UK): A data-driven company delivering location-specific risk ratings and loss estimates on physical assets for extreme weather events linked to climate change.
cusp.ai (UK): cusp.ai runs an AI-powered platform which helps search for novel materials.
Dioxycle (France): Dioxycle is a French-American climate tech startup pioneering a novel electrochemical process to convert industrial CO2 emissions into sustainable chemicals and fuels.
Epyr (France): converting renewable electricity into heat during low-cost energy periods and releasing it when costs are high.
Klim (Germany): Klim supports farmers and companies with a platform in the transition to regenerative agriculture.
Material Evolution (UK): Material Evolution develops sustainable, low-carbon cement alternatives from industrial waste, significantly reducing the environmental impact of construction.Dioxycle (France):
Ocean Ledger (UK): A startup providing a blockchain-powered platform for transparent and verifiable carbon credit trading, focusing on ocean-based carbon removal projects.
Oriole Networks (UK): Oriole Networks has developed a novel way of using light to connect thousands of AI chips together. Once connected, the power of each graphics processing unit (GPU) is combined to form a “super-brain", which can be used to train advanced Large Language Models a hundred times faster, with a thousandth of the latency, while using a fraction of energy.
Overstory (Netherlands): Overstory applies machine learning to satellite imagery to track forests and vegetation globally, providing data for wildfire prevention, sustainable forestry, and climate resilience.
Paebbl (Netherlands, Sweden, Finland): Paebbl is re-storing CO2 into raw materials. The proprietary technology mineralizes CO2 into a solid, stable, and valuable material, offering a permanent carbon removal solution.
Predium (Germany): Platform that enables real estate owners to pinpoint CO2 hotspots, analyze their portfolio, and identify optimal decarbonization measures to reach net zero.
Root Global (Germany): A platform for food and beverage companies to accurately measure, track, and reduce their supply chain emissions, enabling sustainable sourcing and production.
Seabound (UK): Seabound is a UK-based climate tech startup developing a novel carbon capture technology for ships, aiming to significantly reduce maritime emissions and contribute to cleaner shipping.
Vaayu (Germany): Automated AI software empowering retail brands and businesses to track, measure, and reduce their carbon footprint across the entire value chain.
Visibuilt (Denmark): Visibuilt creates a natural binder for roads that works like cement but is carbon-negative and produces no toxic byproducts, offering a sustainable alternative for infrastructure development.
Energy
Newcleo (France): A nuclear technology company developing innovative lead-cooled fast reactors for safe, sustainable, and cost-effective nuclear energy production.
Pionix (Germany): An open-source pioneer for EV charging software, providing flexible and scalable solutions for charging infrastructure and smart energy management.
Proxima Fusion (Germany): Proxima Fusion is building fusion power plant technology based on stellarator technology, aiming to provide clean, abundant, and safe energy.
trawa (Germany): Trawa offers AI-based technology that analyses customers' energy consumption and automatically switches them to the cheapest green electricity provider.
Fintech
nsave (Sweden): A fintech developing a platform that helps users automate their savings and investments through personalized financial planning and smart allocation strategies.
FoodTech
Project Eaden (Germany): Proprietary wet protein fiber spinning technology adapted from the textile industry to create meat-like structures from plant-based proteins, offering sustainable and scalable alternatives to animal products.
HealthTech
Avelios Medical (Germany): A startup offering a modular, AI-integrated hospital information system to modernise healthcare IT infrastructure.
Biorce (Spain): A medtech company leveraging AI to streamline clinical trial processes through its platform, Jarvis.
Deepull (Spain): Develops a fully automated, culture‑free molecular test for rapid diagnosis of sepsis, enabling earlier treatment and improved patient outcomes.
Nostics (Netherlands): Develops rapid, AI-powered diagnostic solutions using nanotechnology to enable fast, accurate, and accessible disease detection at the point of care.
Qida (Spain): A startup that provides home care services for the elderly and dependent individuals.
Robeauté (France): Robeauté builds modular, swallowable microrobots that travel safely inside the human body to perform targeted medical interventions, enabling minimally invasive diagnostics and therapies.
Sava (Denmark): A startup developing an AI-powered platform that connects patients with chronic conditions to personalised care plans and remote monitoring, improving health outcomes and quality of life.
Sycai Medical (Spain): Sycai Medical provides AI tools that act as a second pair of eyes for radiologists, enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of medical image analysis for early disease detection.
Teton.ai (Denmark): An AI‑powered patient monitoring system that keeps track of movements and sounds in hospital rooms, alerting staff to potential risks and improving patient safety.
Materials
Polaron (UK): A startup developing advanced graphene-based materials for various applications, including energy storage, composites, and electronics.
Sparxell (UK): A startup developing sustainable, bio-inspired pigments and colorants from natural sources, offering eco-friendly alternatives to traditional synthetic dyes.
traceless (Germany): Develops innovative, bio-based materials that serve as sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics, offering biodegradable and compostable solutions for packaging and other applications.
Recycling
cylib (Germany): End-2-End Battery Recycling
GreyParrot (UK): An AI waste analytics company providing real-time data on waste composition to optimise recycling operations and promote a circular economy.
Syre (Sweden): A textile company that replaces virgin polyester with a circular alternative, reducing environmental footprint and promoting sustainable fashion.
tozero (Germany): Committed to recycling lithium-ion batteries, recovering essential materials like lithium, nickel, and cobalt..
Supply Chain
Prewave (Austria): specialising in supply chain risk intelligence, utilising artificial intelligence (AI) to predict and mitigate disruptions, enhance resilience, and optimise global supply chains.
Sustainability
Faircado (Germany): Faircado makes online shopping for secondhand items easier through its AI-powered browser extension, which automatically finds sustainable alternatives and deals from various online stores.
Nala Earth (Germany): Nala provides data-driven insights and tools to businesses to integrate natural capital into decision-making and promote biodiversity.
Ocean Ecostructures (Spain): Developing a carbonated concrete structure that mimics natural reefs, providing a habitat for marine life and promoting biodiversity in coastal areas.
Transportation
The Exploration Company (France and Germany): A spacetech building space vehicles for a collaborative, sustainable, and affordable future of space exploration, focusing on reusable spacecraft and in-orbit services.
Water
Oxyle (Switzerland): Breakthrough PFAS catalytic destruction technology empowers industrial and environmental remediation efforts, ensuring safe and effective removal of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances from water.
