From Lab to Market Challenge: Exære Wins with E-waste Recycling Technology
Exære wins the From Lab to Market Challenge 2026 with technology to recover rare earth elements from e-waste. ESILIB and CarboNano.EU also placed; ReduCO2 took the CHEManager special award.
The Grand Award Event of the "From Lab to Market Challenge 2026" took place last Thursday, honoring the year's most promising science-based start-ups from German universities and research institutes.
This year's winner is Exære, represented by CEO Yelda Nur Demirdöğen, which impressed the jury with a technology for recovering rare earth elements from electronic waste. ESILIB took second place, followed by CarboNano.EU in third. A public vote was hosted on CHEManager leading up to the event, which was accounted for in the final judging. ReduCO2 received the CHEManager special award to be featured in an upcoming CHEManager Innovation Pitch.
The competition, now in its fifth year, was established to help scientific discoveries move more effectively from research labs into commercial application. Organizers noted that this year's finalists again reflected the depth of innovation coming out of German academic institutions — but stressed that scientific excellence alone is not enough to build successful companies. Strong partnerships between academia, start-ups and industry are equally essential.
"We don't need to invent and develop every technology in-house; we need access to technology that allows to differentiate. We don't need to own it, and that leaves much space for start-ups."
Speaking at the event, Marcus Paul Gruen, VP, Head Crop Protection Innovation, Bayer, underlined this point in his keynote address. "We don't need to invent and develop every technology in-house; we need access to technology that allows to differentiate. We don't need to own it, and that leaves much space for start-ups."
According to the organizers, this is precisely the purpose of the challenge: building connections that help promising technologies find their way into industrial application.
The event was organized by Chemstars supported by regional partners GreenChem, Forum Rathenau, Koala startup network, and TUM Venture Labs ChemSpace, alongside numerous mentors, jury members, industry partners, and participating teams.
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