Sustainability partnerships
Previous challenges
Collaborative Innovation program
In 2019, we launched our collaborative innovation program to accelerate innovation in a win-win mode with external partners and bring more sustainable solutions to our customers. Initially, we started the challenges to co-create with early-stage tech companies, but then soon involved suppliers and other value chain partners.
By bringing collaborative partners together, we create transparency across the value chain, pinpoint barriers and define possible solutions to achieve our common targets towards a more sustainable future in the paints and coatings industry.
Learn more about our startup challenges and value chain challenges below. You can use the buttons to find out about the program and how to innovate with us to paint the future together.
Let’s collaborate
Whether you are a start-up, scale-up, supplier, customer or researcher, if you have an innovative solution that you want to further develop with AkzoNobel, please connect with us.
Value chain collaboration
At AkzoNobel, we’ve set challenging sustainability ambitions for our own operations and our entire value chain regarding. We can’t achieve this alone, and we realize the need to go beyond our linear value-chain thinking. Therefore, we connected with our key strategic value chain partners to develop a new collaborative way forward.
Vehicle Repair 2023
- With 11 value chain partners we defined 6 challenges and solution areas
- After exploration, 3 projects are selected to implement with 7 partners
- The goal and topics of this challenge
Global Challenge 2022
- With 28 value chain partners we defined 6 challenges and solution areas
- After exploration, 5 projects progressed with 15 partners
- The launch of the challenge and hear from our partners
Startup challenges
The founding objective of our collaborative innovation program was to address challenges related to paints and coatings and co-create with early-stage tech companies to optimize adjacent and transformational opportunities for AkzoNobel.
As of 2020, we expanded the startup challenge to the regions of Brazil, China and India. And in 2022, we launched our second global challenge.
Global startup challenge 2022
- 245 submissions from 62 countries
- 10 startups selected to join 3-day bootcamp with 120 expert sessions
- 3 winners selected (read more)
- The topics and launch of the challenge
Global startup challenge 2019
- 160 submissions from 32 countries
- 21 startups selected to join 3-day bootcamp with 320 expert sessions
- 6 winners selected (read more)
- The topics and launch of the challenge
- The startups who joined the bootcamp
•More information about some of the winning startups: Qlayers, Alucha, Apellix
Our collaborative innovation program
We launched our collaborative innovation program in 2019. This is a bold initiative to accelerate and scale more sustainable solutions for the paints and coatings industry.
