10 Top Smart Material Solutions to Watch in 2026

Executive Summary: Which are the Top 10 Smart Material Solutions to Watch?

1. HELIOS (Turkey): Develops Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) for CO2 capture and separation using AI-driven simulations for industrial decarbonization.
2. Zwittermer (UK): Produces conductive polymers with built-in zwitter-ionic charges for flexible electronics, smart textiles, and medical devices.
3. Nordic Nano (Finland): Designs non-toxic nanocarbon materials combining nanotubes and graphene to enhance solar, storage, and hydrogen systems.
4. Elementium (USA): Develops liquid battery electrolytes enabling faster charging, higher voltage, and improved lifecycle for EVs and grid applications.
5. Nascent Materials (USA): Manufactures low-cost LFP and LMFP cathode materials via a zero-waste thermo-fusion process for EVs and industrial batteries.
6. Aurora Materials (Australia): Creates fluorescent nanocomposite tracing tags with unique optical signatures for secure asset authentication.
7. KERVALION (France): Produces 3D-printed bone graft substitutes from antibacterial biomaterials tailored for dental and orthopedic surgery.
8. Master Membranes (Australia): Builds graphene oxide membranes for solvent recovery, pharmaceutical purification, and chemical separation.
9. EntroMat (Australia): Develops high-entropy materials combining multiple elements for advanced additive manufacturing and energy applications.
10. California Perovskite Technology (USA): Advances perovskite-based solar materials with high light absorption and low-cost flexible cell architectures.

Global Startup Heat Map highlights Emerging Smart Material Solutions to Watch

Through the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering over 9M+ startups, 20K+ technology trends, plus 150M+ patents, news articles & market reports, we identified the top smart materials company.

The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights emerging smart material startups you should watch in 2026, as well as the geo-distribution of 2900+ startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research.

According to our data, we observe high startup activity in the USA and India, followed by the UK. The top 5 Startup Hubs for smart materials are London, New York City, Bangalore, Melbourne, and Dubai.

Emerging Smart Material Solutions to Watch [2026]

We hand-picked startups to showcase in this report by filtering for their technology, founding year, location, funding, and other metrics. These emerging smart material startups work on solutions ranging from tracing tags with customized optical properties and liquid battery electrolyte material to nanocarbon material for clean energy and conductive polymers for electronics.

1. HELIOS – Metal-Organic Frameworks for CO2 Capture

• Founding Year: 2024
• Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Turkish startup HELIOS develops advanced materials to capture CO2 using Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). It engineers highly porous MOF structures made from metal ions and organic ligands to trap, store, and separate gases.

HELIOS designs its materials to selectively absorb CO2 from different gas streams with high surface area and lightweight composition. It uses AI-driven simulations to optimise pore size, adsorption capacity, and energy efficiency. It positions its solutions for industries in energy, manufacturing, and environmental sectors.

The technology also has applications beyond carbon capture, including air purification and process enhancement. HELIOS seeks scalable deployment of its MOFs to reduce carbon footprints in industrial settings.

2. Zwittermer – Conductive Polymers for Electronics

• Founding Year: 2024
• Location: London, UK

UK-based startup Zwittermer produces a single-polymer conductive material with built-in zwitter-ionic charges. It avoids the need for metal or charcoal additives to make polymers conductive. Its polymer backbone grants flexibility, durability, and metallic-level conductivity in plastics and textiles.

It adds anti-static and anti-bacterial traits to prevent charge buildup and bacterial growth. It targets applications such as smart textiles, flexible electronics, medical devices, printed electronics, sensors, and actuators.

Zwittermer’s conductive polymer solution features a lower cost against traditional conductive materials, as well as recyclability for a sustainable edge.

3. Nordic Nano – Nanocarbon Material for Clean Energy

• Founding Year: 2024
• Location: Helsinki, Finland

Finnisha startup Nordic Nano develops high-performance nanocarbon materials for clean energy, solar, storage, and hydrogen uses. Its solution allows for solar cells that harvest twice as much energy under diffused light by capturing scattered light across the ultraviolet-to-infrared spectrum.

Nordic Nano uses non-toxic nanocarbon materials combining carbon nanotubes and graphene to make lightweight, durable components. It designs the materials to be thermally stable and long-lasting even in demanding environments.

In energy storage applications, its solution delivers enhanced conductivity and greatly increased charging cycles to boost the efficiency of existing units.

4. Elementium – Liquid Battery Electrolyte Material

• Founding Year: 2024
• Location: Houston, USA

USA-based startup Elementium develops alternative electrolytes for batteries. It uses a next-generation liquid electrolyte technology licensed from MIT. Its electrolyte is ultra-stable and compatible with many electrode materials, both legacy and emerging. It enables faster charging, higher voltage, longer life, and intrinsic safety.

Liquid electrolyte works with silicon anodes, manganese-rich cathodes, and high-nickel cathodes. It reduces battery degradation mechanisms and lowers total cell cost.

It seeks to produce compact, lightweight, high-energy batteries with improved power and energy density. It aims to power electric vehicles, grid storage, and consumer electronics with its safer, longer-lasting battery tech.

5. Nascent Materials – Cathode Materials for EV & Grid Applications

• Founding Year: 2024
• Location: Newark, New Jersey, USA

USA-based startup Nascent Materials scales domestically produced cathode materials. It develops and manufactures LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) and LMFP (Lithium Manganese Iron Phosphate) cathodes.

Its core innovation is a thermo-fusion synthesis method that avoids expensive precursor cathode active materials, lowering cost and production complexity.

Nascent Materials operates a zero-waste continuous flow process to improve material uniformity and morphology. Its cathodes target applications like EVs, grid storage, AI data centers, as well as industrial use cases.

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6. Aurora Materials – Tracing Tags with Customized Optical Properties

• Founding Year: 2024
• Location: Kensington, Australia

Australian startup Aurora Materials creates high-security fluorescent tagging technologies via SCLE (pronounced ‘scale’) nanocomposites. It produces optical tags that generate unique, non-replicable light signatures. Its technology embeds tags into coatings or materials to secure high-value and mission-critical assets.

It supports both covert and overt marking that use visible, UV, and infrared spectra. Aurora Materials designs the nanocomposites to resist solvents, extreme heat, saline, and acidic environments.

It pairs its materials with cryptographic databasing for traceable supply chains. It serves Defense, Aerospace, and other industries that require strong authentication and asset integrity.

7. KERVALION – 3D Printed Bone Grafts for Surgery

• Founding Year: 2025
• Location: Clapiers, France

French startup KERVALION produces customized 3D-printed bone graft substitutes for dental implantology. It creates patient-specific bone grafts based on scans, tailored in shape and volume.

Besides being fit for additive production, its graft substitutes use a biomaterial that integrates antibacterial treatments to reduce the risk of post-operative infection. It offers a solution that reduces the number of surgical steps and the depth of interventions.

The grafts make bone reconstruction more accessible and less invasive. They target pre-implant dental surgery and address insufficient bone volume before implantation.

8. Master Membranes – Graphene-based Membranes for Industrial Separation & Filtration

• Founding Year: 2024
• Location: Melbourne, Australia

Australian startup Master Membranes develops ultrathin graphene oxide membranes for advanced separation processes. Its membranes withstand solvents, harsh chemicals, and extreme pH levels where polymeric membranes fail. They deliver high flux with low resistance through molecularly precise tunability between 200 and 800 Daltons.

The startup scales its membranes using industrial fabrication to support broad adoption. Its membranes enable solvent recovery in corrosive and high-temperature environments. They support pharmaceutical purification, dewaxing, and fine separations in agrochemicals and biofuels.

They also allow homogeneous catalyst recovery for petrochemicals and resource recycling. Master Membranes helps industries cut emissions and align with circular economy goals by reclaiming solvents, reducing waste, and improving energy efficiency.

9. EntroMat – High Entropy Materials for Additive Manufacturing

• Founding Year: 2024
• Location: Melbourne, Australia

Australia startup EntroMat develops high-entropy materials (HEMs) with unique chemical and microstructural complexity. Unlike traditional alloys, HEMs combine five or more elements in equimolar or tailored ratios. Its products include high-entropy alloys, ceramics, oxides, carbides, and nitrides.

These materials exhibit strength, hardness, and wear resistance beyond conventional alternatives. Many maintain thermal stability in extreme environments, including refractory alloys and ceramics. Certain compositions resist corrosion in seawater and inhibit marine biofouling to extend the lifetime of subsea components and orthopaedic implants.

Its HEMs also enhance conductivity for battery electrodes and act as catalysts for hydrogen technologies. By tailoring composition, EntroMat delivers materials that combine durability, stability, and functional performance for aerospace, marine, energy, and biomedical applications.

10. California Perovskite Technology – Advanced Photovoltaic Material

• Founding Year: 2025
• Location: San Francisco, California, USA

USA-based startup California Pervoskite Technology advances solar cell technology with perovskite. Perovskite features four times the light absorption of currently used alternatives. CPTI develops perovskite solar cells that absorb more light than silicon panels and work well in low light.

The cells’ architecture features an absorber layer, hole/electron transport layers, and transparent conductive oxide. It uses optimized layering to maintain efficiency, stability, and durability under environmental stress. It processes materials at lower temperatures to reduce manufacturing costs. CPTI builds flexible, lightweight panels that can integrate into portable and consumer devices.

Discover All Emerging Materials Startups

The materials startups showcased in this report are only a small sample of all startups we identified through our data-driven startup scouting approach. Download our free Materials Innovation Report for a broad overview of the industry or get in touch for quick & exhaustive research on the latest technologies & emerging solutions that will impact your company in 2026!