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Executive Summary: Which are the Top 10 Steel Startups to Watch?

  1. DGP Steel Tech (India) – builds a digital marketplace for secondary steel trading with real-time mill-rate feeds, online bidding, and logistics integration to enhance transparency and liquidity.
  2. TerraBarrier (Sweden) – develops a net-zero barrier coating for metals that prevents corrosion and hydrogen embrittlement using an inward-grown, defect-free layer compatible with complex alloys.
  3. Cocoon (UK) – transforms steel slag into supplementary cementitious material through modular chemical-mechanical units, turning waste and CO2 inputs into low-carbon, high-reactivity cement substitutes.
  4. Anferra (Sweden) – converts steel grinding sludge into ferrous chloride and green hydrogen through hydrometallurgical recycling to support circular steel and chemical manufacturing.
  5. POSCORE (South Korea) – produces magnetic powders and cores from recycled steel scrap to improve efficiency and reduce costs in electric motor manufacturing.
  6. Meranti Green Steel (Singapore) – manufactures hydrogen-based green steel via direct reduction and electric arc furnaces powered by renewables, cutting emissions to ~600 kg CO2 per ton.
  7. Sustable (Turkey) – offers sustainability management software for steel plants with automated carbon accounting, GHG-compliant reporting, and decarbonization scenario modeling.
  8. Quest Manufacturing (USA) – fabricates stainless steel enclosures and racks for industrial installations to ensure precision machining and durability across data, AV, and network applications.
  9. MultiAxis Manufacturing (Canada) – specializes in precision sheet metal fabrication using laser cutting and CNC machining to deliver custom, high-quality metal components for diverse sectors.
  10. Supaloc Steel Building Systems (Australia) – delivers prefabricated modular steel framing for industrial and residential projects to reduce onsite time and labor through pre-engineered, compliant designs.

Global Startup Heat Map highlights Emerging Steel Startups 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 steel startups.

The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights emerging steel startups you should watch in 2026, as well as the geo-distribution of 150+ startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research.

According to our data, we observe high startup activity in Western Europe and India, followed by the US. The top 5 Steel Startup Hubs are London, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, and New York City.

 

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Discover Emerging Steel Startups to Watch in 2026

We hand-picked startups to showcase in this report by filtering for their technology, founding year, location, funding, and other metrics. These emerging steel startups work on solutions ranging from digital steel trading and precision sheet metal to green steel and closed-loop recycling.

1. DGP Steel Tech – Steel Trading Platform

  • Founding Year: 2024
  • Location: India

Indian startup DGP Steel Tech develops a digital trading platform for secondary steel markets. It uses real-time mill-rate feeds and an online bidding interface to allow traders to negotiate and transact directly with secondary mills.

It features secure deal-booking, transparent rate discovery, and integrated truck-request functionality to reduce administrative overhead and enhance operational efficiency. Accordingly, it enables smaller mills and buyers to participate in a more structured manner while simultaneously improving market visibility and liquidity.

2. TerraBarrier – Green Steel Production

  • Founding Year: 2023
  • Location: Karlstad, Sweden

Swedish startup TerraBarrier makes a barrier coating technology that protects metals from corrosion, hydrogen permeation, and embrittlement. The startup’s coating grows a thermodynamically stable, defect-free, inward-grown layer from within the metal substrate that ensures a super-dense and homogeneous barrier without dimensional change.

 

 

It offers unremovable adherence, minimal porosity, no cracking under thermal cycling, and compatibility with complex geometries and materials such as stainless steels, nickel-based alloys, and alumina formers. It operates via a net-zero, emissions-free production process and avoids toxic or hazardous chemicals.

TerraBarrier protects critical metal components across heat exchangers, burners, valves, additive manufacturing, and hydrogen infrastructure.

3. Cocoon – Hard-to-Abate Steel Recycling

  • Founding Year: 2023
  • Location: London, UK

UK-based startup Cocoon produces a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) derived from industrial steel slag. It transforms electric arc furnace (EAF) slag via a proprietary chemical-mechanical process in modular units that integrate with existing slag pits. This converts waste and CO2 inputs into a reactive, amorphous-rich SCM.

 

 

The material achieves a high reactivity index (85-110 % at 28 days with 30 % replacement of ordinary Portland cement) and offers fine grindability, improved particle packing, and favorable rheology. It maintains cost-competitiveness and low embodied carbon (~90 % lower than OPC) with outputs of 100-300 k tonnes per plant per annum.

Moreover it eliminates landfill burden and converts waste streams into value streams, and it deploys in a modular, scalable way with minimal disruption to existing operations.

4. Anferra – Steel Waste Recycling

  • Founding Year: 2024
  • Location: Gothenburg, Sweden

Swedish startup Anferra creates a hydrometallurgical recycling process that transforms hazardous steel grinding sludge and swarf into high-purity ferrous chloride and green hydrogen. It extracts iron from low-alloy steel waste by treating the material through its patented dissolution, separation, and conversion steps.

It enables recovery of valuable chemical feedstocks for water treatment and hydrogen production. Further, it delivers reduced landfill disposal costs, increased recycling of complex steel residues, production of industrial-grade iron chloride, and generation of hydrogen as a clean energy carrier. Anferra supports circularity across the steel and chemical industries by turning persistent steel waste streams into usable resources.

5. POSCORE – Recycled Steel Powder

  • Founding Year: 2023
  • Location: Seongnam, South Korea

South Korean POSCORE develops magnetic powder and motor core materials from recycled steel scrap. It processes high-silicon electrical steel scrap through proprietary powder-making and sintering methods to create dense, high-performance cores. The technology improves efficiency, reduces iron loss, and allows customized magnetic properties by adjusting raw material blends.

Additionally, it lowers production costs by using scrap while maintaining superior performance compared to conventional rolled steel. The company delivers sustainable and cost-efficient magnetic cores that support electric motor manufacturing and address supply chain constraints.

 

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6. Meranti Green Steel – Green Steel Manufacturing

  • Founding Year: 2023
  • Location: Singapore

Singaporean startup Meranti Green Steel manufactures low-carbon steel using hydrogen-based direct reduction and electric arc furnace technologies. These processes run on renewable energy and replace traditional blast furnaces. The reduction process begins with a mix of 15% hydrogen and 85% natural gas.

The green steel startup melts scrap steel and HBI using Danieli’s Electric Arc Furnace technology. It sources renewable electricity through direct Power Purchase Agreements with solar, wind, and hydropower providers.

Further, the startup’s Rayong plant, located in the IRPC eco-industrial zone, produces 2.5 million tons of Hot Rolled Coil each year. It also includes systems for waste treatment and air pollution control.

Meranti Green Steel maximizes scrap use and renewable power and lowers CO2 emissions to around 600 kg per ton. It supplies low-emission steel and promotes carbon-neutral manufacturing.

7. Sustable – Steel Sustainability Management Platform

  • Founding Year: 2023
  • Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Turkish startup Sustable makes a sustainability-management software platform for the steel and iron sector. It ingests operational activity data (energy use, raw material flows, emissions) and applies automated calculation engines aligned with GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-1 to compute carbon footprints and emissions across scopes.

Besides, it offers real-time dashboards, automated reporting, traceability of emissions sources, and integration with enterprise systems to simplify data collection. It supports carbon accounting, supplier emission tracking, and scenario planning for decarbonization strategies.

8. Quest Manufacturing – Stainless Steel Machining

  • Founding Year: 2024
  • Location: Pomona, California, US

US-based startup Quest Manufacturing produces metal enclosures, racks, shelves, and accessories for a variety of installation requirements, including data, voice, and audio/video applications.

The startup specializes in machining and fabricating custom products from materials such as stainless steel, Hastelloy, AL6XN, and titanium, ensuring durability and reliability. It offers features such as a diverse range of enclosure types, including floor and wall mount enclosures, open frame racks, and equipment shelving.

9. MultiAxis Manufacturing – Precision Sheet Metal Fabrication

  • Founding Year: 2023
  • Location: Abbotsford, Canada

Canadian startup MultiAxis Manufacturing specializes in precision sheet metal fabrication and delivers custom components and products to various industries. The startup employs advanced manufacturing techniques, including laser cutting, CNC machining, and welding, to ensure accurate and efficient production processes. Its capabilities include handling complex designs and varying batch sizes, which enable it to meet diverse client requirements.

Additionally, MultiAxis Manufacturing prioritizes stringent quality control measures and utilizes state-of-the-art technology to ensure that each product meets industry standards for durability and performance.

10. Supaloc Steel Building Systems – Structural Steel House Framing Products

  • Founding Year: 2024
  • Location: Adelaide, Australia

Australian startup Supaloc Steel Building Systems develops prefabricated steel building solutions. It manufactures modular steel components and assembles them into customizable structures for industrial, commercial, and residential projects.

The startup integrates precision engineering with durable materials and enables fast installation and structural consistency. It incorporates flexible designs that allow scalable expansions and adaptations to diverse site conditions.

Additionally, the system reduces on-site construction time and labor requirements through pre-engineered components. Suploc Steel Building Systems maintains compliance with Australian standards and emphasizes long-term durability and low maintenance.

Discover All Emerging Steel Startups

The 10 steel 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 Industry Innovation Reports 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!