Impact/100

The Impact/100 is a list of the world’s 100 most promising early-stage impact startups, as curated by Norrsken Foundation and our friends. It exists to give you hope and positive inspiration, and to remind you that even when things look pretty bleak, there are some incredible role models out there, and they deserve our praise and recognition. Scroll down for 100 ways to fix the future.

The list

The 2025 Impact/100 was compiled from over 1400 nominations sourced from 50 nominators, among them some of the world’s top investment funds, academic institutions and NGOs.

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Ÿnsect

FoodTech
France

What If, We Could Farm Enough Insects To Feed The Entire World?

2022

microTERRA

Agriculture
Mexico

What if, we could clean the water in fish farms by growing food in them?

2022

ZwitterCo

Water
United States

Membranes that can make even the foulest water clean and re-usable again.

2023

eFishery

Agriculture
Indonesia

Ending hunger by improving shrimp farming.

2023
2022

Zipline

HealthTech
United States

Using drones to deliver vital medicines to rural and inaccessible areas.

2023
2022

ZeroAvia

Agriculture
United States

Developing hydrogen-powered aircraft with virtually zero emissions.

2023
2022

Zero Acre Farms

FoodTech
United States

What if, we make oil from sugar instead of from vegetables?

2022

XAG

Agriculture
China

Increases farm production and reduce waste through the use of flying drones.

No items found.

Worn Again Technologies

Recycling
United Kingdom

Putting textiles back into the supply chain by making clothes fully recyclable.

2023

Wota

Water
Japan

Turns wastewater into a cost cutting resource with home-based, small-scale water recycling systems.

2024

Woebot Health

HealthTech
United States

AI-assisted mental health care, available on your phone.

2023

Winnow

Sustainability
United Kingdom

What if, we enlist AI to help restaurants reduce food waste?

2022

Wildtype

FoodTech
United States

What If, We Could Make Sushi Without Killing Fish?

2022

Wild Bioscience

HealthTech
United Kingdom

Boosts crops with carbon-cutting, yield-boosting solutions that turn farm productivity up to eleven.

2024

WellaHealth

HealthTech
Nigeria

What if, we build a cutting-edge digital health platform for the largest country in Africa?

2022

Watershed

ClimateTech
United States

Giving companies a way to measure, report and reduce emissions in just a few weeks.

2023

Waterplan

Water
United States

Helps companies take control of water waste and water use in their facilities and supply chains.

2024

Wala Digital Health

HealthTech
Ghana

What if, we build a digital marketplace for developing countries to manage, share and request blood?

2022

Volta Greentech

ClimateTech
Sweden

What If, Cows Stopped Farting And We Could Save The Ozone Layer?

2022

Vira Health

HealthTech
United Kingdom

What if, we use digital therapeutics to help women through menopause?

2022

Verdox

CleanTech
United States

Develops goodbye-to-carbon-emissions-tech for aluminum production

2022
2024

Vinted

Fashion
Lithuania

What If, We Make Second Hand Clothing The First Hand Choice?

2022

Via Separations

ClimateTech
United States

What if, we could save energy by separating chemicals with membranes rather than heat?

2022

Verdagy

Energy
United States

Turns water into green hydrogen with next-gen electrolysis technology.

2024

Vaxess Technologies

HealthTech
United States

Getting vaccines in the body through patches - not needles.

2023

Veir

Energy
United States

Creates a new way to transmit electricity using advanced superconductors, making power delivery more efficient.

2024

Vara

HealthTech
Germany

Using AI to improve breast cancer detection.

2023

Valence Labs

HealthTech
Canada

Using AI to discover and develop new drugs.

2023

VIDA

Energy
Germany

What if, we use satellites to plan out electricity grids in the world's poorest areas?

2022

Unspun

Fashion
United States

Remakes how clothes are made with sustainable and circular 3D weaving technology.

2024

Unacademy

Education
India

What if, we could give everyone the same shot at higher education?

2022

TytoCare

HealthTech
Israel

What if, we build a device that lets patients perform common medical checks at home?

2022

UPSIDE Foods

FoodTech
United States

What if, we could grow all our meat in a lab?

2022

UNDO

ClimateTech
United Kingdom

Capturing and storing CO2 in rocks for hundreds of thousands of years.

2023

Twelve

CleanTech
United States

Eliminates emissions by turning CO2 into essential products, like green jet fuel or plastic.

2024

TurtleTree

FoodTech
Singapore

What If, We Could Create Real Milk Without Animals??

2022

Turntide Technologies

CleanTech
United States

Creating advanced electric motors to drive down energy consumption from machinery.

2023

Trukkr

Transportation
Pakistan

Reinventing supply chains, putting tech in the driver’s seat to move businesses faster than ever.

2024

To zero

Recycling
Germany

Recycles lithium-ion batteries to recover vital materials and cut e-waste impact.

2024

Tipa

BioTech
Israel

Putting an end to plastic packaging with functional and cheap biodegradable materials.

2023
2022

The Great Bubble Barrier®

Water
Netherlands

Cleans up river trash with water bubbles that acts like a high-tech vacuum.

2024

Three Wheels United

FinTech
India

Financing to bring electric mobility to emerging markets.

2022
2023

Terabase

Energy
United States

Makes setting up solar power plants a digital delight.

2024

Sweep

CleanTech
France

Sweeps carbon and ESG data into one platform - track, disclose, and act with style.

2024

Syre

CleanTech
Sweden

Decarbonizes the fashion industry via textile-to-textile recycling.

2024

SunFi

Energy
Nigeria

Making solar power affordable and accessible for everyone in Africa.

2023

Submer

Energy
Spain

Cooling down computers with less than half of the current required energy.

2022
2023

Stegra

Energy
Sweden

What if, we could make steel using electricity and water?

2022

Spoor

ClimateTech
Norway

Deep-tech saving birds from flying into wind turbines to combat climate change.

2023

Sourceful

CleanTech
United Kingdom

Revolutionizing packaging, by making it frictionless for companies to go green and cut waste from their supply chains.

2024

Sound Agriculture

Agriculture
United States

What if, we convince microbes to help us grow better plants?

2022

Solugen

BioTech
United States

What if, we make the chemicals we need from sugar, not petroleum?

2022

Solstice

ClimateTech
United States

What if, we leverage community buying power to give everyone access to solar?

2022

Smartex

Fashion
Portugal

Using AI to spot fabric flaws, cut waste, and collect primary production data - fashion just got smarter.

2024

Shipzero

Transportation
Germany

Helps global freight transport get to net-zero with software that turns emissions data into smart, green decisions.

2024

SQUAKE

Transportation
Germany

Giving the transportation industry no reason to not calculate and compensate for their emissions.

2023

Shara

FinTech
Kenya

Unlocks financial access in Africa with tech that empowers communities to save, borrow, and grow.

2024

SepPure

CleanTech
Singapore

Filters chemicals with nanotech that’s 580x (that's a lot) more energy-efficient than traditional methods.

2024

Sensegrass

Agriculture
United States

Makes farming smarter by boosting crop yields and cutting chemical use with agrotech and AI.

2024

Scipher Medicine

HealthTech
United States

A science-based psychic to predict your body's reaction to medicine.

2023

RxAll

HealthTech
United States

Bringing safe, high-quality medicines to the African continent with tech that verifies and tracks every pill in real time.

2022
2024

Running Tide

ClimateTech
United States

What if, we could slow down climate change by putting seaweed on the ocean floor?

2022

Rondo Energy

Energy
United States

Powers industries with heat batteries that cut costs and wipe out emissions using renewable energy.

2024

Roam

Transportation
Kenya

Accelerates clean mobility in emerging markets with electric motorcycles and buses.

2024

Rology

HealthTech
Egypt

Uses AI and remote technology to provide accurate medical scans, improving healthcare in difficult-to-reach areas.

2024

Retein

BioTech
Sweden

What if, we mimic the behavior of plankton to purify water cheaply and at scale?

2022

Resortecs

Fashion
Belgium

Melts seams to unleash garment recycling at scale

2024

Relation Therapeutics

Social
United Kingdom

Merges machine learning and human genetics into life-saving therapies.

2024

Redwood Materials

Sustainability
United States

What if, we could recycle old electric cars into new electric cars?

2022

Recycleye

Recycling
United Kingdom

Reinventing the economics of recycling

2023
2024

Reality Defender

Security
United States

Stopping deepfakes before they fool anyone.

2024

Quaise Energy

Energy
United States

What if, we could get limitless, clean and free energy by digging really, really deep holes?

2022

ReGrow Ag

Agriculture
United States

Using satellite data to get the agricultural industry to reduce emissions.

2023

Qarbotech

CleanTech
Malaysia

Supercharging plants with a biocompatible boost for faster, greener growth.

2024

Puna Bio

BioTech
Argentina

Supercharges crops with biological innovations that boost yields, cut carbon, and revive soil.

2024

Proximie

HealthTech
United Kingdom

Creating world-class robot-surgeons.

2023

Praxis Labs

Education
United States

Using VR to help companies rethink biases and become more inclusive.

2023

Prellis Biologics

HealthTech
United States

Saving lives by 3D printing human tissue and organs.

2023

Planet A Foods

FoodTech
Germany

Crafts chocolatey bliss from plants, without a single cocoa bean in sight.

2022
2024

Plan A

ClimateTech
Germany

Giving companies what they need to lower their carbon emissions.

2023

Pear Bio

HealthTech
United Kingdom

What if, we test cancer treatments on tumors grown on computer chips?

2022

Piclo

Energy
United Kingdom

Making it easy to sell green energy at reasonable prices.

2023

Pivot Bio

Agriculture
United States

Creating sustainable, zero-waste nitrogen fertilizers with the help of microbes.

2023

Pairwise

Agriculture
United States

Saving harvests by giving produce super-immunity against diseases.

2023

PILI

CleanTech
France

Replaces toxic, non-recyclable ink with a greener, cleaner alternative.

2024

Overture Life

FemTech
United States

Saving couples money, time and emotional turmoil by developing IVF with better success rates.

2023

Orca Fraud

FinTech
South Africa

Takes down fraud with AI that spots the threats others miss, keeping businesses a step ahead.

2024

Opna

FinTech
United Kingdom

Turns climate pledges into real-world action by financing planet-thriving projects.

2024

Olio

Sustainability
United Kingdom

What if, we build an app to ensure food is shared, not wasted?

2022

Northvolt

Energy
Sweden

Making the world's greenest batteries.

2022
2023

Oerth Bio

Agriculture
United States

Giving plants the ultimate shield against disease and pests.

2023

Odys Aviation

Transportation
United States

Constructs hybrid-electric aircrafts that take off and land vertically, for regional travel.

2024

Ochre Bio

HealthTech
United Kingdom

Letting livers live their best life, so you can do the same.

2024

Novoloop

Recycling
United States

Turns plastic waste into high-performance materials

2024

Notpla

ClimateTech
United Kingdom

Developing plant-based plastic bags to end all plastic bags.

2023

Nitrovolt

Transportation
Denmark

Gives farmers the power to create their own green fertilizer right on-site

2024

Nitricity

Agriculture
United States

Turns air into fertilizer, with zero carbon footprint.

2024

Nilus

FoodTech
Argentina

Distributing perfectly good, would-be-thrown-out, healthy food to low-income communities to end hunger.

2022
2023

Neurotrack

HealthTech
United States

Early detection to put an end to Alzheimer's once and for all.

2023

Neoplants

CleanTech
France

Bioengineered superhero plants fighting air pollution.

2023

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The jury

The final curation was done by Norrsken Foundation and a hand-picked jury.

Niklas Adalberth
Linkedin

Founder of Norrsken Foundation

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Yewande Adewusi
Linkedin

COO at Alitheia Capital

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Daria Saharova
Linkedin

General Partner at World Fund

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Darja Isaksson
Linkedin

Director General at Vinnova

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Cameron McLain
Linkedin

Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Giant Ventures

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Podcast

Want to hear more about these cool ideas? Lucky for you - we made a podcast about the Impact/100 with Alexander Skarsgård. Don't worry - this isn't yet another boring podcast about climate change. No this one is... a little bit different.

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