Arkema launches global Start-up Connect program for responsible innovation

Arkema (Colombes, France) has recently launched its Start-up Connect initiative, a new program which invites startup companies specializing in advanced materials from around the world to join forces with Arkema to establish a privileged research collaboration and benefit from the Group’s support and technological experience. By providing technical or financial support for these innovations, Start-up Connect will be a strategic component of Arkema’s development within an ecosystem of responsible innovation.

The program will combine the dynamism of small, agile and innovative organizations with the Group’s expertise in specialty materials to develop the innovations of tomorrow, Arkema says. Further, the company will be providing these startups with its international reach, its in-depth knowledge of markets and applications and its ability to develop safe and high-performance chemistry. Arkema says it will offer access to the scientific and technical resources of its 15 R&D centers in France, the U.S. and Asia, facilitating the pooling of expertise, innovation and economic development at the heart of these regions. All strategic partnerships defined within Start-up Connect may range from technical collaboration to financial support, expertise, or mentoring.

Arkema has also chosen to devote the vast majority of its innovation partnerships to sustainable growth. To achieve this, the innovations that are selected must be linked to Arkema’s innovation platforms: natural resource management, lightweight materials and design, new energies, electronics solutions and home efficiency and insulation. 

“Our materials provide concrete solutions to societal and ecological issues, but the major challenges of tomorrow cannot be addressed by our teams alone, regardless of their talent,” states Christian Collette, Arkema’s R&D vice president. “Our Start-up Connect program must therefore attract innovators from all over the world to work on solving these challenges alongside our researchers. In doing so, we want to create an impetus, a momentum, to bring transformative projects to maturity.”