Meet the JEC Group Startup Booster finalists for 2026

From the more than 160 entrepreneurs, startups and university spin-offs that submitted applications, JEC Group (Paris France) presents the 20 finalists competing for the 2026 JEC Composites Startup Booster award.

Finalists will have the opportunity to present their projects before an expert jury at JEC World 2026. Two pitch sessions, each featuring 10 presentations, will take place on the Agora stage (Hall 6): Tuesday, March 10, at 10:00 a.m. for finalists 1-10; and Tuesday, March 10, at 4:30 p.m. for finalists 10-20. Three winners will be selected by the jury: One Grand Winner, one Runner-Up Winner and one Sustainability Winner. The award ceremony will take place on Wednesday, March 11, at 5:30 p.m. in Agora 6.

The jury includes:

• Jelle Bloemhof, head of composites manufacturing technologies at Airbus
• Aline Rotzetter, senior investment manager for Emerald Technology Ventures
• Mike Salciccioli, Proxxima market development manager, ExxonMobil
• Chris Skinner, vice president of strategic marketing and R&D at Owens Corning
• Uday Vaiday, CTO of IACMI – The Composites Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation.

The 2026 competition is sponsored by Airbus, Proxxima (An ExxonMobil Product) and Owens Corning.

 

Acus (Italy)

Acus develops reusable adaptive molds for composites manufacturing. Its systems replace single-use tooling with reconfigurable, repeatable molds that drastically reduce waste, lead time and cost. The approach enables efficient production of composite components while improving sustainability, flexibility and industrial scalability.

Akhet Solutions (France)

Akhet Solutions develops hybrid AI-physics software for liquid composite molding to accelerate process design, simulation and monitoring. By combining physical laws with AI, the solution reduces development time, costs and material waste while improving industrial process control.

ATA Mute (Netherlands)

ATA Mute develops and delivers efficient, scalable and application-specific noise reduction technologies across different sectors and industries. This includes the design and engineering of high-performance mufflers, silencers and acoustic materials through the combination of simulation, laboratory testing and experimental validation. 

Biofibix (Belgium)

Biofibix supplies flax reinforcements engineered to meet cost and performance requirements. Its proprietary fiber treatment avoids excessive resin soak-up and elevates the natural performance of flax. Backed by strong shareholders, Biofibix says it controls the supply chain from field to reinforcement, ensuring consistent quality and price stability. The company’s flagship product, Hypermat, delivers performance close to conventional flax fabrics at half the cost.

Blencel (France)

Blencel converts plant-based textile waste into new alternative materials that are fully biodegradable and additive-free. The sustainable and cost-effective technology extracts cotton from industrial and post-consumer blends, upcycling them into circular and recyclable materials that can replace petroleum-based products like polyurethane foams and epoxy resins.

CGreen (France)

CGreen is providing a high-performance, competitive and bio-based alternative to the carbon fiber industry. The result of 10 years of R&D, the company’s technology replaces fossil precursors (PAN) with cellulose, reducing the carbon footprint by a factor of three while guaranteeing mechanical properties equivalent to the standard grade. CGreen’s pilot line, which will be operational in mid-2026, will validate its processes with industrial partners by 2027.

Fibionic (Austria)

Fibionic’s nature-inspired Fibionic Fiber Placement (FFP) is claimed to be the world’s fastest fiber placement process. It uses fibers only where needed, produces zero waste and enables strong, lightweight and cost-efficient composites that are sustainable and scalable for mass production.

Fyous (U.K.)

Fyous has invented PolyMorphic Moulding — a reconfigurable molding system made from thousands of digitally controlled pins. It enables form shapes in minutes that are ready for composite layup, compression molding, workholding, thermoforming and more. The technology also stores molds digitally, which can all be accessed with a single tool. 

Mach Electric (U.S.)

Mach Electric produces structural carbon fiber from waste gas CO_₂. By eliminating the need for PAN, the company is able to significantly reduce carbon fiber production costs and improve scalability, as its process uses about five times less energy with ~30% less cost in feedstock, all while being carbon-negative. A recent University of Colorado spin-out, Mach Electric has delivered carbon fiber products via its patented modular production system.

Mars Materials (U.S.)

Mars Materials, a Houston, Texas-based venture and Breakthrough Energy Fellows-backed startup, transforms carbon into Hoigen-C, a carbon-negative, hydrogen cyanide-free acrylonitrile. Hoigen-C is a drop-in replacement for petrochemical-derived acrylonitrile in more than 1,500 SKUs, enabling manufacturers to decarbonize supply chains by up to 85% and eliminate toxic byproducts. It serves as a primary precursor for growing, supply-constrained markets like carbon fiber composites, water-soluble polymers and other performance materials.

Nebumind (Germany)

Nebumind supports fully data-driven production by turning complex production data into actionable insights. Its Anomaly Dashboard fuses machine and sensor data into a spatial digital twin, enabling real-time quality monitoring and fast root cause analysis. This reduces manual inspection, increases process transparency and accelerates machine optimization. 

Novium (Türkiye)

Novium is a generative AI platform redefining how organizations innovate. By transforming fragmented knowledge into structured intelligence, it enables to explore possibilities, anticipate outcomes and make confident R&D decisions before physical execution. Novium shifts innovation from trial and error to insight-driven discovery, accelerating progress, reducing uncertainty and unlocking a new standard for data-powered innovation at scale.

P2M (Italy)

P2M has created GENE.SYS, the digital DNA of composite products. Through an embedded chip, the platform tracks each product across its entire lifecycle. Technical, production and maintenance data remain linked over time, enabling the Digital Product Passport (DPP) and supporting end-of-life management, material recovery and circular economy processes.

Plastalyst by AC Biode (Luxembourg)

Plastalyst says it recycles the most difficult wastes at low temperatures. More specifically, it decomposes only the polymer matrix at low temperatures and pressures. The company has already completed pilots with more than 35 companies. Due to regulations requiring recycling, the company sees strong demand from the automotive industry — its clients include Bosch, Daikyo Nishikawa and Toyota+Toyopet.

ReForm Composites (U.S.)

ReForm advances continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (CFRTP) with added toughness, recyclability and reformability. Combining deep engineering and research expertise with its Continuous Forming technology, ReForm produces structural CFRTP profiles at industrial scale and develops end-use structural products. These profiles can be used as-manufactured or reshaped and reformed for downstream processes, enabling practical adoption across construction, infrastructure and industrial markets.

Reochronos (France)

Rheochronos provides cost-effective instruments for real-time composite and resin curing. Its solutions optimize production, reduce cycle times and material waste, and ensure quality — delivering fast ROI and a competitive edge.

Sinteg Systems (Netherlands)

Sinteg Systems develops ultrasonic guided wave nondestructive testing (NDT) for composite structures. The technology quantifies stiffness and detects defects in situ, enabling faster decision-making, efficient quality control and integrity assessment for aerospace, defense and industrial composites.

Soarce (U.S.)

Soarce is an advanced materials company developing high-performance nanofiber additives for fiber-reinforced composites. The bio-based technology strengthens the fiber-matrix interface, improving adhesion, durability and load transfer, reducing composite weight and cutting manufacturing costs. Designed to work within existing sizing lines, Soarce enables carbon fiber, fiberglass, recycled composite and other manufacturers to achieve higher performance, better material efficiency and more sustainable composite systems.

Trimer Technologies (U.S.)

Trimer Technologies has developed a low-cost resin that enables the rapid manufacture of high-performance fiber-reinforced composites. Trimer’s thermosetting resins significantly reduce manufacturing time while delivering optimal mechanical, thermal and fire, smoke and toxicity (FST) performance compared to conventional materials. Designed for scalability and cost efficiency, Trimer’s technology provides manufacturers with a high-value alternative to existing composite resin systems, supporting faster production, improved part performance and broad adoption across demanding applications.

Zetamotion (U.K.)

Zetamotion is dedicated to resolving the headache of composite AI inspection, moving automated quality control potential out of the realm of research projects and into the domain of reliable, industrial application. It achieves this with its proprietary synthetic data technology, which “thrive in conditions where others fail.” Handling non-uniformity, endless variations, low production volumes and rare defects are some challenging scenarios where Zetamotion says its solution excels.