ClimateHaven’s Water Innovation Hub in partnership with Xylem, a leading global water solutions partner, is launching the 2026 Xylem Innovation Challenge. The challenge reflects a shared commitment to accelerating innovation from concept to commercialization within . Starting today, the challenge is developing breakthrough solutions in two key technical areas: (i) critical mineral recovery and (ii) energy recovery from industrial water systems to unlock the strategic value hidden in water and turn one of our most overlooked resource streams into a valuable resource.
Across industrial systems, water streams carry untapped value in the form of thermal energy, lithium, rare earth elements, and other critical materials. Yet we treat these resource-rich streams as waste, discharging or evaporating them while we simultaneously scramble to secure the same critical materials and energy from increasingly contested global supply chains. What’s often treated as waste is, in reality, a distributed resource stream already moving through infrastructure that companies own and operate. Recognizing this shift is critical: those who start viewing water through a resource recovery lens can unlock new value from existing processes, while those who don’t risk overlooking a growing source of competitive advantage.
Industries such as semiconductor manufacturing, mining, battery production, and oil and gas generate wastewater streams containing lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earth elements, and other materials critical to modern supply chains. At the same time, significant thermal energy is routinely discharged through industrial water systems.
As supply chain vulnerabilities and energy costs continue to rise, the opportunity to recover valuable resources such as critical materials and energy from existing water infrastructure is becoming increasingly important. Yet many promising technologies struggle to bridge the gap between innovation and real-world deployment.
“The opportunity is clear,” said Dr. Amanda Lounsbury, Early-Stage Technology Strategist at Xylem, “but capturing it depends on how quickly technologies can be tested against real industry constraints. The Xylem Innovation Challenge is about giving startups earlier access to the environments, data, and expertise they need to validate performance and move toward scale.”
The Xylem Innovation Challenge is designed to help close that gap by enabling early stage (<TRL 7) startups to design against real-world constraints sooner, accelerating learning cycles and improving both failure efficiency and scaling outcomes.
Winners of the challenge will participate in a three-month ClimateHaven-led innovation Sprint, Throughout the sprint, startups will validate technical fit and refine deployment pathways. Four to six startups will be selected for the multi-month program, with two advancing to build evidence toward commercialization through early-stage validation in representative pilot environments.
“We are looking not only for strong technologies, but for founders who understand how to scale and commercialize in complex industrial markets,” said Aishwarya Kuruttukulam, Director at ClimateHaven. “Critical minerals and energy recovery represent massive emerging markets, but success will depend on whether companies can prove both technical performance and economic viability. This challenge creates an opportunity to test both.”
Applications for the 2026 Xylem Innovation Challenge are now open and will close on July 19, 2026. Selected startups will participate in the Innovation Sprint beginning later this year.
Apply to the 2026 Innovation Challenge
Read the Request for Proposals
Apply here
ClimateHaven is a platform for startups building breakthrough solutions in energy and climate resilience, headquartered in New Haven, CT. The Water Innovation Hub is ClimateHaven's initiative for accelerating the commercialization and deployment of novel water technologies through pilots with corporates, utilities, and partners.
