The Green Tech Revolution: 2025’s Most Promising Sustainable Startups

There’s no question that in today’s world, fighting climate change should be a priority. And while every individual must do their part every single day, there’s companies going further in sustainability through innovation and technology.

There’s still so much more that can be done, however Cleantech and Greentech startups are playing a fundamental role in doing their share to make our world a better, cleaner and more sustainable place.

The Tree App: We know that a big part of climate change is due to deforestation. With that in mind, what if you could plant a tree across the world, from your phone to select a reforestation project to support and track the global impact? While Treeapp is only available in the UK and Ireland, it is making its way to plant over 4 million trees by making a regular contribution.

Algenesis: Asides from deforestation, plastic is one of the world’s biggest threats. Our oceans, lands and air are filled with plastics. Algenesis, an eco-friendly startup founded in 2016 by Dr. Stephen Mayfield, is doing something about it. Using their patented Soleic™ technology, Algenesis produces fully biodegradable plastic made from algae. Not only is this a renewable product, but it is also a high-performance material allowing it to compete with plastics we currently use.

Next Gen: a plant-based food startup from Singapore that wants to provide a solution to the environmental impact the agricultural industry has by creating alternatives to animal products. Co-founded in 2020 by Timo Recker and Andre Menezes, Next Gen’s chicken alternative product TiNDLE uses 74% less land and 82% less water according to the startup while producing 88% less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional chicken farming.

Sadako Company: Over recent years, Artificial intelligence has become a game changer for humans, and recycling hasn’t been an exception. In a time where it’s crucial for us as a society to prioritize consumption reduction, reuse, and recycling, infusing technology into this chain contributes to a cleaner, more sustainable planet for the future. Based in Barcelona, Spain, Sadako Company has developed state-of-the-art spider-like robots with 1, 2,  or even 4 arms with neural networks capable of recognizing waste with near-human accuracy. The visual and manipulating capacities added through Artificial Intelligence make them smart and able to perform complex sorting tasks.

The most common plastics the robots encounter are PET (like water bottles and food trays) and HDPE (such as opaque cleaning product bottles). However, the AI recognizes a wide range of materials, including other plastics, metals (aluminum or steel), paper and cardboard, glass, organic waste, and electronic waste, incorporating over 200 categories tailored to each facility’s recycling requirements.