Dubai Holding Unveils Global Accelerator to Fast-Track Circular Innovation

We are halfway to the 2050 net zero target. While national commitments continue to grow, linear models of ‘take, make, waste’ stand in the way of meaningful progress. With global waste generation projected to rise by more than 80% by 2050 compared to 2023 levels, accelerating the transition to a circular economy is no longer optional, it is essential.

The circular economy offers a smarter path forward: one where materials are kept in use, value is preserved and waste is designed to flow back into the system as a resource.

Championing this critical shift, Dubai Holding launched the Innovate For Tomorrow Impact Accelerator, a global program built to scale high-potential circular solutions. Through expert mentorship, practical masterclasses and direct access to investor networks, the accelerator equips founders with the tools to transform their vision into a proven success story.

From more than 1,400 applications across 93 countries, here are the 15 scale-ups bringing bold ideas and scalable solutions to reshape sustainable production and accelerate the transition to a more circular future.

Food loss and waste

Souji: Alchemizing cooking oil into cleaning products

“We can prove that sustainability can also be profitable,” states Souji founder, Sergio Fernández. The Spanish scale-up uses patented technology to convert used vegetable cooking oil into non-toxic cleaning products.

“With our machine, customers produce a ready-to-use product on-site.” This reduces packaging, avoids shipping, lowers emissions and cuts operational costs while simplifying daily routines.

Peeling back on plastics with PeelPack

PeelPack is a Swiss scale-up that upcycles potato peel by-products into a biodegradable and compostable fibre-based material. “Our focus is simple,” explains CEO Slava Drigloff. “Replace plastic at an industrial scale while creating measurable environmental and business value.”

PeelPack’s packaging works for existing production lines and meets retailer requirements for strength and shelf life. “Many alternatives are either too expensive, niche or difficult to scale. Our solutions are practical for large supply chains from day one.”

From food to sustainable design with Ottan

Ottan is the brainchild of multi-award-winning materials researcher and industrial designer Ayşe Yılmaz. This UK scale-up transforms food waste into durable, low-carbon and design-ready bio-composite materials, replacing plastics, ceramics, stone and wood.

“We deliver measurable carbon reduction at material level by replacing extraction-based inputs with upcycled food and agricultural waste,” shares Yılmaz. “Our materials require no new factories, enabling scalable impact.”

Creating conscious events with BIRD Collaborative

BIRD Collaborative is a UAE social enterprise that produces sustainable products and tech-enabled solutions for the hospitality and events sector, including eco-safe straws made from sustainably sourced wood. “Our products enable clients to create measurable change,” shares Nabil Mhanna, one of three co-founders. “We’re helping clean the UAE’s oceans. Each order supports an initiative to remove 1kg of ocean waste.”

Cauli: Serving smart

Mingqiao Zhao and Josephine Liang co-founded Cauli to help F&B businesses eliminate waste. Its AI-enabled reusable food packaging system allows customers to borrow and return food and drink containers easily.

Resource recovery and regeneration

Sorting the future with Cycled Technologies

Cycled Technologies simplifies and incentivizes recycling. The Norwegian scale-up was inspired by co-founder and CEO Ayoola Brimmo’s childhood growing up on a poultry farm. “Waste like chicken excrement and leftover corn were buried. After it rained, I noticed the corn seeds sprout. What we thought was waste had value. Years later, standing at a landfill, I saw the same opportunity at a much larger scale.”

Cycled develops a proprietary hardware embedded into front-end waste collection bins that automates sorting right at the source. Contributors can earn points and special discounts with partner brands, rewarding individual sustainable contributions.

Without: Recycling the unrecyclable

Without, a deep climate-tech company behind a proprietary technology, transforms unrecyclable plastic and textile waste into high-quality, recyclable materials. “Most companies recycle what’s easy, like PET bottles and aluminium cans,” shares Anish Malpani, Founder. “We recycle what nobody else can: chip packets, sachets and chocolate wrappers that make up less than 1% of recycled plastic globally.”

Laying new foundations for future homes with Rumett

Rumett is a Denmark-born scale-up led by construction architect Diana Saleh. She developed the world’s first paper-free mineral gypsum wall panel partly made from bio-ash for fast, low-carbon and fire-resistant building.

“Our approach is rooted in Danish design culture,” explains Saleh. “Our panels are mechanically fitted, not glued, and designed to be dismantled and reused instead of demolished. It allows spaces to change without creating waste.”

Waste to nature with CO2Wall

Dutch scale-up CO2Wall is transforming urban spaces with AI-driven living green walls and roofs. Its living structures reduce CO2 emissions, noise and temperature by three to eight degrees while filtering air.

Sustainable ceramics with Seramic Materials

Seramic Materials stems from Dr. Khalid Al Ali and Dr. Nicolas Calvet’s 2007 PhD research. It uses an innovative process to transform low-value industrial solid waste into sustainable ceramic products, including floor and wall tiles and high-temperature thermal energy storage materials.

Revent: Reinventing IT

Businesses frequently face high upfront costs when buying new tech devices for employees and operations. Meanwhile, previously owned and perfectly operational ones are discarded in landfills. Revent, a UAE-based scale-up, bridges the gap by offering businesses affordable subscription-based IT device rental plans.

The model expands device lifecycles, reduces electronics-related emissions and makes technology more accessible, “proving that circularity can be profitable,” says co-founder Dhananjay Choubey.

Digital innovation for sustainability

Smart grid solutions with Enlog

Enlog offers autonomous, AI-driven systems to reduce energy waste, improve power quality and make buildings grid-responsive. The scale-up has helped customers save 4,000 tonnes in CO2 emissions and 23% in energy bills – proof of ROI.

Closing the loop with Nadeera

Nadeera is a UAE-based social enterprise that provides digitally enabled solutions for solid waste management. It simplifies and incentivizes recycling with its Yallah Return digital platform, a smart collection system located in residential neighborhoods, as well as providing reverse vending machines, AI-powered infrastructure and sensor devices to monitor and manage waste at the source.

“We focus on making waste recovery simple and motivating for everyday users,” explains co-founder Michel Mokbel. “By turning sustainability into a personalized and rewarding experience, we help people claim ownership over their impact.”

Mruna: Imagining water’s infinite cycle

Mruna is a UAE climate and infrastructure innovation company which creates innovative nature-based circular water systems for built environments. “Most sustainability solutions focus on tracking, reporting or making daily operations slightly more efficient,” shares founder Ziad Hussami. “Measuring impact is not the same as creating it. Real change requires reimagining infrastructure from the ground up.”

Mruna’s BiomWeb technology enables wastewater treatment onsite, using a family of products that emulate nature-based aquatic systems to biodegrade waste and filter toxic heavy metals for a simple, affordable and decentralized water supply system.

HyveGeo: Turning deserts green

“HyveGeo was born from a simple question,” explains Abdulaziz Bin Redha, founder of the UAE desert greening and carbon removal company. “What kind of land will my daughters inherit?”

“I did not want them to inherit scarcity; I want them to inherit abundance.” To enable environmental regeneration, Redha created a product with bioactive compounds that enables soil to better capture carbon and improve water and nutrient retention, enabling arid land to support life. “We are building resilience, food security and a better future for the next generation.”

***

After completing the intensive 12-week program, five finalists will have the opportunity to pitch their solutions to investors and businesses at Demo Day in May 2026.

Stay tuned to the scale-ups’ journey throughout the Dubai Holding Innovate.

We are halfway to the 2050 net zero target. While national commitments continue to grow, linear models of ‘take, make, waste’ stand in the way of meaningful progress. With global waste generation projected to rise by more than 80% by 2050 compared to 2023 levels, accelerating the transition to a circular economy is no longer optional, it is essential.

The circular economy offers a smarter path forward: one where materials are kept in use, value is preserved and waste is designed to flow back into the system as a resource.

Championing this critical shift, Dubai Holding launched the Innovate For Tomorrow Impact Accelerator, a global program built to scale high-potential circular solutions. Through expert mentorship, practical masterclasses and direct access to investor networks, the accelerator equips founders with the tools to transform their vision into a proven success story.

From more than 1,400 applications across 93 countries, here are the 15 scale-ups bringing bold ideas and scalable solutions to reshape sustainable production and accelerate the transition to a more circular future.

Food loss and waste

Souji: Alchemizing cooking oil into cleaning products

“We can prove that sustainability can also be profitable,” states Souji founder, Sergio Fernández. The Spanish scale-up uses patented technology to convert used vegetable cooking oil into non-toxic cleaning products.

“With our machine, customers produce a ready-to-use product on-site.” This reduces packaging, avoids shipping, lowers emissions and cuts operational costs while simplifying daily routines.

Peeling back on plastics with PeelPack

PeelPack is a Swiss scale-up that upcycles potato peel by-products into a biodegradable and compostable fibre-based material. “Our focus is simple,” explains CEO Slava Drigloff. “Replace plastic at an industrial scale while creating measurable environmental and business value.”

PeelPack’s packaging works for existing production lines and meets retailer requirements for strength and shelf life. “Many alternatives are either too expensive, niche or difficult to scale. Our solutions are practical for large supply chains from day one.”

From food to sustainable design with Ottan

Ottan is the brainchild of multi-award-winning materials researcher and industrial designer Ayşe Yılmaz. This UK scale-up transforms food waste into durable, low-carbon and design-ready bio-composite materials, replacing plastics, ceramics, stone and wood.

“We deliver measurable carbon reduction at material level by replacing extraction-based inputs with upcycled food and agricultural waste,” shares Yılmaz. “Our materials require no new factories, enabling scalable impact.”

Creating conscious events with BIRD Collaborative

BIRD Collaborative is a UAE social enterprise that produces sustainable products and tech-enabled solutions for the hospitality and events sector, including eco-safe straws made from sustainably sourced wood. “Our products enable clients to create measurable change,” shares Nabil Mhanna, one of three co-founders. “We’re helping clean the UAE’s oceans. Each order supports an initiative to remove 1kg of ocean waste.”

Cauli: Serving smart

Mingqiao Zhao and Josephine Liang co-founded Cauli to help F&B businesses eliminate waste. Its AI-enabled reusable food packaging system allows customers to borrow and return food and drink containers easily.

Resource recovery and regeneration

Sorting the future with Cycled Technologies

Cycled Technologies simplifies and incentivizes recycling. The Norwegian scale-up was inspired by co-founder and CEO Ayoola Brimmo’s childhood growing up on a poultry farm. “Waste like chicken excrement and leftover corn were buried. After it rained, I noticed the corn seeds sprout. What we thought was waste had value. Years later, standing at a landfill, I saw the same opportunity at a much larger scale.”

Cycled develops a proprietary hardware embedded into front-end waste collection bins that automates sorting right at the source. Contributors can earn points and special discounts with partner brands, rewarding individual sustainable contributions.

Without: Recycling the unrecyclable

Without, a deep climate-tech company behind a proprietary technology, transforms unrecyclable plastic and textile waste into high-quality, recyclable materials. “Most companies recycle what’s easy, like PET bottles and aluminium cans,” shares Anish Malpani, Founder. “We recycle what nobody else can: chip packets, sachets and chocolate wrappers that make up less than 1% of recycled plastic globally.”

Laying new foundations for future homes with Rumett

Rumett is a Denmark-born scale-up led by construction architect Diana Saleh. She developed the world’s first paper-free mineral gypsum wall panel partly made from bio-ash for fast, low-carbon and fire-resistant building.

“Our approach is rooted in Danish design culture,” explains Saleh. “Our panels are mechanically fitted, not glued, and designed to be dismantled and reused instead of demolished. It allows spaces to change without creating waste.”

Waste to nature with CO2Wall

Dutch scale-up CO2Wall is transforming urban spaces with AI-driven living green walls and roofs. Its living structures reduce CO2 emissions, noise and temperature by three to eight degrees while filtering air.

Sustainable ceramics with Seramic Materials

Seramic Materials stems from Dr. Khalid Al Ali and Dr. Nicolas Calvet’s 2007 PhD research. It uses an innovative process to transform low-value industrial solid waste into sustainable ceramic products, including floor and wall tiles and high-temperature thermal energy storage materials.

Revent: Reinventing IT

Businesses frequently face high upfront costs when buying new tech devices for employees and operations. Meanwhile, previously owned and perfectly operational ones are discarded in landfills. Revent, a UAE-based scale-up, bridges the gap by offering businesses affordable subscription-based IT device rental plans.

The model expands device lifecycles, reduces electronics-related emissions and makes technology more accessible, “proving that circularity can be profitable,” says co-founder Dhananjay Choubey.

Digital innovation for sustainability

Smart grid solutions with Enlog

Enlog offers autonomous, AI-driven systems to reduce energy waste, improve power quality and make buildings grid-responsive. The scale-up has helped customers save 4,000 tonnes in CO2 emissions and 23% in energy bills – proof of ROI.

Closing the loop with Nadeera

Nadeera is a UAE-based social enterprise that provides digitally enabled solutions for solid waste management. It simplifies and incentivizes recycling with its Yallah Return digital platform, a smart collection system located in residential neighborhoods, as well as providing reverse vending machines, AI-powered infrastructure and sensor devices to monitor and manage waste at the source.

“We focus on making waste recovery simple and motivating for everyday users,” explains co-founder Michel Mokbel. “By turning sustainability into a personalized and rewarding experience, we help people claim ownership over their impact.”

Mruna: Imagining water’s infinite cycle

Mruna is a UAE climate and infrastructure innovation company which creates innovative nature-based circular water systems for built environments. “Most sustainability solutions focus on tracking, reporting or making daily operations slightly more efficient,” shares founder Ziad Hussami. “Measuring impact is not the same as creating it. Real change requires reimagining infrastructure from the ground up.”

Mruna’s BiomWeb technology enables wastewater treatment onsite, using a family of products that emulate nature-based aquatic systems to biodegrade waste and filter toxic heavy metals for a simple, affordable and decentralized water supply system.

HyveGeo: Turning deserts green

“HyveGeo was born from a simple question,” explains Abdulaziz Bin Redha, founder of the UAE desert greening and carbon removal company. “What kind of land will my daughters inherit?”

“I did not want them to inherit scarcity; I want them to inherit abundance.” To enable environmental regeneration, Redha created a product with bioactive compounds that enables soil to better capture carbon and improve water and nutrient retention, enabling arid land to support life. “We are building resilience, food security and a better future for the next generation.”

***

After completing the intensive 12-week program, five finalists will have the opportunity to pitch their solutions to investors and businesses at Demo Day in May 2026.

Stay tuned to the scale-ups’ journey throughout the Dubai Holding Innovate.