Hitachi Construction Machinery & Founders Factory | Startup Challenge 2026

Applications open
April 2026 • Sydney

ABOUT THE CHALLENGE

Pitch your technology at our Demo Day in Sydney on April 2026

The Hitachi Construction Machinery Challenge will select up to 10 high potential startups around the world with breakthrough technologies in mining, construction, engineering, and decarbonisation. The chosen ventures will have the opportunity to present their technologies to Hitachi Construction Machinery’s senior leadership and industrial partners for potential partnerships at a flagship Demo Day in Sydney.

This initiative is designed to give startups at the cutting edge of automation, data-driven operations, energy efficiency, and sustainability greater access to industry leaders and Founders Factory's global ecosystem of investors and commercial partners.

Apply now

ABOUT THE CHALLENGE

Pitch your technology at our Demo Day in Sydney on April 2026

Apply now

WHY JOIN THE CHALLENGE?

Apply to the challenge and unlock commercial and investment opportunities with Hitachi Construction Machinery and Founders Factory

Access Hitachi Construction MachinerySenior Team

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Pilots & Commercial Opportunities

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Join a Global Network

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Deals & Perks

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STARTUPS

Meet Our Global Industrial Tech Community

Endolith
Endolith
/ Seed
Increasing copper recovery from low-grade ores in heap leaches by harnessing microbial communities, synthetic biology techniques, and a cloud-native platform
US
Durin
Durin
/ Seed
Automated drill rigs that consolidate drilling, lab testing, planning, and analysis into a single system
US
Terra AI
Terra AI
/ Series A
Combining geological data with AI-driven reasoning to optimise exploration in real time
US
Vycarb
Vycarb
/ Pre-Seed
CO2 removal and storage technology, facilitating permanent, low-cost, and fully-measured carbon capture, removal, and storage, using water and minerals
US
Rock Zero
Rock Zero
/ Seed
Zero waste, cost-efficient lithium extraction
US
Magmatic
Magmatic
/ Pre-Seed
Building a library of metal-binding proteins, to establish novel integrated separation process for improved recovery of critical metals
Austria
BluumBio
BluumBio
/ Pre-Seed
Enzyme database for removing pollutants from soil, air, and water
US
Rainstick
Rainstick
/ Pre-Seed
Mimicking effects of lightning to stimulate biological and electrochemical changes in seeds to enhancing crop performance
Australia
ProSpectral
ProSpectral
/ Pre-Seed
Next generation computer vision for material detection and analysis
UK
Thunderstone
Thunderstone
/ Pre-Seed
Extracting metals directly from underground deposits, using high-voltage electric fields to create fractures in rock, allowing conductive fluids to dissolve and extract metals.
US
Sunchem
Sunchem
/ Pre-Seed
Developing sustainable leaching and Nano Filter technologies for the precision separation of critical metals
US
Ekion
Ekion
/ Pre-Seed
Electrokinetic recovery to extract metals from stranded deposits
Australia