Eight technology start-ups from the UK, Singapore, US, Japan, Estonia, and France have been shortlisted for The Liveability Challenge (TLC) 2026, advancing from a record pool of more than 1,500 submissions drawn from over 100 countries – the most competitive in the nine-year history of the programme.
Presented by Temasek Foundation and organised by Eco-Business, TLC is Asia’s largest platform for identifying and accelerating scalable solutions to the sustainability challenges facing tropical cities.
This year’s finalists were selected under two themes – Decarbonisation and Cool Earth – reflecting the urgency of tackling emissions and climate-driven heat stress. The 2026 shortlist, spanning cooling infrastructure, clean energy, carbon capture, materials innovation, and advanced textile recycling solutions, underscores the growing depth of the global climate tech pipeline.
Among the finalists is UK-based Endo Enterprises, which has developed a closed-loop hydronic additive that can reduce cooling energy use in buildings by up to 15 per cent. Singapore’s FlueVault and Metha8 are also competing, offering solutions for low-cost carbon capture and methanol-to-power generation.
US firms MacroCycle Technologies and Power To Hydrogen bring advances in textile recycling and hydrogen production, promising significant reductions in energy use, emissions and costs.
Other finalists include Japan’s Spacecool, which deploys passive radiative cooling to mitigate urban heat, Estonia’s UP Catalyst, which converts industrial flue gases into battery-grade carbon materials, and France’s Yama, which offers electrified carbon capture for dilute gas streams.
The eight shortlisted teams will compete at the TLC 2026 Grand Finale on 20 May 2026 at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, a flagship event of Ecosperity Week 2026 by Temasek.
The top two winners will each receive S$1 million in catalytic grant funding from Temasek Foundation, while the two leading solutions under the Decarbonisation track are in line to receive an additional S$1 million each in development funding from Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) — bringing the total prize pool to over S$4 million.
Scaling solutions in uncertain times
Launched in 2018, The Liveability Challenge has grown into Asia’s launchpad for supporting the commercialisation of climate innovations from lab to market. To date, it has shortlisted and incubated 54 start-ups and deployed more than S$16 million (US12.4 million) in funding, with past winners including Equatic, which received funding to build the world’s largest ocean-based carbon removal plant in Singapore.
This year’s finalists will pitch their technologies live at the May event at a time when geopolitical tension is reshaping the investment environment for climate technologies. Climate tech investment is tilting toward mature technologies and AI-powered adaptation, with the climate tech market projected to reach US$115 billion by 2030.
According to the Sightline Climate, a research group, global climate tech venture and growth capital investment reached US$40.5 billion in 2025.This represented an 8 per cent increase year-on-year, marking the first rise in investment since the boom years of 2021 to 2022.
