Arkema Launches ‘Start-Up Connect’ Program

Arkema, King of Prussia, Penn., has launched its new Start-up Connect initiative, designed to combine the dynamism of small, agile, and innovative organizations with Arkema’s unique expertise in specialty materials to develop material innovations of tomorrow.

Arkema will provide these start-ups with its international reach, its in-depth knowledge of markets and applications, and its ability to develop safe and high-performance chemistry. The Group will offer access to the scientific and technical resources of its 15 R&D centers in France, the United States, and Asia, facilitating the pooling of expertise, innovation, and economic development at the heart of these areas.

The strategic partnerships defined within Start-up Connect may range from technical collaboration to financial support, expertise, or mentoring. Arkema has chosen to devote the vast majority of its innovation partnerships to sustainable growth. To achieve this, the innovations that are selected must be linked to Arkema’s innovation platforms: natural resource management, lightweight materials and design, new energies, electronics solutions, and home efficiency and insulation.

Said Arkema’s R&D v.p. Christian Collette, “Our materials provide concrete solutions to societal and ecological issues, but the major challenges of tomorrow cannot be addressed by our teams alone, regardless of their talent. Our Start-up Connect program must therefore attract innovators from all over the world to work on solving these challenges alongside our researchers. In doing so, we want to create an impetus, a momentum, to bring transformative projects to maturity”