IE University strengthens the development of entrepreneurial, scientific, and technological talent at Climate Tech Day 2026

The most promising startups developed this year within the IE Climate Tech Lab took part in Climate Tech Day 2026, an international competition in which entrepreneurial students from IE University presented science and technology based business ideas designed to tackle the planet’s most pressing environmental challenges. The startup RecoPGM, developed by Ethan Stackpole, Camilo Gómez, Stav Goor, Rishi Kashyap, Sarfaraz Singh, and Maleeto Memela, students from IE Business School and IE Law School, was named the winner of the competition. The projects Spar 2 and ClearTex were runners up.

Climate Tech Day 2026, held at IE University, brought together students, faculty members, researchers, entrepreneurship experts, and investors, who shared perspectives on the challenges and growth opportunities surrounding climate innovation. The nine finalist teams presented their projects to a jury made up of leaders from the scientific, financial, and industrial sectors, showcasing initiatives in fields such as space innovation, clean energy, sustainable materials, and the circular economy. The event featured keynote contributions from Elisa Rivera, Director General for Planning, Coordination, and Knowledge Transfer at Spain’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and Maex Ament, co-founder of two unicorns –Taulia and Centrifuge– and an investor in climate tech.

The IE Climate Tech Lab has received the support of Tecnalia, which worked closely with seven of the finalist teams. Tecnalia, one of Europe’s largest applied research and technological development centers and a leading deep tech reference, maintains a strategic partnership with IE University to foster innovation and talent in the deep tech sector, and accelerate the transfer of research and technology to the market. The winning startup, RecoPGM, is working to commercialize an efficient and sustainable approach to recovering platinum group metals from catalytic converters, leveraging technology developed by Tecnalia to improve recovery rates, reduce material losses, and strengthen Europe’s strategic supply chain for PGM processing.

The Lab’s goal is to expand and strengthen entrepreneurial talent in climate and deep tech by enabling the transformation of rigorous scientific knowledge into scalable business projects. Led by the IE Entrepreneurship & Innovation Center and IE University’s Sustainable Transition Hub, the Lab supports entrepreneurial students in the use of complex technologies across key stages of venture development, including design, market access, and growth, within environments shaped by the interaction of industry, regulation, and society. The IE Climate Tech Lab is part of the European CinnovatE project, funded by the European Institute of Technology (EIT) Higher Education Initiative, with support from Climate-KIC, a program designed to promote technological innovation, circularity, and entrepreneurship within higher education.

"Entrepreneurship is part of IE University’s DNA; it defines who we are. Innovation is a strategic lever that allows us to connect talent with the major challenges of our time, including the climate challenges facing our planet. Through the Climate Tech Lab, we work every day to train our students, to develop their capabilities, and to enable them to transform cutting-edge technologies into successful, scalable companies that respond to the environmental challenges we face," says Isabela del Alcázar, Chief Purpose and Sustainability Officer at IE University.

"There is a significant opportunity to strengthen the deep tech ecosystem in Europe by combining technologies emerging from the laboratories of institutions such as Tecnalia with teams that integrate scientific and technological expertise, business vision, impact, and entrepreneurial leadership. IE Climate Tech Lab is a pioneering initiative in this space, and creating these hybrid environments is essential for Tecnalia Ventures as a venture builder that drives disruptive technologies and transforms them into deep tech startups poised to shape the industries of the future," explains Asier Rufino, Managing Director of Tecnalia Ventures.