Singapore and France Startups Win $1M for Carbon Solutions

Cleaning up the planet just got easier thanks to two startups that cracked some of climate technology's toughest challenges.

Singapore's Metha8 and France's YAMA each took home $1 million on May 20 after winning The Liveability Challenge 2026, a global competition hunting for solutions to urban sustainability problems. Out of 1,500 submissions from over 100 countries, these two companies stood out for solving what seemed impossible.

Metha8 built a system that converts methanol into electricity at 60 percent efficiency. That's twice the output of conventional generators using the same amount of fuel, with zero harmful emissions. The technology can power factories, data centers, and remote communities around the clock without the usual environmental cost.

"We cannot achieve speed and scale unless we are building on the shoulders of giants, so we need to make it profitable for big players to get involved in this clean-up act together," said Metha8 co-founder and CEO Zhaotan Xiao. The company will use its prize money to build a demonstration unit and prove the technology works at scale.

YAMA tackled an even thornier problem. Gas turbines power much of the world's electricity grid, but existing carbon capture technology struggles with their low-concentration emissions. YAMA designed a system that captures carbon from these dilute gas streams at up to 50 percent lower cost than current methods, and it's compact enough to bolt onto existing infrastructure without modifications.

"I'm happy to see that people are still interested in climate solutions," said YAMA founder and CEO Aurelie Gonzalez, who brings over 10 years of carbon capture expertise to the project. She started the company to build solutions that could genuinely save the planet.

The Ripple Effect

The wins mean more than prize money. Metha8 also secured up to $2 million annually over three years from Singapore research agency A*STAR to pilot its solution in industrial conditions. YAMA received an additional $100,000 investment from climate venture capital firm CarbonFix.

The Liveability Challenge, now in its ninth year, has become Asia's largest platform for sustainability solutions. Presented by Temasek Foundation and organized by Eco-Business, the competition bridges the gap between laboratory breakthroughs and real-world deployment.

Both startups now have the resources and support to transform their technologies from promising concepts into tools that industries worldwide can actually use. Their success shows that solving climate change isn't just about willpower, it's about making clean technology profitable and practical enough for major players to adopt.

The competition's judges chose solutions that work with existing infrastructure rather than requiring complete system overhauls, making the path to widespread adoption much shorter.