Selected from a record 1,300+ applications across 126 countries, this year's eleven winners, startups and SMEs, show what happens when IP strategy and commercial execution move together.
The winners are from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, and the United States of America.
The Awards Ceremony, held during the WIPO Assemblies, gathered delegates from WIPO's 194 member states – a rare stage where an SME or startup can present its business needs directly to global policymakers. Director General Daren Tang awarded trophies to the 11 winners, alongside Special Mentions for the Best Woman Entrepreneur and the Best Youth Entrepreneur.
We congratulate all the winners, who now move into the program's acceleration phase:
- Strategic business support: 25 hours of tailored 1:1 mentoring, covering IP and business model, access to market, and access to capital.
- Access to WIPO's Ecosystem Partners network of investors, accelerators, and service providers.
- International promotion across business and policy audiences during the Awards Ceremony in Geneva, and beyond.
IMAGE: WIPO/Berrod
Highlights from the 2026 WIPO Global Awards Ceremony
2026 WIPO Global Awards Winners
Each category rewards one startup and one SME, ensuring early-stage and established companies are judged on equal footing, across Agriculture and Food, Creative Industries, Environment, Health, and ICT, plus a new Special Award marking the 2026 World IP Day theme: Sports.
Agrifood Startup – Argentina
Current agriculture relies on annual crops: wheat, soybean, maize, rice. Each year, 70% of the world's agricultural land goes through repeated sowing and harvesting cycles, with heavy use of machinery, water, and inputs. INFIRA, a startup from Argentina, reactivated a gene that plants lost 80 million years ago, giving crops the ability to regrow season after season from a single sowing. Seven patent applications and registered trademarks protect the platform across five continents. With USD 2.7 million raised, INFIRA is now advancing toward its first licensing agreements with seed companies worldwide.
Agrifood SME – United States of America
When a farmer sprays a field, less than 10% of the chemicals actually reach the crop. The rest is lost to the air, the soil, the runoff, wasting money and harming the planet. AgZen, an MIT spin-off from the United States, put sensors on the sprayer itself. In real time, it measures how much spray lands on each leaf, and guides the farmer to adjust in the very same pass. The result: nearly double the coverage, with up to 50% less chemical. Backed by patents and a partnership with Syngenta, AgZen is now scaling across three continents, helping farmers grow more, with less.
Creative Industries Startup – Republic of Korea
In education, what matters is not the final answer, it's the reasoning behind it. And reasoning is visible. It lives in every pen stroke: the hesitations, the corrections, the path a student takes while solving a problem. DABIDA, a startup from South Korea, built a smart pen that captures those gestures in real time. Their proprietary AI then pinpoints exactly where the student went wrong, and why. Lastly, it works offline, reaching students wherever they are. Their 23 patents and international IP protection underpin exclusive distribution agreements in seven countries, and a partnership with Samsung Electronics signed in 2026.
Creative Industries SME – Brazil
Spotting autism or ADHD early can change a child's life. But in many parts of the world, with scarce specialists and long waiting lists, help comes late. Jade ND, an SME from Brazil, developed something children love: a game.
As they play, the platform reads how the child thinks — attention, memory, decision-making — turning it into clear insights for parents and teachers, and shaping games that help each child grow. Their algorithms, data methods, and software are all protected by IP, letting Jade ND reach 180,000 children across 170 countries, making early support a right, not a privilege.
As they play, the platform reads how the child thinks — attention, memory, decision-making — turning it into clear insights for parents and teachers, and shaping games that help each child grow. Their algorithms, data methods, and software are all protected by IP, letting Jade ND reach 180,000 children across 170 countries, making early support a right, not a privilege.
Environment Startup – Japan
What if the servers behind AI used far less energy? Today, those servers rely on power chips built on silicon, which lose part of their energy as heat. As demand for efficiency grows, the industry is exploring new materials. FLOSFIA, a startup from Japan, developed a power chip made from gallium oxide, cutting energy losses by up to half, at a lower cost and with cleaner manufacturing. Rather than selling chips, they license their technology, like pharma licenses a molecule. With 400 patents and partners like Mitsubishi and DENSO, FLOSFIA brings cleaner power to the age of AI.
Environment SME – China
The world keeps building electric vehicle batteries. But by 2030, the retired ones will represent 12 million tons, enough to fill nearly 5,000 Olympic swimming pools. Until now, recovering the materials inside was too complex to do at scale. Botree, an SME from China, closes the loop. Their process extracts nickel, cobalt, and lithium from retired batteries, making recycling cheaper than mining. Their technology is licensed and deployed in over 60 projects and 14 countries, and clients include CATL, BASF, Toyota Tsusho, and BMW. In Spain, Botree took it further, licensing its IP into a joint venture for long-term revenue share.
Health SME – China
Every year, 18 million people die from heart disease, making it the world's leading cause of death. Yet precise diagnosis still requires invasive procedures that are slow, expensive, and risky. ArteryFlow, an SME from China, applied aerospace fluid dynamics to human blood flow. From a standard medical scan, their AI delivers a full vascular assessment in under 5 minutes, at 25% of the cost. Approved in China, the US, and Europe, the platform has served over 100,000 patients across 400 medical institutions worldwide. Protected across three continents, their IP has opened licensing partnerships with Siemens Healthineers and Philips.
Health Startup – China
Every year, millions of people lose the ability to breathe freely. Chronic lung diseases destroy lung tissue, and no treatment can rebuild it. Regend Therapeutics, a startup from China, uses a patient's own lung cells to regenerate damaged alveoli from within. In clinical trials, patients who could barely walk returned to daily life. Protected across three continents, their IP supports a therapy recognized by the FDA and backed by USD 48 million. In the age of regenerative medicine, Regend is scaling fast, and the world is watching.
ICT Startup – Chile
Every year, wildfires cause billions in damage and threaten millions of lives. Most are caused by human activity, so the key is to detect risky behavior before the fire starts. Drovid, a startup from Chile, developed drones that combine thermal cameras, optical sensors, and a proprietary onboard AI able to detect unauthorized human activity and transmit tactical priorities to emergency teams. After a successful IP transfer from their R&D collaboration, Drovid now protects its systems through the PCT, its trademarks via Madrid, its algorithms via trade secrets and its code via copyrights, an IP foundation that secured their first funding rounds, and now sits at the core of their current USD 2.4 million raise.
ICT SME – Republic of Korea
Every time your phone, your credit card, or your car connects online, it needs to prove its identity. In hackers' world, that moment is the target. ICTK, an SME from South Korea, replaces the stored password usual chips rely on with a code generated fresh every time, and gone after use. Nothing stored. Nothing to steal. Trusted by banking systems, national ID programs, and connected vehicles worldwide, a global quantum technology firm invested USD 15 million to build the next generation with them. Backed by 150 patents, ICTK makes trust the foundation of every connection.
Sports – Switzerland
In contact sports, most head impacts go unnoticed. But they accumulate, and brain damages appear long before symptoms do. Bearmind, a startup from Switzerland, transforms the foam inside any standard helmet into a force-sensing network. Every impact is measured in real time and fed into a cognitive test, giving coaches the data they need to make safer return-to-play decisions. A strong IP strategy covering both hardware and software secured a Joint Development Agreement with the world's leading hockey helmet manufacturer. What started on the ice is now set to transform contact sports everywhere in the world.
Special mentions
Behind every winning company is someone who decided to use IP strategically and pushed it through. These two mentions put the spotlight on them.
Best Woman Entrepreneur 2026
Awarded to Renata Reinheimer, co-founder and CEO of INFIRA (Argentina).
Best Youth Entrepreneur 2026
Awarded to Vishnu Jayaprakash, founder and CEO of AgZen (United States of America).
2026 WIPO Global Awards Finalists
Meet the remaining 22 finalists, whose companies use IP to bring solutions to market and scale internationally.
SMEs
Start-ups
Palmear
Acoustic pest detection in trees — United Arab Emirates
The red palm weevil spends roughly 80% of its life cycle hidden inside the trunk, invisible until the tree is already dying. Palmear's patented bioacoustic sensors listen for larvae feeding inside the wood, delivering a tree-by-tree infected-or-clear diagnosis in under 20 seconds without specialist training. The founding story begins with a family farm near Jericho destroyed by the pest, Zeid Sinokrot built the solution his father never had, and protected it with granted patents in key palm-cultivating markets before expanding commercially.
Biome Technologies
Portable soil health diagnostics — India
Over 140 million Indian smallholder farmers make input decisions without reliable soil data, using more fertilizers and pesticides but getting lower profits and weaker soils, accelerating degradation across nearly 150 million hectares of already depleted land. The Soilometer makes soil biology measurable in the field: a real time microbial health diagnostic covering six parameters in under three hours, at roughly 300 rupees (USD 3.50) per test, operated by local community members with no laboratory background. Every test makes the system smarter, and for the founders, this is what IP really means: not just legal protection, but a growing body of scientific knowledge ensuring that innovations solving real problems can scale globally.
Savanna Circuit Technologies
Solar cold chain for farmers — Kenya
Across rural Africa, smallholder dairy farmers lose up to 40% of milk to spoilage because cooling infrastructure stops far from where milk is produced. Savanna Circuit’s SOLAR THRIVE ecosystem combines solar-powered ice water dispensers, insulated transport cans, and a digital dairy management system, delivered under a cooling-as-a-service model so cooperatives pay per use rather than buying expensive equipment. The company secured patent and industrial design protection prior to the broader commercial rollout of the new product configuration.
Plantvoice
Biosensors inserted in plants to monitor crop health — Italy
Most agricultural monitoring systems read soil moisture or weather data from outside the plant, estimating crop needs rather than measuring them directly. Plantvoice's biocompatible sensor is inserted directly into the stem, continuously analyzing sap flow and ionic composition to detect water stress, disease, or nutritional imbalance before any visible symptom appears. Patent protection was secured before scaling commercialization: early deployments with research institutions and supply chain partners only began after the core sensing invention was formally protected.
SMEs
Start-ups
Melodie Music
AI music licensing, 50% back to composers — Australia
Digital content creation has grown exponentially, yet music licensing remains a persistent challenge for content creators seeking legally cleared music, while independent composers often struggle to generate sustainable income from their work. Melodie's platform combines AI-powered search with a catalogue of over 5,500 fully rights-cleared original works, giving composers 50% of all revenues in perpetuity.
AUROARTS
Wild botanicals preserved and crafted into durable art pieces — India
AUROARTS grew from a simple observation: overlooked wild botanicals and underemployed rural women occupied the same landscape, yet no one had connected them. Through years of experimentation, founder Anuradha Sahu developed a botanical preservation technique that transforms hand-plucked native wild flora into durable decorative art pieces without toxic chemicals. That grassroots process has since been patented in five countries across three continents.
MONSTA Studios
Original superhero animation franchises — Malaysia
Southeast Asian animation studios have long faced barriers to global distribution, competing in markets where Western and Japanese content has held the dominant position. MONSTA has built an interconnected universe of original 3D animation franchises now distributed on Netflix, Cartoon Network, and Disney Channel across more than 100 countries. The final title of Papa Zola the Movie was chosen specifically because the trademark was already registered, commercial protection secured before the first poster went up.
Manetho
AI hieroglyphic translator, AR museums — Egypt
Millions of tourists stand in front of ancient inscriptions every year without understanding a single symbol. Manetho's platform uses computer vision and AI to recognize and translate Egyptian hieroglyphs in real time from a mobile image, and layers augmented reality storytelling onto museum artifacts. The company secured its trademark before entering global markets and events, ensuring the brand was protected before any international exposure.
SMEs
Start-ups
ROC Water Technologies
Mining wastewater treatment — South Africa
Industries like mining and power generation produce vast quantities of contaminated wastewater they cannot treat affordably: disposal is costly, regulation is tightening, and conventional technologies fall short. ROC Water’s patented process recovers clean water and sellable salt products from wastewater streams that others write off as waste. Operating at a fraction of the energy cost of conventional methods, the technology has been validated through commercial operation in South Africa and an international challenge run by Innovate UK and Veolia.
Phabuilder
Low-cost microbial bioplastics — China
Over 430 million tons of plastic are produced globally each year, two-thirds of which become short-lived waste, yet biodegradable alternatives remain too expensive for mainstream adoption. Phabuilder's next-generation biotechnology uses bacteria in an open, non-sterile fermentation process using seawater as a medium, cutting energy consumption by over 50% compared to traditional biomanufacturing. An international patent portfolio is being built in parallel with commercial expansion, aligned with the markets where partnerships and distribution are most strategically important.
SPACECOOL
Zero-energy cooling for datacenters and buildings — Japan
Data centers alone are projected to double their power consumption by 2030, and cooling is a growing share of that burden. SPACECOOL is an ultra-thin film that reflects sunlight and releases heat through the atmosphere, keeping surfaces cooler than the surrounding air with no electricity whatsoever. Spun off from Osaka Gas Group, the company operates under a fabless model, licensing its patented material technology to manufacturing partners who integrate it into their own products, enabling rapid global expansion without owning production facilities. It has already been installed in 10,000 units worldwide and deployed at Expo 2025 Osaka.
Saltech Design Labs
Plastic waste recycled into construction materials — India
Millions of tons of low-value plastic packaging – too mixed and contaminated to recycle through conventional means – end up in landfills or incinerated near communities that bear the health consequences. Saltech's patented process combines unsorted plastic waste with industrial by-products to produce construction materials that outperform concrete alternatives, with no cement or water required. Patents granted in India and the United States, with an international filing strategy aligned with the company's expansion roadmap.
SMEs
Start-ups
Craif
Urine-based multi-cancer detection — Japan
Most cancer screening methods require needles, radiation, or clinical visits, barriers that lead millions to skip testing altogether. Craif's AI platform analyzes microRNA biomarkers from a simple urine sample to detect multiple cancer risks simultaneously, with no hospital visit required, turning subtle biological signals into life-saving insights. Spun off from Nagoya University, the company has built a commercial network of over 2,000 medical institutions and 4,600 pharmacies across Japan, with a proprietary biomarker database and AI models fully owned by the company underpinning its international expansion strategy.
PHIOGEN
Therapy for recurring urinary tract infections — United States of America
Urinary tract infections affect over 400 million people annually, with roughly 40% experiencing recurrence and over 50% harboring multidrug-resistant bacteria, yet no FDA-approved preventive therapy exists. PHIOGEN's PHI-UI-01 uses a directed evolution platform to produce a biologic eliminating infection within 24 hours while generating lasting immune protection against reinfection, a dual-action mechanism no antibiotic or vaccine has demonstrated. Patents were filed based on real clinical cases before broader disclosure, a discipline now standard across all company operations.
Raynovent
Anti-influenza drug beating drug-resistant strains — China
Existing anti-influenza drugs face a growing resistance crisis, over 50% of recurrent cases now involve strains that standard treatments cannot reliably clear. Raynovent's Onradivir targets the flu virus at a different point in its replication cycle, proven effective against drug-resistant strains and tested in large clinical trials (Phase III) with results published in one of the world's top medical journals (The Lancet). Approved in China in 2025 and included in the national reimbursement list, core compound patents are granted in China, the United States, Europe, and Japan, with market exclusivity expected until 2040.
UNTECH
Treatment for chronic wounds — Argentina
Diabetic foot ulcers, pressure sores, and venous ulcers can remain open for months or years, resisting treatment and leading to amputation in the most severe cases. UNTECH's formulation combines five molecules and one enzyme into a single product targeting all major barriers to healing at once, with preclinical results showing rapid bacterial clearance and lasting protection against reinfection. A fast-track strategy at the USPTO secured the US patent at an unusually early stage, enabling the company to enter national phases across more than 40 countries.
SMEs
Start-ups
Rokid
AI glasses with augmented reality display — China
Smart glasses have long promised to overlay digital information onto the real world, but weight, cost, and complexity have kept them out of everyday life. Rokid's AI glasses weigh just 49 grams and are deployed across museums, industrial sites, and consumer markets in over 100 countries, with more than 300,000 units shipped. With 613 patents across multiple jurisdictions and 491 trademarks registered in 34 countries, the company has built one of the broadest IP portfolios in the augmented reality industry.
MIMOPT
Digital twins for optical networks — France
Telecom operators upgrading their networks to add capacity, cut energy use, or switch suppliers, risk disrupting live services if something goes wrong, and have limited tools to test changes before deployment. MIMOPT's simulation platform creates a digital twin of an optical network, allowing operators to test upgrades, migrations, and optimizations in a virtual environment before touching the physical infrastructure. Spun off from Télécom Paris after 15 years of research, the company holds 11 patent families covering the core signal processing technologies at the heart of the platform.
Whale Seeker
AI marine mammal detection for industrial compliance — Canada
Industrial operations at sea (e.g. offshore energy, shipping, seismic surveys) face growing regulatory pressure to prove they are not harming protected marine mammals, yet traditional monitoring methods are slow, costly, and weather-dependent. Whale Seeker's AI platform processes aerial and drone imagery to detect and classify marine mammals in real time, enabling operators to make immediate mitigation decisions. Developed in partnership with Transport Canada, its proprietary detection models and ecological datasets are protected as trade secrets, built from years of fieldwork that no competitor can shortcut.
OrionX
Africa's sovereign AI infrastructure — Botswana
Most AI systems are built on Western data, hosted offshore, and optimized for high-bandwidth English environments, forcing African businesses and institutions to depend on infrastructure that was never designed for their context. OrionX's Uhuru platform delivers AI that understands African languages, regulatory frameworks, and local business realities, accessible through web and WhatsApp without requiring high connectivity. The company protects its core model architecture and training methods as trade secrets, with trademark and copyright protection filed across its operating markets.
Mirai Tech
Battery-free insoles monitoring movement and injury risk — Kazakhstan
Coaches and medical staff managing athlete workloads in professional team sports rely largely on observation and instinct; early signs of overload or asymmetry in how an athlete moves go undetected until damage is done. Mirai Tech embeds self-powered sensors into insoles, generating continuous lower-limb biomechanical data (e.g. knees, ankles, and hips) from the athlete's own movement, and translating it into actionable insights for performance and medical staff. Developed from six years of university research, the core sensing technology is patent-protected in Kazakhstan with international filings underway.
Guardian Sports
Soft-shell reducing head impact — United States of America
Players at every level of American football absorb hundreds of head impacts per season, yet traditional helmets were designed to prevent catastrophic injury, not to reduce the forces of routine collisions. Guardian Sports' answer is a soft-shell cover that fits over any existing helmet, absorbing and dissipating impact energy before it reaches the head, with no sensors, no data, no app required. From youth leagues to the NFL, more than 500,000 athletes worldwide now wear it, backed by 9 granted patents and the 2025 IPOEF Inventor of the Year award.