The Coastal Innovation Challenge is a global competition for water and ocean entrepreneurs who are ready to pilot and scale their coastal solutions.
Finalists receive a combination of financial awards, pilot focused curriculum and mentorship, showcase opportunities, and introductions to potential partners and investors. With this support and industry-wide validation, startups gain new opportunities for tech adoption, scaling, and follow-on funding.
The Challenge gives coastal technologies a powerful opportunity to shine on a global stage—and provides communities with a steady flow of tested solutions that are efficient, equitable, healthy, and resilient.
Coastal innovation involves developing advanced technologies and strategies to tackle the unique challenges of coastal regions. This includes solutions focused on enhancing resilience, improving adaptiveness to changing conditions, and mitigating issues such as rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion.
Qualifying projects demonstrate scalable and sustainable approaches that enhance coastal resilience, support ecosystem health, and improve economic growth in coastal communities.
The unmonitored spread of biological species of concern is a top priority for water resource managers, marine biologists, and public health officials, as it threatens coastal communities by driving ecological, economic, and health crises from invasive species, toxic algal blooms, and climate impacts on ecosystems.
In response, Nucleic Sensing Systems (NS2) is developing the world’s only continuous-flow biological molecule detection machine. It acts like a “smoke alarm,” autonomously sampling and analyzing the presence and abundance of environmental DNA, RNA, and biological molecules in the field, eliminating the lag time between sample and answer while addressing critical coastal challenges like invasive species and toxic algal blooms.
By removing the laboratory from biological monitoring, their solution provides previously unobtainable data in minutes, improving the efficiency of environmental monitoring, water management, and aquaculture while supporting the resilience and sustainability of coastal ecosystems and economies.
2023; 2025
Imagine H2O Accelerator; Coastal Innovation Challenge
For each 1°C rise in temperature, there is a 20% decrease in fresh water supply. By 2050, water scarcity will impact over half the world’s population. Desalination is necessary to meet fresh water demand, but traditional methods of desal are both costly and harmful to the environment.
OceanWell eliminates desalination’s legacy technology burdens of high energy use, ecological impact, and a large industrial onshore facility. Their modular subsea water farm technology harnesses hydrostatic ocean pressure at depths exceeding 400m to naturally power a reverse osmosis process that produces fresh water with improved energy efficiency, no onshore plants, and a benign brine outfall.
Oceanwell’s solution is climate resilient and drastically improves each step of the desalination process, which reduces the cost of water for coastal communities and customers while increasing reliability. In the next decade, OceanWell aims to contribute at least 1 million acre-feet of affordable, abundant, and environmentally sustainable fresh water to the global supply.
2024; 2025
Accelerator; Coastal Innovation Challenge
Over 24.4 trillion microplastic particles are in our oceans, and these particles—which have been found in our drinking water, internal organs, and food—threaten human, animal, and environmental health.
PolyGone has developed the world’s first affordable, portable, and environmentally friendly microplastic filtration device to remove aquatic microplastic pollutants from our waterways.
PolyGone’s Microplastic Removal Pilot at New Jersey’s ACUA wastewater treatment plant successfully removed 670,000 microplastic pollutants per wash cycle and collected 5,360,000 microplastics. This pilot benefitted 200,000 civilians who live near the treatment facility by removing harmful pollutants from their local water supply, providing the community with cleaner and safer drinking water.
2025
Coastal Innovation Challenge
Of the 83,000 Hawaii homeowners facing mandatory cesspool replacements, 97% cannot afford the upgrade to existing alternatives. Coastal homeowners report costs of $30,000-$50,000 for basic septic systems due to installation costs in shallow bedrock and groundwater tables.
WaiHome has developed a seamless aboveground treatment and disposal system designed to eliminate excavation and make upgrades affordable for an estimated 75% of Hawaii homeowners.
By creating an affordable cesspool alternative, WaiHome is preventing tens of millions of gallons of untreated sewage from being disposed of in Hawaii’s groundwater and nearshore ecosystems everyday. Their solution also protects Native Hawaiian homeowners, who are disproportionately more likely to own a cesspool, from a $20,000-$50,000 replacement cost that would exacerbate the diaspora that has led to more than half of Native Hawaiians living outside of the state.
2025
Coastal Innovation Challenge
Since the launch of our first challenge in 2018, our program has helped 27 water startups complete 35 pilots in 17 countries. We also provide travel and pitch opportunities at global events, dedicated marketing campaigns, and mentor and investor relationships.
Winning startups have these qualities:
Coastal innovation encompasses a range of technologies and practices specifically designed to address the unique challenges and opportunities present in coastal environments. While not its own technology type, it sits at the intersection of climate technology and will rely on new innovations from the water, energy, agriculture and ocean sectors.
Allegra Gordon
Oceankind
Anders Jacobson
Investor
Caleb Powers
Ember Infrastructure
Caroline Zepecki
38 Degrees North
Chris Fortunato
CRH Ventures
Erika Montague
Schmidt Marine Technologies
Jake Reznick
S2G Ventures
Jason Thompson
Oceankind
Jay Bernas
Hampton Roads Sanitation District
Kelly Trott
Aqualateral
Lloyd Lee
Oceankind
Margaret Bowman
Independent
Matt Rea
The Nature Conservancy
Milly Pitts
Ocean Exchange
Neil Jeffery
Independent
Susan Zellers
Ocean Exchange
Will Lutz
BlueX News
Urban Water Challenge III
Stormwater & Flood Control
After winning the Urban Water Challenge, Field Factors received extensive local press coverage that led to several sales leads. The company has now developed, installed, and tested two of their three systems. They’re already in the final stages of discussion in order to expand their partnership with Dunea Water Utility into The Hague and Hitteplein.
Field Factors is gearing up for its first fundraise; they’ve already met one investor at Imagine H2O’s Water Innovation Week. Imagine H2O and Field Factors are co-creating a showcase video to solicit sales and investment leads.
Solution
ACWA Robotics provides the only smart and autonomous robot that can bring utilities the data they need to make accurate decisions on when and where to replace their water mains and save millions of their budget each year.
Why this matters
Water utilities are losing millions of dollars each year because they don’t have the information they need to make efficient decisions regarding network maintenance. Up to 40% of pipe replacements are either inefficient or improperly prioritized. In addition, 20 to 40% of water running in distribution networks lost every year due to pipe conditions, costing the city money and wasting dwindling supplies of potable water.
V
Urban Water Challenge
Solution
Ocean Oasis provides desalinated water to shore with zero emissions and minimal local environmental impact by using wave energy to desalinate seawater in offshore floating buoys.
Why this matters
With population growth and climate change, water scarcity will affect over half the world’s population by 2050. It is not possible to cover the global demand for fresh water without extensive desalination, particularly in arid or remote regions. Offshore floating buoy’s compact footprint helps secure equitable and affordable access to freshwater to all in an environmentally friendly way.
Other Imagine H2O programs
Imagine H2O Accelerator 2023
V
Imagine H2O Accelerator, Urban Water Challenge
Solution
Decentralized wastewater treatment technology that eliminates sewer overflows and basement backups during large storm events. The solution rapidly removes pollutants and disinfects harmful pathogens 16x faster than conventional systems, and its onsite treatment capabilities result in high cost savings for municipalities.
Why this matters
Large volume rain events, which are occurring with more frequency and intensity, frequently overburden aging municipal infrastructure, forcing utility leaders to decide between overflowing untreated sewage into waterways or backing up residential and commercial basements with contaminated water.
Previous programs
Imagine H2O Accelerator 2021
V
Imagine H2O Accelerator, Urban Water Challenge
Solution
Gross-Wen Technologie’s (GWT) patented revolving algae biofilm (RAB) system cost effectively and sustainably uses algae-based treatment to remove nutrients, capture carbon dioxide and produce a sellable algae byproduct.
Why this matters
Anaerobic digesters break down solid waste during the wastewater treatment process. When treating the solid waste digestate, these systems release biogas which is high in GHG’s like carbon dioxide and methane. However, GWT’s cost-effective system reduces the amount of carbon in biogas released, making their technology much more sustainable than alternative solutions.
Previous programs
Imagine H2O Accelerator 2021
IV
Imagine H2O Accelerator, Urban Water Challenge
Solution
SewerAI leverages its cloud inspection management platform (Pioneer™) and AI Computer Vision tools (AutoCode™) to help wastewater professionals to accelerate productivity, increase condition assessment accuracy, and reduce the overall cost to maintain and renew aging collection systems.
Why this matters
Limited insight into the conditions of sewer pipes combined with aging and overworked infrastructure increasingly leads to unexpected sewer collapses and overflow events that affect residential neighborhoods and marine life alike. SewerAI’s software enables municipalities to assess the condition of buried wastewater assets, predict likely failures, and optimally prioritize the rehabilitation or replacement of their assets.
Previous programs
Imagine H2O Accelerator 2020
IV
Urban Water Challenge
Problem:
Cities don’t have the tools to measure flood risk and build resilience resulting in extensive damage to communities, economies and local environments.
Solution:
High resolution satellite imagery and machine learning technology. Floodbase (fka Cloud to Street) is leveraging their technology to develop the first of its kind parametric insurance for coastal flood resilience and protection.
Pilot:
Floodbase launched the first commercially scalable parametric flood insurance pilot to help the city of New Orleans better understand their flood risk and build urban coastal resilience
III
Imagine H2O Accelerator, Urban Water Challenge
Problem:
Cities are struggling to respond to rapid urbanization and the demand it puts on local water and aging wastewater treatment facilities.
Solution:
Onsite decentralized wastewater treatment that converts wastewater into high quality soil amendments and purified water that can be reused onsite for non-potable applications
Pilot:
Epic CleanTech is installing it’s system in a high-rise building in the bay area to decrease building water demand by 90% and ease the load on municipal utilities.
III
Imagine H2O Accelerator, Urban Water Challenge
Problem:
Cities need to build resilience to flooding and persistent water shortages. Due to climate change, aging infrastructure and strict regulation, public and private developers are being forced to implement climate adaptation measures in urban development and retrofitting projects.
Solution:
Bluebloqs is a compact, circular system for rainwater treatment, storage and reuse in urban areas that captures 95% rainwater.
Pilot:
Field Factors will deploy its Bluebloq system and monitoring platform to promote climate resilience and green infrastructure in the Hague, Netherlands.
III
Urban Water Challenge
Problem:
Cities in developing countries have minimal information about the health of wastewater infrastructure.
Solution:
AI-based wastewater surveillance robots for monitoring the health of wastewater infrastructure, helping cities intercept, divert and treat raw sewage, significantly reducing water pollution.
Deployment:
Fluid Robotics will use it’s robots to help the city of Pune, India divert and treat raw sewage from the Mula-mutha river.
III
Imagine H2O Asia, Urban Water Challenge
Problem:
Cities in emerging markets lack the technical capacity and resources to effectively provide city-wide, inclusive wastewater treatment and scale their services
Solution:
Non-sewered sanitation through a “waste-to-energy” model which is more cost-effective and environmentally friendly than sewerage.
Pilot:
Sanivation will carry out a feasibility study to deploy a circular economy treatment plant for the residents of Malindi, Kenya.
III
Urban Water Challenge
The Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative, Dalio Philanthropies, Imagine H2O and XPRIZE Foundation have announced a new strategic collaboration designed to help promising water technologies progress beyond innovation competitions toward commercialization, deployment and scale. Announced in New York City during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81), the collaboration will bring together […]
The depletion of the Great Salt Lake is one of the most visible water challenges in the American West. At the recently convened inaugural Utah Blue Industry Summit, Imagine H2O launched an initiative to help preserve the Lake by closing the gap between technology and adoption: the Imagine H2O Great Salt Lake Water Innovation Hub […]
Join Imagine H2O and Sorenson Impact Institute at the Yale Club on September 23 for a morning connecting investors, founders, corporate innovators, and water infrastructure leaders during Climate Week NYC. Climate Week NYC returns to New York from September 20 to 27, convening governments, businesses, and civil society around the defining climate questions of the […]