From climate tech to robots helping humans, these young entrepreneurs are building new tools, materials and technologies for a sustainable and safe world.
By Kate Gammon, Bella Sayegh and Elisabeth Brier
When Katherine Sizov learned over 40% of food is wasted before it’s consumed, she was driven into action. Her company, Strella, uses AI models and sensors to monitor produce supply chains—knowing when apples and pears are ripe before it’s too late means less waste in our food system. Her technology has already saved over 40 million pounds of fruit from rotting.
Sustainability, efficiency and recycling are big drivers for many startups on our Forbes 2026 30 Under 30 Manufacturing & Industry list, which highlights young entrepreneurs across fields like manufacturing, robotics, aerospace, agriculture and climate tech.
Take Mason Mincey, 27, Derek Saltzman, 28, Matthew Jaeger, 27, and Patrick Michel, 28, who cofounded Soarce to transform organic waste and seaweed into a nanocellulose material that is eight times stronger than steel. Their building material is now used in the mining, automotive, and aerospace industries.
And there’s Stwart Peña Feliz, 28, whose company Macrocycle makes new plastics and resins from textile and plastic waste. His goal? To reduce the more than 5 million metric tons of plastic entering our waterways each year. Teresa Liu, 27, launched Ouros Materials to use carbon dioxide to print ultra-tough composite materials—creating building panels for affordable construction. Reef Arches, founded by Nicholas Bourdon, 29, makes massive honeycomb barriers that are installed off the coast to protect coastlines from storms and sea level rise. Made from 70% sand, research shows his arches keep beaches from being washed away and foster biodiversity.
Companies are also tackling problems on our roads and waterways. Pave Robotics, cofounded by Mason Landon Smith, 29, and Josh Kelly, 26, makes a robot that can both repair and assess the condition of roadways—saving cities money and time. Nooralhuda Saleh, 29, cofounded Continuum Infrastructure Solutions, which can forecast asphalt cracking and advise on the best mixtures for certain projects and places. And in the ocean, 23-year-old Levi Gerhson built CRABI Robotics, which makes tetherless robots that de-gunk the bottoms of merchant ships as they carry goods around the world.
Meanwhile, a host of Forbes Under 30 robotics companies aim to make work and life safer and more efficient. Gary Chen, 28, and Conley Oster, 29, cofounders of Raise Robotics, are out to equip contractors with an extra set of hands to drill and lift. Listers are making factory floors safer too. Tristan Fogt, 28, is the CTO of Sensory Robotics, which uses 3D sensor algorithms to track human-robot interactions in foundries and factories in real time. Anand Lalwani, 29, started Cardinal Robots, which makes autonomous cleaning robots that can vacuum, scrub, clean windows and perform other strenuous tasks that require human labor.
To find top talent in Manufacturing & Industry, Forbes reporters Elisabeth Brier, Kate Gammon and Bella Sayegh combed through hundreds of nominations submitted online or generated by our own reporting. To be considered for the list, all candidates had to be under the age of 30 as of December 31, 2025, and never before named to a North America, Europe or Asia 30 Under 30 list. We then sent the top candidates to our team of expert judges to help us choose the final 30.
This year our judges were Rema Matevosyan, CEO of Near Space Labs, Jill Fuss the Managing Director at Activate Berkley, Chris Power, CEO of Hadrian, and Rajat Bhageria, CEO of Chef Robotics and an alum Under 30 list. Of those who made this year’s Manufacturing & Industry list, 27% are women, 37% are people of color and 100% are founders or cofounders.
From Sizov’s anti-rot technology to Raise Robotics’ focus on safety, this year’s class is one step ahead of the world’s toughest manufacturing challenges on the factory floor, in the sea and on the supply chain. “I think a lot of sustainable solutions are profitable, are driving optimization, are driving more elegant solutions in whatever industry you operate in,” says Sizov. “And I think Gen Z has gotten that.”
This year’s list was edited by Elisabeth Brier, Kate Gammon and Bella Sayegh. For a link to our complete 2026 30 Under 30 Manufacturing & Industry list, click here, and for full 2026 30 Under 30 coverage, click here.