Aus der Branche

Two startups in India have won Paint the Future awards and the chance to continue working together with AkzoNobel to accelerate their solutions.

The winning submissions answered the company’s call for innovative ways to enhance the digital consumer experience for Dulux paints in India. The winners are:

• HyperReality Technologies - Collaborative platform for inspiration and visualization of a space in the metaverse
• Fluid AI - Multi-channel, conversational, immersive and interactive AI platform to guide consumers during their painting journey

Having already signed letters of intent to work together on sustainable business opportunities, the two winners now join AkzoNobel’s accelerator program.

The India startup challenge is the third regional edition of Paint the Future. Run in partnership with NASSCOM Industry Partnership Program (NIPP), the challenge attracted 207 submissions from 33 cities across India.

Nine finalists were invited to an intense two-day bootcamp program, where customized sessions with AkzoNobel experts helped them further refine their solution’s value proposition before the final pitch to the Paint the Future jury.

COBRA International is pleased to confirm its continued partnership with Fliteboard as the builders of the new Fliteboard Series 2.  

Conceived in 2016, the Fliteboard range of electric foiling surfboards has established a leading position in the eFoil market. In early 2021, Fliteboard announced a package of evolutionary improvements to the original award-winning design for which COBRA has installed significant additional manufacturing capacity.

With Fliteboard growing rapidly, and thousands of boards now delivered across more than 80 countries,  COBRA will continue to support Fliteboard with additional moulds and lean manufacturing production lines added to reduce customer lead times. In addition to this production capacity expansion, COBRA has successfully met the technical challenges set by the Fliteboard team to incorporate all the new Series 2 board features into the existing production processes.

Fliteboard’s first composite models used a carbon fibre and Innegra sandwich laminate over a moulded EPS foam core, combining maximum strength, stiffness, and durability with a low overall board weight. The same construction concept is used for the Series 2 boards, with several new finishes added to the range along with lighter colour matched EVA deck pads and upgraded latches on the carbon fibre board lid. New wood grain and metallic paint finishes have been introduced with COBRA’s semi-transparent paint system used to save weight and display the stunning hexagonal weave pattern of the carbon and Innegra reinforcement fabrics.