HyveGeo’s approach to restoring degraded land stands out at the FoodTech Challenge
Updated
January 21, 2026 11:09 AM
Clusters of sandstone buttes in Monument Valley, Colorado Plateau. PHOTO: UNSPLASH
HyveGeo, a climate-focused startup, has been named one of the global winners of the FoodTech Challenge, an international competition designed to surface practical technologies that strengthen food systems in arid and climate-stressed regions.
The FoodTech Challenge (FTC) is based in the UAE and brings together governments, foundations and agri-food institutions to identify early-stage solutions that address food production, land degradation and resource efficiency. Each year, hundreds of startups apply from around the world. In 2026, more than 1,200 teams from 113 countries submitted entries. Only four were selected.
HyveGeo stood out for its approach to one of agriculture’s hardest problems: how to make desert soil usable again. Founded in 2023 by a group of scientists and researchers, the Abu Dhabi-based company focuses on regenerating degraded land using a process built around biochar, a carbon-rich material made from agricultural waste, enhanced with microalgae. The aim is to accelerate soil recovery in environments where water is limited and land has been heavily stressed.
What caught the judges’ attention was not just the technology itself, but the way it links several challenges at once. The system turns waste into a usable soil input, reduces the time it takes for land to become productive and locks carbon into the ground instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. In short, it addresses land degradation, food production and climate pressure through a single framework.
As a winner of the FoodTech Challenge, HyveGeo will share a US$2 million prize with the other selected startups. Beyond funding, the company will also receive support from the UAE’s innovation ecosystem, including research backing, pilot projects, market access and incubation services to help move from testing into wider deployment.
The team’s plans focus on scaling within the UAE first. HyveGeo aims to work across Abu Dhabi’s network of farms and gradually expand into other arid and climate-stressed regions. Its longer-term target is to restore thousands of hectares of degraded land and contribute to carbon removal through soil-based methods.
Placed in a broader context, HyveGeo’s win reflects a shift in how food and climate technologies are being evaluated. Instead of chasing dramatic breakthroughs, competitions like the FTC are increasingly backing systems that connect waste, land, water and carbon into something usable on the ground. Not futuristic agriculture, but practical repair work for environments that can no longer rely on old farming assumptions. If that direction continues, the next wave of food innovation may be less about spectacle and more about quiet, scalable fixes for places where growing food has become hardest.
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Rethinking 3D modelling for a world that generates too much, too quickly.
Updated
January 8, 2026 6:32 PM
A hologram in the franchise Star Wars, in Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando. PHOTO: UNSPLASH
MicroCloud Hologram Inc. (NASDAQ: HOLO), a technology service provider recognized for its holography and imaging systems, is now expanding into a more advanced realm: a quantum-driven 3D intelligent model. The goal is to generate detailed 3D models and images with far less manual effort — a need that has only grown as industries flood the world with more visual data every year.
The concept is straightforward, even if the technology behind it isn’t. Traditional 3D modeling workflows are slow, fragmented and depend on large teams to clean datasets, train models, adjust parameters and fine-tune every output. HOLO is trying to close that gap by combining quantum computing with AI-powered 3D modeling, enabling the system to process massive datasets quickly and automatically produce high-precision 3D assets with much less human involvement.
To achieve this, the company developed a distributed architecture comprising of several specialized subsystems. One subsystem collects and cleans raw visual data from different sources. Another uses quantum deep learning to understand patterns in that data. A third converts the trained model into ready-to-use 3D assets based on user inputs. Additional modules manage visualization, secure data storage and system-wide protection — all supported by quantum-level encryption. Each subsystem runs in its own container and communicates through encrypted interfaces, allowing flexible upgrades and scaling without disrupting the entire system.
Why this matters: Industries ranging from gaming and film to manufacturing, simulation and digital twins are rapidly increasing their reliance on 3D content. The real bottleneck isn’t creativity — it’s time. Producing accurate, high-quality 3D assets still requires a huge amount of manual processing. HOLO’s approach attempts to lighten that workload by utilizing quantum tools to speed up data processing, model training, generation and scaling, while keeping user data secure.
According to the company, the system’s biggest advantages include its ability to handle massive datasets more efficiently, generate precise 3D models with fewer manual steps, and scale easily thanks to its modular, quantum-optimized design. Whether quantum computing will become a mainstream part of 3D production remains an open question. Still, the model shows how companies are beginning to rethink traditional 3D workflows as demand for high-quality digital content continues to surge.