A multinational mining company wanted to transfer cleantech from U.S. incubators to its operations in emerging markets. Its areas of focus were energy efficiency, electricity and heat generation as well as waste-to-energy. We organised an innovation challenge at several U.S. incubators and evaluated startups in two regards: First, we evaluated its technological validation and sales history in its home market. Second, we assessed the product’s suitability to the local demand in the emerging target market and its scalability potential.