We are delighted to announce the 34 climate tech companies who have been accepted into Net Zero 3.0 – the third iteration of the Net Zero growth programme.

Net Zero 3.0 is the first government-backed programme designed to support the most promising climate tech companies to accelerate the UK’s path to net zero. This year’s successful companies were assessed by over 50 judges across key industries, including climate specialists, investors and senior representatives from companies such as Google for Startups, Sage and BNP Paribas. 

Companies were judged based on their scalability and potential to help the UK reach its high-priority net zero goal. The chosen companies are actively decarbonising key sectors, from energy and transport to construction and agriculture. 

This year’s Net Zero cohort demonstrates that tackling climate change is a priority across all parts of the UK, as 51% of the cohort are headquartered outside of London, with companies based in Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the North and the East of England. 

With its first two iterations of the Net Zero programme, Tech Nation has previously supported the growth of 62 of the UK’s leading climate tech companies. Together with the Net Zero 3.0 cohort, these companies have collectively raised over £500mn in VC investment.

Shân Millie, founder of Bright Blue Hare and Net Zero 3.0 Judge, said: “Why does Tech Nation’s Net Zero programme matter? It’s not just the practical mechanics of the growth programme – it’s the visibility all applicant firms get with a diverse group of advisors but importantly from being part of a nationally and internationally-known initiative. The individual firms benefit, but the whole climate tech sector – and society – does too.”

From solar homes to engineered algae

As the UK finds itself in the midst of an energy crisis, exactly half (17) of the companies joining Net Zero 3.0 are working to make UK energy consumption both cleaner and more affordable for customers. 

Joining this year’s Net Zero 3.0 cohort, Filia brings solar power to urban homes by integrating solar technology into the fabric of blackout/security blinds and garage doors, while Electric Miles has developed algorithms that profile, aggregate and shift energy demand from electric vehicles in real time to balance supply and demand for grid stability, sustainability and energy security, and Equiwatt are focussed on reducing energy bills while supporting the transition to renewables. 

With scientists recently determining algae to be a ‘climate superpower’, due to the fact that microalgae grows 10 times faster than plants on land, and can absorb 10-50 times more CO2, UK climate tech companies are increasingly looking at how they can use algae to help the UK reach its net zero goals. 

For the first time, Tech Nation’s Net Zero programme is welcoming 3 algae engineering companies into the Net Zero 3.0 cohort, which demonstrate the versatility of the plant through the different ways they are using it to drive sustainability. 

Kelpi is using algae to create bioplastics that will reinvent packaging by making it fully biodegradable, Phycobloom are engineering algae to create sustainable biofuels, and Phycoworks are utilising synthetic biology and machine learning to produce algae at scale which will significantly increase levels of carbon sequestration.

Net Zero 3.0’s mission

Empowering all of these climate tech scaleups is at the core of Tech Nation’s mission to support UK tech companies who are shaping our world for the better. With 40% of emissions reductions reliant on technologies not yet at mass-market scale according to an IEA report in 2020, it is imperative to support the growth of these companies, and the Net Zero programme aims to help realise their potential to drastically reduce global emissions. Over the last two programmes, companies part of the net zero programme have grown almost three times as much as the rest of the climate tech ecosystem, outlining the value the programme provides.  

Over the next 6 months, every company in Net Zero 3.0 will be given unparalleled access to long-term investment opportunities, education, talent, exposure and a platform with which to influence green policies and create the optimum conditions for growth. 

Tech Nation is proud to be a founding member of Tech Zero (an official partner to the UN Race to Zero), the organisation for tech companies of all sizes and stages committed to climate action, whose Tech Zero Pledge has recently surpassed 345 signatories. Tech Nation has also committed to reducing, measuring and publishing their own carbon emissions in an annual Sustainability Report. 

Tech Nation is also delighted to announce that this year’s Net Zero programme will again be supported by headline partner BNP Paribas and programme partner Sage. These organisations will provide invaluable support, expertise and insights to the Net Zero 3.0 cohort. 

Meet the Net Zero 3.0 cohort

• Agreed Earth – East of England
  Agreed Earth is the decision support tool for synthetic nitrogen fertiliser (N) reliance reduction. N’s environmental impact is huge – it takes 2% of the world’s energy to create from fossil fuels, it releases Nitrous Oxide (N2O) – 300x more potent than CO2 – when applied to soil, and it is a major source of air and water pollution. Yet currently most conventional farming systems rely on its use for yield. Agreed Earth’s satellite data models will help farmers: measure and monitor the carbon footprint and pollution coming from their N use; maximise the efficiency of the N they do use; make regenerative practice decisions that will reduce the need for N whilst maintaining or maximising yield; and quantify or verify reductions in N use remotely and cheaply to enable rewards via avoided emissions carbon credits. By doing this, Agreed Earth helps farmers lower their carbon footprint and increase profitability whilst accelerating their soil carbon sequestration by rehabilitating its natural fertility.

• AgriSound – Yorkshire and The Humber
  AgriSound is an agritech company that harnesses low-cost IoT sensors to monitor insect activity and biodiversity within a local environment. Pollination is one of the most important natural biological processes on our planet and an integral part of crop production. Pollinators are declining globally due to a combination of agricultural intensification, climate change and disease pressure and in turn, threatening the ~£375B of economic services they provide to the global economy. Sub-optimal pollination has a significant cost – both economically and environmentally, as pollination is closely linked to crop longevity and shelf life. AgriSound has developed bioacoustic algorithms for analysing complex sound data and delivering new insights into insect biodiversity and abundance for precision pollination.

• Artus Air – London
  Artus Air’s product reduces an air-conditioning unit’s fan energy consumption by 89% compared to traditional fan coils. Compared to chilled beams/mats – the next best operational energy saving HVAC solution – Artus Air reduces embodied carbon by c. 60%. Artus Air’s product is more cost-effective, smaller and therefore easier to fit into all sorts of ceiling designs. It can make the difference between having to knock a building down and rebuild rather than refurbish.

• Atamate – Wales
  Atamate reduces capital cost, energy use, management and maintenance costs in buildings while improving wellbeing and comfort. Its platform, the Atamate Building Operating System (atBOS), gives clients the sophistication of control that building management systems offer, with the ease of use and installation that a smart home system provides. atBOS reduces CO2 emissions while reducing capital and running costs. Improving environmental performances of buildings has previously only been achieved by making fabric improvements. To continue to improve performance of buildings and meet zero carbon targets, precise automated control of mechanical and electrical systems is essential. In both new and existing buildings, atBOS collects data and controls services to both reduce emissions and develop the optimum strategies to achieve zero carbon.

• Carnot Engines – London
  Carnot Engines is developing the world’s most efficient, zero emission, fuel agnostic, powertrains to decarbonise long-haul and heavy power needs. Utilising advanced technical ceramics and innovative design, it has achieved a revolutionary 70% thermal efficiency, double that of a normal engine. Its fuel agnostic technology rapidly accelerates net zero, saving gigatons of emissions in transition alone. It can immediately half emissions using diesel, then transition to e-fuels, bio-fuels and then provide long term net zero operation using hydrogen, ammonia or fuel blends.

• Cercula – London
  Cercula exists to solve the lack of carbon data problem. It is a software that labels construction materials with environmental data. It aims to make it as easy as possible to see the impacts of the building design and take the pain out of ESG compliance and reporting. Cercula’s technology takes in construction material data (in the form of a bill of materials, an invoice, a BIM file, or an API request) and returns carbon impact data in tonnes of CO2 equivalent in seconds.

• Electric Miles – East of England
  Electric Miles (EM) is a provider of SMART EV charging software; its mission is to deliver the lowest cost of charge to EV drivers and to the environment. It works closely with charger manufacturers, installers, and network operators using its data-driven SaaS Energy Management platform, to develop algorithms that profile, aggregate and shift energy demand from EVs and other domestic and business energy assets in real time and location to balance supply and demand for grid stability and energy security, cultivating net zero consumer and business behaviours.

• Equiwatt – North East
  Equiwatt is a virtual power plant (VPP) built by enabling collective energy-saving behaviour in homes during peak time demand surges to reduce the cost and carbon footprint of domestic energy use.

• Farad.ai – London
  Farad.ai’s mission is to guide the energy industry through its net zero transition with its AI-powered digital twin for the energy system to drastically mitigate the effects of climate change. Farad.ai has developed one of the most comprehensive AI-based platforms in the market with 600 million data points over 60 independent data sets across 10 core fields. Its ambition is to use energy analytics to decarbonise the whole economy. Initially it is optimising energy clients’ site prospecting, planning viability, and return on investment.

• Foodsteps – London
  Foodsteps enables food companies to track, reduce and communicate their environmental impacts from farm to fork. Its B2B software platform is being used to: accurately calculate the carbon footprint, land use and water use of meals, menus and food products; use carbon or eco-labelling on food items and communicate sustainability with their customer base; reduce impacts through changing menus, reformulating products and changing food supply chains. The company has invested heavily in its data, methodology and technology. It brings together a world-leading environmental impact database and methodology for food with a streamlined, user-friendly software product that enables food companies to get ahead of the curve on their single biggest environmental contributor: the food itself.

• Guru Systems – London
  Guru Systems provides market-leading hardware and data analytics platforms for heat networks, gas boilers and heat pumps. Its technology improves the performance of these systems for residential developers, heat suppliers, customers and our planet.

• HV Systems – Scotland
  HVS aims to support deep decarbonisation of the UK and European heavy goods market with the early introduction of hydrogen fuel cell HGVs. To disrupt the market, HVS is taking a system integration approach. HVS has selected the best available sub-systems and by designing around the powertrain sub-systems it will be providing a unique offering: a new technology zero emissions vehicle designed around the powertrain. This ground-up approach enables the introduction of many innovative features which taken together will provide a best in class performing vehicle.

• Infyos – London
  Infyos is on a mission to build a future where every battery supply chain is sustainable. The clean energy transition means battery demand is about to explode, but car makers and regulators are now demanding supply chain sustainability in order for battery players to make sales. Infyos is a supply chain sustainability platform that lets battery supply chain players – such as car makers, battery makers and energy storage companies – measure, manage and improve sustainability.

• IONATE – Scotland
  IONATE transforms power systems through deep tech R&D. Its hardware-software innovation revolutionises data-based power flow control and unlocks a robust technology path for the low-carbon energy transition. Its hardware, the Hybrid Intelligent Transformer (HIT) is a drop-in replacement for a traditional transformer at a similar cost. Yet, this game-changing device also delivers urgently needed functions – sensing and monitoring, dynamic voltage and power factor control, and harmonics removal – making transformers and layers of expensive add-on control electronics redundant. At each point of use – should that be in distribution networks, renewables, or storage assets – the HIT reduces asset costs and complexity, improves efficiency and capacity, while diminishing failure rates through improved power quality. But once multiple HITs are in the network, the coordinated control through IONATE’s software enables the systemic flexibility needed for a truly decarbonised grid.

• Jumptech – East of England
  Jumptech is a specialized SaaS workflow and job management system which streamlines the process of facilitating the process from sale to installation of low carbon technology such as EV charge points and in-home batteries. Its platform is used by installers, contract managers, OEM’s and hardware manufacturers. It has three core modules: Relay – the ability to send a self-survey via a mobile optimized web form to customers to capture info, pictures and documents; Pathway – back-office workflow management, customer comms, scheduling and quoting etc; Atom – engineers app for completing installations. On top of this, there is Connect, which allows jobs to be seamlessly delegated to other parties with real-time updates and access to photos and information. The software enables retailers to better manage customer journeys and therefore customer reviews, and enables installers to simplify admin tasks to increase installation efficiency.

• Kelpi – South West
  Kelpi is at the forefront of pioneering smart bioplastics to reinvent packaging for a sustainable world. It has developed unique (patent-pending) biopolymers to replace fossil fuel plastics with a biomaterial derived from seaweed. All its packaging is compostable and marine-safe; biodegrading fully and leaving no toxins behind. Kelpi works collaboratively with its clients – global brands in food, personal care & cosmetics and clothing sectors – to deploy and in some cases adapt its core technology to meet specific requirements. Starting with a carbon-negative feedstock (seaweed soaks up huge amounts of carbon dioxide as it grows) and minimising carbon emissions throughout production will ensure a low-carbon packaging product that supports clients to meet net zero targets and avoids the huge carbon emissions of fossil fuel-derived plastics like polyethylene.

• Kita – South East
  Kita’s vision is to be the world’s first carbon insurer. Carbon removal solutions are essential to fight climate change but they lack tailored insurance for their key asset – carbon units, thus limiting their ability to scale at speed. Carbon removal solutions generate revenue from forward sale of carbon units. Inconsistent standards and opaque transactions in the voluntary carbon markets lead to significant risk: will carbon purchases be delivered as promised? Kita’s insurance guarantees quality and delivery of carbon units, increasing access to capital for high-integrity carbon removal projects. Kita is currently building our insurance products and partnerships, with the aim of achieving regulation to sell insurance in early 2023.

• MOF Technologies – Northern Ireland
  Whilst the exact route to net zero is still up for debate, it’s widely accepted that point source carbon capture has a critical role to play in any credible plan. While the tech has been around for decades, its roll out has been hindered by the cost and energy penalties. Now, MOF Technologies has harnessed the power of MOFs (Metal Organic Frameworks) and developed Nuada – an ultra-efficient carbon capture system – that will help turbo-charge the path to net zero. By slashing the energy requirements of capture by up to 80% versus the current state-of-the-art  solutions by up to 80%, Nuada is paving the way for the mass adoption of carbon capture in hard to abate industries such as cement production. Thanks to Nuada, hard to abate industries like cement manufacturing now have a commercially viable solution to realise their net zero targets.

• Muddy Machines – London
  Muddy Machines have built a robot platform that sustainably automates the selective field vegetable harvest to fix growers’ urgent labour shortage needs. It uses advanced computer vision, machine learning and mechanical engineering to position a proprietory gripper tool, which is mounted on an electrically powered, autonomous field robot, accurately in the field in order to perform precise and efficient cuts to selectively harvested crops. The design approach is sustainable and avoids soil compaction because it uses swarm robotics instead of building large and heavy machines. The data it collects while harvesting crops will contribute to key yield gains.

• Oceanways – London
  Oceanways’ mission is to restore our ocean and decarbonise shipping by pioneering the new market of regenerative underwater transport systems. Radically rethinking existing transport systems, it is building the world’s first zero-emission autonomous and unmanned cargo submarine fleet running on green hydrogen. The zero-emission Oceanways Coastal Hyway will be delivered by weather-independent and low-cost submarines which are 21m in length, modular, agile and can deliver cargo at 8knts, diving at 50m with 300nm range. With every mile of operation, they will filter microplastics, remove 280g of CO2e and collect vital ocean acidification data for future action. Compared to ferries, the subs are weather independent, can go inland, are cheaper, quieter, secure, cleaner and have zero fumes or other pollutants.

• Odqa Renewable Energy Technologies – London
  Odqa designs, manufactures and maintains solar thermal air receivers, concentrating sunlight to produce carbon-free hot air streams. Odqa’s solution will provide much needed tools to decarbonise high-temperature heat processes. Odqa pioneers solar heat use in high-temperature processes at scale by partnering with industry incumbents. Solar heat has a vast number of applications ranging from drying processed materials to hydrogen production.

• Ooooby – South West
  Ooooby (Out Of Our Own Backyards) is an online platform that facilitates real food sales and logistics from gate-to-plate. It is a three-sided online marketplace providing; food producers with direct short supply chain routes to new and profitable markets; food hubs and retailers with a sales, transaction and logistics system that increases profits and attracts new suppliers and customers; and consumers with easy access to doorstep deliveries of super fresh ecologically sound food from a range of local and independent producers.

• Phycobloom – London
  Phycobloom is engineering algae for truly sustainable biofuels. Its goal is to make sustainable fuel from microalgae competitive in production cost through synthetic biology. In the long term, it has the potential to be not only the direct replacement of crude oil, but can be used as a tool for carbon storage as well.

• Phycoworks – London
  PhycoWorks believes that industry should integrate with the environment rather than degrade it. Its mission is to accelerate humanity’s transition to a sustainable bioeconomy. It is building a platform that uses AI and synthetic biology to develop algae strains that can transform CO2 into valuable products and are purpose-built for industrial application.

• Power Roll – North East
  Power Roll is a green technology innovator wtih patented IP it calls “Microgrooves” which are used to create two-terminal electrical products in plastic film (PET). The most exciting application of microgrooves is for its unique solar film. Solar film is a solar PV product which will be a game-changer with its disruptively low cost to manufacture. Power Roll creates solar film using readily available input materials (PET, metals, perovskite ink) and common roll-to-roll manufacturing equipment. Solar film can be competitively manufactured anywhere in the world.

• PuriFire Labs – East of England
  PuriFire Labs is addressing the climate crisis through innovation at the intersection of science, engineering and sustainability. Its mission is to prevent millions of tons of anthropogenic emissions from entering the atmosphere through our proprietary portfolio of patented climate technologies. PuriFire is scaling a point source carbon capture solution that liquefies CO2 from a stream of exhaust flue gases without amines or solvents to make biogas plants and factories ‘green’. Its technology does not use any solvents, catalysts or amines, resulting in a cheaper, more efficient and easier to scale solution.

• Recycleye – London
  Recycleye uses advanced machine learning, computer vision and robotics to bring transparency, traceability and efficiency to the global waste management industry. Recycleye developed a low-cost, AI-powered system replicating the power of human vision. Recycleye Vision uses advanced machine-learning algorithms to provide automatic, image-based detection of individual items in co-mingled waste streams in MRFs. Recycleye leverages a cutting-edge synthetic data generation pipeline, and a proprietary visual database of labelled waste items, WasteNet, containing 3 million+ images across 28 material classes – it is the largest database of its kind. It can be combined with Recycleye Robotics to perform the physical tasks of separating waste materials in a MRF, a low-cost automated replacement for manual sorting (~60% of a MRF OPEX) which drastically improves the economic case to separate materials and divert resources from landfill or incineration.

• Signol.io – London
  Signol is a software product which brings behavioural science to operational end-users, creating commercial, environmental, and social value, at speed. Its software is a communication and feedback platform that continually optimises individual operational efficiency, using a combination of data analytics and behavioural science. It connects individual performance to operational data, and motivates end-users to improve their performance in small ways, leading to a compound reduction in fuel use and emissions.

• Filia – London
  Filia brings solar power where it’s needed most, the urban environment. Filia brings solar energy to every home by integrating solar technology into the fabric of blackout/security blinds and garage doors.

• Space Intelligence – Scotland
  Space Intelligence’s mission is to make an impact on climate change by leveraging its scientific expertise to provide accurate, trusted and consistent information for the Nature Based Solutions (NBS) and ESG reporting. It is dedicated to supporting nature-based solutions projects to fight climate change. It provides full transparency and truly accurate data insights for clients’ projects to guide decision-making.

• Treeconomy – London
  Treeconomy is a nature-based carbon removal business building software technology to massively enhance project level carbon accounting and monitoring of carbon stocks. It operates upstream, working directly with landowners to co-create carbon removal projects. It scans these projects and tracks the volume of CO2 stored in the aboveground biomass. It then sells these credits at premium prices, generating more revenue for the landowner partners. It operates actively upstream, which means it uses the technology to unlock new project types such as rewilding and landscape-scale regeneration.

• Tribosonics – Yorkshire and the Humber
  Tribosonics designs, manufactures and supplies full-stack sensing systems that combine innovative hard-tech with cloud based data capture and advanced analytics to non-invasively measure and monitor industrial processes and equipment to improve energy efficiencies and reduce waste. Tribosonics embeds ultrasonic sensors within the moving parts of machinery such as those found in wind turbines and propellers to monitor factors such as friction, pressure and temperature. The data is processed and analysed by Tribosonics’ proprietary software tools as part of a hardware/software package or licensed separately. It works in manufacturing (e.g. polymers and plastics), transport (e.g. automotive and marine) and energy (e.g. nuclear and renewables).

• Zeti – London
  Zeti is helping forward-thinking vehicle fleet operators to convert to zero and ultra-low emission vehicles by making it as simple, easy and transparent as paying for any other utility with its patent-pending pay-per-mile financial technology and real-time sustainability reporting. Zeti’s technology platform, ZERO, acts as a financial engine and marketplace to match organisations seeking flexible financing in order to adopt clean transport, with institutional capital seeking demonstrable ESG investment. It only supports the financing of sustainable transport solutions. Organisations that receive pay-per-mile financing benefit from: cash flow optimisation; transparency of costs (not an APR which is easily manipulated); and pooled usage of vehicles to simplify their operations. Financial institutions benefit from attractive risk adjusted returns for capital deployed; and outsourced automated asset management to reduce internal costs. Everyone benefits from reduced carbon and NOx.

• Zoa Rental – North East
  Zoa is a rental-as-a-service platform. It provides white-label technology, operations and management allowing retailers and fashion brands to rent their stock out under their own-brand. It removes barriers to such retailers and fashion brands being able to adopt a truly circular model.