If you’re a tech entrepreneur, be it aspiring, scaling or late stage, we have a programme for you. See here...
Supporting climate tech founders
Empowering underrepresented tech founders
Growing late-stage ventures, to IPO and beyond
Equipping scaleups post series A
Pitch competition for early-stage startups
Championing disabled founders and entrepreneurs innovating around disability
Work, Live, Thrive in the UK
Supporting global talent to work live and thrive in UK tech through our various support services
Discover the steps to apply and begin your journey
Gain access to a global talent alumni network to support your journey
Spotlighting top talent from our Visa Programme
Understand the standards applicants need to meet to be considered for a successful endorsement
Celebrating 10 years of global talent in UK tech
The growth programme for climate tech startups committed to reducing global emissions, eliminating the world’s waste and restoring nature.
Climate is the ultimate launchpad for climate tech startups! Our programme is dedicated to catalyzing climate innovation by providing founders with the tools they need to elevate their businesses.
We offer world-class advisory support that is curated by successful entrepreneurs, giving our startups direct access to invaluable expertise and knowledge. In addition, we provide our founders with direct connections to investors, multinationals, academics, and policy makers – ensuring they have every opportunity to secure the funding and partnerships they need to succeed.
We are committed to empowering our startups to scale up their emissions-reducing technologies, foster investment, drive the adoption of climate solutions, and shape the future of climate-friendly policies.
The programme has previously supported over 100 climate tech startups over 3 years. Companies who have been part of the programme have scaled 3 times as fast as the industry average and 5 startups have since exited. Now, we are providing more support than ever to futureproof the growth of climate tech.
Applications for Climate 2024 are closed. Pre-register your interest for Climate 2025 here (Our programmes are free to join)
Previous Climate Alumni
The programme offers you access to networks, commercial and capital opportunities
Our team of seasoned entrepreneurs and industry experts are here to guide you every step of the way, providing you with the invaluable insights and strategic guidance you need to take your business to new heights.
Our programme opens the doors to connect you with global investors who can fuel your success. We provide networking opportunities ensuring you have the chance to make a compelling case for your business and secure the financial backing you need.
We provide our startups with unrivalled access to potential customers, enabling them to establish and develop partnerships that drive business growth and success
Through our extensive network, we facilitate direct connections and engagements with key decision makers at local, national, and international levels. You’ll have the opportunity to participate in policy discussions and advocate for the adoption of climate-friendly policies that support your business objectives.
Meet our dedicated commitee helping us curate the highest quality growth support:
Co-Founder & CEO, Olio
Read More
Technology and Policy Strategist
Author
Co-Founder, OpenWeb
Co-Founder, Shazam
Co-Founder, Giant Ventures
Co-Founder and CEO, Plan A
CEO and Co-Founder, Beams
Co-Founder and CEO, CUR8
Founding Partner, Pale Blue Dot
Venture Partner, firstminute capital
Co-Founder & CEO, Supercritical
CEO, Volans
Tessa is Co-Founder & CEO of Olio, an app tackling the climate crisis by solving the problem of waste in the home & local community. Olio does this by connecting people with their local community so they can give away rather than throw away their spare food and other household items, and lend and borrow instead of buying brand new. They also have over 100,000 volunteers who collect unsold food from local businesses and redistribute it to the community via the Olio app. Olio has grown to over 7 million users in 63 countries and its impact has been widely recognised, most notably by the United Nations who highlighted Olio as a “beacon” for the world, and by Vivatech who awarded Olio “Next European Unicorn”.
Prior to Olio, Tessa had a 15 year corporate career as a digital Managing Director in the media, retail and financial services sectors, and she met her co-founder Saasha whilst they were studying for their MBAs at Stanford University. Tessa is passionate about the sharing economy as a solution for a sustainable world, and about ‘profit with purpose’ as the next business paradigm.
Tessa’s TED talk about the power of sharing has been watched over 1 million times, and she was awarded the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award for 2023, the longest running award for female business leaders.
Sarah Hunter has built a career working at the intersection of technology, culture and public policy. She spent over a decade as Director of Global Public Policy at for X (formerly Google X) where she helped engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs invent and launch new technologies to solve some of the world’s most intractable problems. Prior to joining Google, Sarah was Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Senior Policy Adviser on Culture, Media and Sport in Downing Street. Since leaving Google she has become a prominent voice in the development and application of climate technology, leading panels at UNGA, New York Climate Week and London Tech Week. In 2023 she was appointed as one of two independent Non-Executive Directors on the board of the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), the new agency tasked with leading British breakthrough innovation in science and technology. Since 2021 she has served as a Trustee of NESTA, the social innovation charity, and home of the UK’s ‘Nudge Taskforce’, a Non-Exec Director on the Board of Skateboard UK, and on the Advisory Board of Labour Together and the Imperial College London Institute for Deep Tech Entrepreneurship. Sarah lives in Bath, England and enjoys spending time with her family, gardening, listening to 1990s hip-hop and reading spy novels
Leo Johnson leads PwC’s Disruption practice and Co-Presents the Radio 4 series “FutureProofing”, exploring the impacts of exponential technologies on Business and Society. Formerly at the World Bank, Leo is the co-Founder of the advisory firm Sustainable Finance, now part of the PwC group. He is the co-author of “Turnaround Challenge: Business and the City of the Future” (Oxford University Press, 2013) and a Visiting Business Fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise & Environment at Oxford University.
Roee is a serial entrepreneur of mission-driven companies. Previously COO and Co-Founder of OpenWeb (valued at $1.5B). Today, he focuses on impacting the race to Net Zero.
Dhiraj is a Co-Founder of Shazam, the mobile music recognition company (acquired by Apple in 2018). He was named one of Europe’s Top 50 technology entrepreneurs by the Financial Times in 2015.
In the course of his career, Dhiraj has served in senior roles in media & entertainment, digital business consulting and the charity sector with Save the Children.
Dhiraj is now focused on innovating for impact, supporting “Tech for Good” startups, particularly in climate tech. He has invested in several women and minority-led startups, and believes in the power of young people as the change-makers of the future.
Tommy Stadlen is a Founding Partner of Giant Ventures, the global venture capital firm backing purpose-driven technology founders.
Tommy was previously Co-Founder & CEO of Swing, an imaging technology company chaired by Twitter founder Biz Stone. In 2017, Swing exited to Microsoft where Tommy held product leadership roles.
Tommy was also Co-Founder and Chairman of the Tailwind group (NYSE: TWNI), three public companies with a combined market cap of over $1bn.
Tommy is the best-selling author of ‘Connect: How Companies Succeed by Engaging Radically With Society’, written with former BP CEO Lord Browne. He is a frequent contributor to media outlets including the New York Times, Financial Times, BBC and Bloomberg.
Tommy is a former McKinsey consultant and previously worked for President Obama. He graduated with First Class honours from Oxford and holds an MSc (Distinction) in Environmental Policy from the London School of Economics. Tommy has been recognised by the Financial Times as a top 50 Global Ally Executive and by Entrepreneur’s ‘Best Companies in America’ award.
Lubomila Jordanova is the co-founder and CEO of Plan A, a leading corporate carbon accounting, decarbonisation, and ESG reporting software solutions provider. Lubomila is also co-founder of the Greentech Alliance, a community of more than 2,000 startups connected to more than 500 advisors from VC, media, and business. She serves as an Advisory Board Member to the Sustainability Board at Chloé. Prior to Plan A, she worked in investment banking and venture capital as well as the fintech industry in Asia and Europe. She has been recognised as Obama Leader Europe 2022, MIT Innovator Under 35 Europe 2022, Marshall Fund Fellow 2022, Top 50 Women in Tech in Germany 2021 (Handelsblatt) and 30 under 30 (Forbes), among others.
Hayden Wood is the Founder and CEO of Beams, a new digital platform making home renovation simpler for homeowners and contractors, and greener for the planet.
A certified B-Corp, Beams manages builds end-to-end, pairs homeowners with vetted contractors, offers award-winning designs and ensures projects stay on track – all while offering sustainable guidance at every step of the journey.
Hayden was previously Co-Founder and CEO of UK energy supplier, Bulb.
Prior to founding Bulb, Hayden studied economics at LSE and spent 10 years as a management consultant, first at Monitor Group and then Bain & Company.
Marta Krupinska is CEO and Co-Founder of the carbon removals market maker CUR8. Founded alongside the renowned climate scientist Dr Gabrielle Walker and backed by Google Ventures, CUR8 is on a mission to enable corporate sustainability leaders, project developers and investors to confidently invest in the high quality carbon removals that will support future market development. Marta formerly founded and exited two fintech startups, Azimo and FreeUp, and was Head of Google for Startups in the UK and co-lead of Google’s Black Founders Fund. Alongside building CUR8 Marta is also Chair of Youth Business International, a global charity working to help young people start their own businesses, and of ACUA Ocean, a marine cleantech startup. Marta is a well known public speaker and has received multiple awards for her work, including from the likes of Forbes (30 under 30 in 2017) and Evening Standard (London’s Most Influential People).
Heidi Lindvall is a tech investor, former startup founder and human rights documentary filmmaker. She founded and is a partner of Pale blue dot, an 180M EUR European climate tech fund investing in diverse founders solving ambition problems.
Will is a Venture Partner at firstminute capital ($350m seed fund backed by 130 unicorn founders) and Norrsken ($500m + multi-stage fund founded by the Klarna co-founder). He is focused on Climate, AI and Deep Tech, and has been actively involved in climate tech for 15 years, most recently as the Founder at Hummingbird Technologies ($25m raised, 70 employees, B Corp, exited to Agreena), and which pioneered the measurement and AI data verification of Regenerative Agriculture from space. Will was formerly a partner and buyside investor at Highclere, a $6bn global hedge fund focused on tech and renewables. Will has completed 30 M&A transactions and has made 25+ angel investments to date across the broader tech space. Will is also a co founder at Black Barn Labs, a robotics and automation roll-up, and a SaaS platform for direct carbon removals (both in stealth). Outside of investment activities, Will is a frequent contributor to media outlets and science bodies, including the Financial Times, the Earthshot Prize, the European Space Agency, Cognition X and Sifted, and is an elected adviser at Technation, The Council for Sustainable Business (a sounding board for DEFRA ministers), Tech UK, Subak, Glowb, The ARK and flox.ai. Will graduated with First Class Honours from the University of Edinburgh and did an MBA at INSEAD in 2015, where he was a scholar. At firstminute, Will works closely with: Verse (ML grid optimisation), Tenet (EV fintech), Volare (insect tech), Alcemy (AI for green cement), Infraspeak (maintenance SaaS), Airly (air pollution SaaS), Phaidra (AI for decarbonised industry), Automata (lab automation), Magrathea Metals (magnesium from sea water), Fork & Good (syn protein), Vitrolabs (lab grown leather), Ramp (crypto fintech), Kapu (African e-retail), Truecircle (recycling AI marketplace).
Michelle You is co-founder and CEO of vetted carbon removal marketplace, Supercritical. At the forefront of the UK’s climate tech ecosystem, Michelle is a former venture partner at LocalGlobe, where she focused on climate investments, and is a member of the TechZero task force. She’s also a repeat entrepreneur with a proven track record. As co-founder of Songkick, she grew the company to over 20m monthly unique users and raised capital from Y Combinator, Index Ventures and Sequoia before exiting to Warner Music Group in 2017.
Louise is the CEO of Volans, the influential advisory think tank. As a successful entrepreneur, she has spent her career working in innovative businesses, pioneering cradle-to-cradle and circular business models. At Volans, she has launched thought leadership initiatives such as Tomorrow's Capitalism Inquiry and the Bankers For NetZero initiative (now a standalone organisation and the UK chapter of the UN-led NetZero Banking Alliance). Louise also works directly with a select group of forward-thinking businesses to help their transformation to success in a regenerative future including Neste, Acciona, ESB (Eire), Selfridges Group, Sage, Handelsbanken. Highly focused on empowering the next generation, Louise is a mentor through Aspire and 1 Million Mentors. She lectures at a number of universities and is also on the Advisory Board for the University of Exeter Business School, the Shizenkan University and the IESE Business School The Future of Capitalism programme. Louise sits on the advisory boards of the Global CO2 Initiative, Neste Advisory Council for Sustainability and New Markets, The UKRI Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Chemical Economy, the UK CLIMATES Programme on Rare Earth Elements and The Good Growth Company. Louise also hosts the Green Swans book club whose authors are all at the forefront of some aspect of systems thinking. Visit: volans.com
Check if you/ your company fulfil the application criteria here >
We are looking for climate tech companies with high impact and growth potential. We use climate tech broadly to encompass the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem protection, and other sectors that play a crucial role in mitigating and adapting to climate change.
“This was by far the best accelerator in the UK” Genevieve Patenaude Earthblox
“This was by far the best accelerator in the UK”
Earthblox
“Being part of Tech Nation’s programme not only gave us access to a community of like-minded peers, but it helped put us on the map. It was a huge moment of recognition and celebration for our team. We have featured in many leading publications – and being selected for Tech Nation’s Net Zero programme absolutely contributed to establishing our credibility as an ambitious and innovative tech scaleup.” Jo Parker-Swift CEO, Solivus
“Being part of Tech Nation’s programme not only gave us access to a community of like-minded peers, but it helped put us on the map. It was a huge moment of recognition and celebration for our team. We have featured in many leading publications – and being selected for Tech Nation’s Net Zero programme absolutely contributed to establishing our credibility as an ambitious and innovative tech scaleup.”
CEO, Solivus
“Tech Nation’s climate programme has been an excellent support network, enabling us to explore some of the challenging topics that we face as we grow and scale. What’s more, we are now part of a community of committed and passionate impact founders for life, and I can’t wait to see what amazing things they deliver over the next decade.” Brittany Harris Qualis Flow
“Tech Nation’s climate programme has been an excellent support network, enabling us to explore some of the challenging topics that we face as we grow and scale. What’s more, we are now part of a community of committed and passionate impact founders for life, and I can’t wait to see what amazing things they deliver over the next decade.”
Qualis Flow
“The climate programme gave our company great access to resources and elevated us a business to investors. Though for me personally as a founder, the access to mentors has been invaluable, providing a safe space to discuss and start to solve many of the thoughts that keep you up at night!” Antony Yousefian Bx
“The climate programme gave our company great access to resources and elevated us a business to investors. Though for me personally as a founder, the access to mentors has been invaluable, providing a safe space to discuss and start to solve many of the thoughts that keep you up at night!”
Bx
“We’ve been involved in a number of programmes over the years and this programme really stood out for its quality of people and content. It offers excellent support, advice, introductions, networking and validation for a growing business and an ongoing opportunity to participate in a vibrant and enjoyable ecosystem.” Phil Davies Magway
“We’ve been involved in a number of programmes over the years and this programme really stood out for its quality of people and content. It offers excellent support, advice, introductions, networking and validation for a growing business and an ongoing opportunity to participate in a vibrant and enjoyable ecosystem.”
Magway
Our mission is to support climate tech startups reduce global emissions, eliminate the world’s waste and restore nature by 1%.
The Climate Programme supports the growth of climate tech startups and is dedicated to catalysing climate innovation in the UK and overseas. We provide world leading advisory support curated by entrepreneurs and direct access to investors, multinationals, academics and policy makers. We empower climate tech startups to scale emissions-reducing technologies by fostering investment, driving the adoption of climate solutions, and shaping climate-friendly policies for the future. We remain dedicated to founder health and well-being and are dedicated to diversity and inclusion.
Yes, and we encourage that you apply to the programmes you feel will benefit you the most. Keep in mind, you could be eligible for several! For example, if you fulfil the criteria of Libra but you’re an aspiring Climate tech startup, you could apply to both the Libra and Climate programme.
The programme is fully funded by Tech Nation.
We are here to help you with your application. Please email us for further information at info@technation.io.
The programme is estimated to last for 6 months, kicking off in September 2023. We’ll be looking to run one expert-led session per month, along with a peer-to-peer networking session and you will also be offered to partake in individual founder coaching sessions. The time spent on the programme varies every week, but we estimate 5 – 6 hours per month.
HSBC Innovation Banking provides commercial banking services, expertise and insights to the technology, life science and healthcare, private equity and venture capital industries. HSBC Innovation Banking UK is a subsidiary of HSBC Group, benefiting from its stability, strong credit rating and international reach to help fuel its growth.
www.hsbcinnovationbanking.com