Climate tech scaleups play an outsized role in tackling the climate crisis. 40% of emission reductions rely on technologies not yet commercially deployed on a mass-market scale. This is why Tech Nation is delighted to launch Net Zero 3.0, supporting scale-ups to achieve scale and accelerate the UK’s goal to drive down global emissions. We are looking for early-stage scaleups which operate across key sectors, including electricity & energy, transport & mobility, agriculture, food systems, manufacturing and building technology.
Net Zero is tailor-made to help mission-driven founders realise their visions. The best part? It’s free to join and we don’t take an equity stake in your business.
Net Zero is not currently accepting applications, but you can pre-register your interest in the programme.
From agriculture and ecosystem restoration all the way down to carbon removal, materials and manufacturing – and an eclectic mix of subsectors in between, this year’s cohort presents some of the most exciting and innovative climate-tech companies in the UK’s tech ecosystem. Click on each company logo to discover more about the cohort member.
East of England | Agriculture | @AgreedEarth
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.
Yorkshire | Agriculture | @AgriSoundTech
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.
London | Buildings & construction | Energy
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.
Wales | Buildings & construction | @atamateuk
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 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.
London | Automotive | Energy | @EnginesCarnot
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.
London | Buildings & construction | @CerculaLtd
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.
East of England | Buildings & construction | Energy | Transport | @Electricmiles1
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.
North East | Energy | @equiwattuk
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.
London | Energy
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 platform 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.
London | Energy | @FiliaSolar
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.
London | Agriculture | Carbon Calculation | @foodstepsCO2
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.
London | Energy
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.
Scotland | Transport | @HV_Systems
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 power train sub-systems it will be providing a unique offering: a new technology zero emissions vehicle designed around the power train. This ground-up approach enables the introduction of many innovative features which taken together will provide a best in class performing vehicle.
London | Energy | Transport | @infyos
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.
Scotland | Energy | @IONATE_Energy
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.
East of England | Automotive | Energy | Transport
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 webform 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 where 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.
South West | Materials & manufacturing | @kelpindustries
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.
South East | Carbon Removal & Offsetting
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 purchased 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.
Northern Ireland | Carbon Removal & Offsetting | @moftechnologies
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.
London | Agriculture | @MuddyMachines
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 crop will contribute to key yield gains.
London | Transport
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.
London | Energy
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.
South West | Agriculture | @Ooooby
Ooooby (Out of our own back yards) 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.
London | Agriculture | Energy | @phycobloom
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.
London | Agriculture | Carbon Removal & Offsetting
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.
North East | Buildings & construction | Carbon Removal & Offsetting | Energy | Materials & manufacturing | @PowerRollPV
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.
East of England | Carbon Removal & Offsetting | Energy | Materials & manufacturing | @PurifireL
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.
London | Waste management | @recycleye
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.
London | Energy | Transport | @signol_io
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.
Scotland | Carbon Calculation | @SpaceIntelli
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.
London | Carbon Removal & Offsetting | @Treeconomyltd
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.
Yorkshire | Analytics | @tribosonics
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 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).
London | Transport | @ZetiHQ
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 market place 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.
London | @ZoaRental
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.
Net Zero is for fast-growth tech companies which help the UK reduce greenhouse gas emissions either directly or indirectly. Companies may work digital, hardware and life science sectors.
Criteria for applicants:
Founder focused sessions delivered by entrepreneurs who have lived the journey. Tackle fundamental growth barriers such as financing, sales, talent and culture.
Sessions for your leadership team to upskill themselves. Explore challenges faced in marketing, operations, finance, product, tech, and HR functions.
Work with leaders, experts, influencers and stakeholders to quantify your company’s impact and potential in the tech ecosystem and on the planet.
Gain positioning as a fast-growth UK sustainability company through Tech Nation marketing and press. Be on the radar with government, corporates and investors.
Tech Nation’s Libra programme is a springboard for existing underrepresented founders based in the UK who are growing and scaling despite market failure. The inaugural programme is focused on the Black founder experience, helping them navigate the scaling journey. We’re proud to say that the first cohort showcases some exciting net zero focused companies too! Learn more about them by clicking on the logos below.
Compare Ethics verifies businesses' sustainability credentials using patent-pending technology and ensures clear returns on investment for businesses increasing their sustainability standards. For consumers, it provides a trusted source of sustainability information.
Loopcycle is a product traceability platform redefining the management, recovery and resale of valuable secondary products. Loopcycle aims at revolutionising the way that businesses manage, recover and resell their physical assets, driving integrity within the reuse marketplace. By embedding a unique product ID, called ‘Cyclecode’, the platform facilitates whole product lifecycle visibility and direct interactions between manufacturers and end-users where intermediaries control product distribution. Loopcycle is helping businesses to deliver the net-zero carbon target and move towards a circular economy while maximising their commercial value.
Shwap is a software solution to help fashion, homeware and lifestyle retailers monetise the secondary market of their products, and earn revenue from products they’ve already sold. Shwap's technology leverages peer-to-peer resale in order to give the UK’s 200,000 retailers a means to monetise the secondary market of their products without incurring operational costs. Shwap developed software that retailers can integrate into the e-commerce stores, or point-of-sale systems that enables Shwap to identify and then manage the lifecycle of products as they move between different owners. Using this software Shwap has created a frictionless resale platform that creates products listings in real time as users shop.
South West | Smart Cities (including Transport & Autonomous Vehicles) | @voltricuk
Voltric is a mobility-as-a-service provider dedicated making the growing demand for all forms of mobility practical, sustainable and efficient. The all-inclusive electric vehicle subscription service allows consumers to access a range of road-ready, electric cars all for one price per month without the concerns of managing insurance, tax, MOT and everything needed to get onto the road.
“Improving the long-term resilience of our planet is the most important issue of our time. If you are a young, innovative company focused on decarbonising our lives, being on the Tech Nation’s Net Zero programme gives you ‘the oxygen’ to develop, hone and grow business capability… and help you on your journey.”
Mark Hodgson, CCO, Cervest
“Last year, the Tech Nation Net Zero programme brought together the most exciting founders with a great selection of mentors, investors and partners. I really saw the value to the participating companies as they developed throughout the programme, and I’m honoured to be supporting it again. We need to give the most innovative companies all the support we can to accelerate the zero carbon transition.”
Pippa Gawley, Founder, Zero Carbon Capital
BNP Paribas is one of the world’s pre-eminent banking groups, and Tech Nation is lucky enough to have them as our partner for the Net Zero programme. Headquartered in Europe, they are active globally and have a major presence in the UK and are a world leader in sustainable finance.
Scroll through to see the calibre of our expert judges
Marta Krupinska
Head of Google for Startups UK
Emily Brooke MBE
Partner, Revent
Dan Avery
Venture Lead, National Grid Partners
Christian Hernandez
Partner, 2150
Sam Kimmins
Head of RE100, The Climate Group
Faye Walsh Drouillard
Founder, WakeUp Capital
Jeffrey Eneberi
CEO, Sustainable Seaweed
Susannah Mcclintock
Investor, Sustainable Ventures
Pippa Gawley
Founder & Director, Zero Carbon Capital
Azeem Azhar
Founder, Exponential View
Chris Turner
Executive Director, B Lab UK
Katya Akulinicheva
CFO, ZeroAvia
Jamie Rowles
Head of Environmental Investments, Sky
Hayden wood
CEO, Bulb
Lucy Clarke
Investor, Octopus Ventures
Beverley Gower-Jones
Managing Partner, Clean Growth Fund
Alex Hook
Senior Investment Director, Nesta
Natasha Jones
Investor, Octopus Ventures
Jim Totty
Managing Director, Viridis Capital
Zheela Qaiser
Strategist, Index Ventures
Jeffrey Krogh
Managing Director, BNP Paribas Corporate and Institutional Banking
Michael Wilshire
Ex-Head of Strategy, BloombergNEF
Naveed Chaudhry
Co-founder, The Greenhouse
Luke Olly
Energy and Environment Lead, COOP
Stewart McTavish
Chief Platform Officer
Cansu Deniz Bayrak
Senior Partner, Bethnal Green Ventures
Matthew Gilmour
Corporate Finance, BDO
Mayank Girdhar
Founder, Upspark
Tom Jarman
Director, Low Carbon Journey
Mahima Sukhdev
Head of Product Strategy, GIST
Maria Wagner
Investment Director, Beringea
Reinier Zeldenrust
Associate Partner, Foster + Partners
Erica Purvis
Director, Technical Nature
Michael Langguth
Co-founder, Carbon13
Celia Francis
Chief Commercial Officer, Earthshot Labs
Jon Coker
Founding Partner, Eka Ventures
Joe Bond
Principal, ProFounders Capital
Mark Hodgson
CCO, Cervest
Will Wells
Founder, Hummingbird Technologies
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