The UK government has set ambitious targets to significantly reduce direct emissions from public sector buildings by 2032 and 2037, aiming for a 50% and 75% reduction respectively. Their ultimate goal is for all UK emissions to reach net zero by 2050. Similarly, in 2019, EU leaders committed to achieving a climate-neutral EU by 2050.
The tech sector has long grappled with balancing its advancements with environmental consequences. While many companies have made strides toward carbon neutrality, a growing number of startups are solely dedicated to environmental preservation. On World Environment Day today, TFN decided to highlight ten startups committed to promoting climate neutrality, reducing emissions, enhancing carbon absorption, and combating climate change.
Bramble Energy
Founded by Dr Tom Mason, Dr Vidal Bharath, Professor Dan Brett, and Professor Anthony Kucernak in 2016, Bramble Energy began as a university project when founder Mason met his future colleagues at UCL.
Founded with a single purpose, to help the world achieve Net Zero, the company’s trademarked PCB-X platform makes clean energy a practical reality, leveraging the existing supply chains of a $70 billion global PCB industry. With electrolysers that capture and store energy, hydrogen detectors to support safety, and fuel cells, it creates a scalable platform that’s used for everything from portable generators to vehicle fleets and shipping.
They’ve raised £41 million in funding from investors including Parkwalk Advisors and have already won plaudits from both the public and private sector for the solutions they have made possible.
Cambridge GaN Devices
Our demand for technology comes at a heavy environmental cost, and a large part of that is the impact of simply operating them. Cambridge University spin-out, Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD) addresses that. The UK startup has been created to explore and develop a number of unique opportunities in power electronics. It produces semiconductor technology using Gallium Nitride (GaN).
Gallium nitrate (GaN) transistors have long been recognised as more energy efficient than their silicon equivalents, but their implementation has been challenging. However, CGD’s product, ICeGaN(TM), has overcome these challenges, making highly energy-efficient components a practical reality.
CGD, a company that has received significant investment from Parkwalk Advisors, has demonstrated that high-performance semiconductors can be green, enabling them to make significant strides in the field of sustainable electronics. This breakthrough means that future upgrades to the latest device might be less guilt-laden, offering a promising step towards a more sustainable future.
Carbonfact
Carbonfact was founded in 2021 by Marc Laurent, Martin Daniel, and Romain Champourlier. With backgrounds in venture capital, data science, and SaaS engineering, they all made the decision to solve the climate challenge. Exploring different solutions for more than a year, they developed Carbonfact during their time at Y-Combinator.
Their Carbon Management platform helps the fashion industry measure, report, and reduce its emissions while also taking care of all the data management. It offers automated reporting, consolidating information from across the often complex supply chains in footwear and apparel manufacturing. In fact, it’s so sophisticated that it can even predict emissions before a product has even been manufactured.
The team has raised $17 million in funding and is already helping brands like Allbirds, ARMEDANGELS, and A.P.C. understand and reduce their environmental impact.
Sorted
Founded in 2022, London-based Sorted uses cutting-edge technology to address a long-standing challenge: sorting waste effectively. While recycling is crucial, separating materials often leads to a significant portion ending up in landfills. Sorted sheds light on this problem, literally. Before starting Sorted, Arthur Goujon had worked in the waste industry and knew that sorting waste was a major problem.
Their AI system, powered by computer vision, spectroscopy, and lasers, identifies and sorts recyclable plastics with precision. This not only reduces human exposure to waste but also diverts valuable materials away from landfills. With almost half of all plastic designed for single-use, Sorted’s potential impact on our environment could be truly ground-breaking.
Sorted uses computer vision, spectroscopy, and even lasers, to assist in that process, helping to pinpoint recyclable plastics on a conveyor to be retrieved and redirected. Backed by Pi Labs and other investors, Sorted has raised £1.77 million and wants to fix the global waste management landscape.
Neara
Unfortunately, it seems that even if we take drastic action, we will still suffer some effects of climate change. Daniel Danilatos founded Neara in 2016 and has secured £23 million in investment, to make sure we can cope.
Neara’s purpose is to help businesses ‘keep the lights on’ by using AI and machine learning to model the impact of climate change on our infrastructure. Their software allows energy companies to model the potential impact of extreme weather events in detail, even down to assessing how a single tree might impact power lines. It was founded by an Australian, but they are now global. Their European HQ is in London and they work with clients across Europe.
Peachies
Even innocent babies have an environmental impact, especially when they wear disposable nappies. Rima Suppan and Morgan Mixon met at Imperial College London, where they ran the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Club together.
Founded in 2021, Peachies tackles the disposable nappy market, which it is estimated will soon be worth more than £1 billion a year in the UK. They offer a subscription service that supplies hassled parents with high-quality, eco-friendly nappies that protect their babies while reducing carbon emissions by around 93 tonnes for every thousand subscribers.
Traceless
Founded in 2020 by Dr Anne Lamp and Joanna Baare, Traceless has created a sustainable alternative to plastic use. Plastics are a major problem, both because of the heavy environmental toll of production, but also because they are almost indestructible, remaining in the environment for years.
Traceless’s material comes in a granular form, making it suitable for similar production uses to plastic, but is made from agricultural residues, making it completely compostable. Its manufacture uses around 89% less fossil energy and produces 91% less carbon emissions than traditional plastics.
Its potential has helped Lamp and Baare raise more than €40 million from government grants and investors.
Vivacity Labs
Transport is a major carbon emitter, and it is often incredibly inefficient, whether it’s vehicles that are largely empty, or even just standing still in traffic jams. Vivacity works with cities to help improve them for people and the planet.
Founded by Mark Nicholson, Peter Mildon, and Yang Lu, Vivacity’s sensors collect data and use AI to help optimise networks, improving safety and sustainability. They have raised over £7 million since their 2023 founding, and their sensors are helping manage networks from Nottingham to New York.
Redefine Meat
While cows are, famously, huge greenhouse gas emitters, meat has an impact right up to consumption, from the land cleared for grazing to the supply chain that gets it to the plate.
Eshchar Ben-Shitrit and Adam Lahav founded Redefine Meat in 2018 to pioneer ‘new-meat’. Their product was designed to address the main issues that prevented people from switching to plant-based alternatives: quality and taste.
Redefine Meat has secured $190 million in funding and has grown to 250 employees. Today, you can choose an environmentally friendly Redefine Meat alternative, from minced and pulled meat to sausages and steak, from over 4,000 food service providers around the world. Currently, the company’s product is available in the UK and Europe, with plans underway to collaborate with Ocado, Co-op, and other partners in 2024.
Monumo
Monumo is bringing AI to engineering. The deep tech company was founded in 2021 by Dominic Vergine, Martin Frost CBE, and Ian Murphy and is their second venture together.
The startup is using AI and machine learning to optimise complex engineering systems. Their initial focus is on electric motors, which, although an improvement on fossil fuel engines, still use 50% of the world’s electricity.
The team has secured £10.5 million in seed funding, and their reinvented electric motors have the potential to unlock clean transport.
Varda
Varda was founded by Yara International, a global agricultural company and led by CEO Davide Ceper. It is an ag-tech startup founded with the purpose of facilitating industry collaboration and accelerating the transition to a positive food system through data discovery and sharing.
Founded with the mission to make farm & field data a key ingredient for the next ‘green revolution’, it allows industry stakeholders to collaborate more effectively and broadens the adoption of regenerative farming practices. Through the widespread use of Global FieldID, Varda’s goal is to bring together forward-looking companies, farmers, and other industry institutions that share the same aspiration for a more sustainable, resilient, and transparent food ecosystem.
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