With climate change posing a severe threat to our planet, there’s a dire need for sustainable solutions.
Nowadays, many climate-tech startups are making a significant effort to develop products and services to combat climate change.
These startups aim to make the economy and civilisation more sustainable, efficient, and clean.
This article shows how leading startups contribute to the fight against climate change, together with the 20 best UK startups that help deal with it using technology.
How Leading Startups Are Doing Their Part to Fight Climate Change
The repercussions of climate change are already being seen around the world. It’s affecting rainfall patterns, and sea levels are increasing. Heatwaves, floods, droughts, and fires may become more common as a result of these changes.
Future pandemics may be more likely to spread since climate change changes things like temperature or rainfall patterns, influencing where and when infections develop.
The need to halt or reverse the still-increasing levels of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere and deal with the already-present effects of climate change create enormous opportunities for entrepreneurs to build businesses around.
Entrepreneurs are problem solvers, and climate change is causing thousands of issues that need to be addressed quickly. Every single one has the potential to create a thriving business while saving lives and livelihoods.
With a 60% growth in the number of UK climate tech startups since last year, the UK is leading the world in this field. According to reports, the UK is currently leading Europe for climate technology, with 519 companies in the area.
Startups are also the companies of the future.
If a company begins with a sustainability mindset, it’s easier to maintain that mindset as the new status quo rather than changing it later.
And with everyone—businesses, governments, communities, and individuals, taking action to combat climate change with the help of technology, it can assist in developing innovative solutions and empower more people to act.
Concentrating efforts on empowering people to utilise technology to tackle climate change can create a better planet for everyone.
Take a look at the thriving UK climate technology startups here.
1. Ripple Energy
Founded by Sarah Merrick in 2017, Ripple is a London-based energy tech startup. It enables people and businesses to own a portion of large-scale wind farms and have the low-cost, green electricity they create delivered to them via the grid through utility partners.
The UK’s first clean energy ownership platform makes fractional wind farm ownership and supply affordable and straightforward. The company’s objective is to make clean energy ownership affordable and accessible to everyone.
Over 1000 individual investors contributed to the company’s development, sharing the mission of making clean energy ownership inexpensive and accessible everywhere.
By 2050, Ripple wants 50% of people to own their source of clean energy.
2. Satellite Vu
In 2016, Anthony Baker, Simon Tucker, and Tobias Reinicke founded Satellite Vu, an Earth observation company established in London that provides the highest resolution thermal imagery and insights.
It employs satellite technology to address global challenges as it focuses on infrared and heat emissions. It will track the temperature of any structure on the Earth in real-time to gain vital information into economic activity, energy efficiency, and carbon footprint. The high-resolution infrared dataset will help us make better business decisions and accelerate our journey to net zero.
It will utilise the £3.6 million funding it has raised to deploy the world’s first satellite constellation, which will be capable of imaging the thermal footprint of every building on the planet every 1-2 hours. It will also allow Satellite Vu to begin constructing its first satellite, scheduled to launch in 2022.
3. Sourceful
Sourceful is a Manchester-based end-to-end sourcing and supply chain platform that focuses on sustainability.
Founded by Wing Chan, Shiran Zheng and Mary Wang in 2020, it allows businesses to obtain, configure, and create sustainable packaging from a network of approved vendors while automating inventory replenishment. Its innovative life cycle assessment technology lets them see the real-time impact of product decisions and offset their carbon footprint to attain net-zero emissions.
Launching in 2022, Sourceful uses data-driven tools to help companies source and manage environmentally friendly products. It will also be able to understand the impact of each choice and make decisions using real-time data.
4. GreenBay
GreenBay is a 100% plant-based omnichannel grocery retailer founded in 2015 by Andercon Caicedo and Paula Alcalde.
It makes it easy, exciting, and convenient for consumers to try a plant-based lifestyle by linking them to new and developing brands that positively benefit the Earth, promoting a more sustainable food system for everyone and combating climate change.
Also, GreenBay links with charities and organisations combating climate change by working on reforestation projects worldwide, balancing their carbon footprint and addressing one of the main effects of animal agriculture when new purchases are being made.
5. Xampla
Founded by Simon Hombersley in 2018, Xampla is a spin-out that makes natural alternatives to plastics.
Xampla is the world leader in plant protein materials for commercial applications. Its next-generation material functions similarly to synthetic polymers yet decomposes wholly and naturally without harming the environment.
Their mission is to replace single-use plastics such as sachets, flexible packaging films, and less visible plastics like microplastics found in liquids and creams.
Microcapsules, a concealed plastic application, are Xampla’s first products. It’s produced entirely of plant protein and can be formulated for various cargos and applications. They can even develop them with food-grade ingredients for food and beverage applications.
6. Airex
Incorporated in February 2016 by Agnes Czako, James Wright, Will Frank-Gemmill and Malik Habib, the company’s core team came up with the idea of cloud-based, intelligent ventilation control, now known as AirEx.
AirEx provides a solution for the tens of millions of homes in the UK that were built with poor energy standards, resulting in inefficiency and excessive energy bills.
Temperature, humidity, and air quality are all measured via sensors. Intelligent algorithms enable automatic airflow management while considering local weather and air quality data, reducing underfloor humidity and heat loss without affecting indoor air quality.
It focuses on developing and quickly adopting fabric efficiency technology in homes to combat energy efficiency and fuel poverty.
7. Boxergy
Founded by Jim Laidlaw, Boxergy is a Scottish company focused on making low carbon heat affordable for all.
Boxergy intends to combine existing technologies and an intelligent tariff to allow their customers to buy energy when it’s cheap and green and use it whenever they want.
It’s a purpose-led organisation dedicated to decarbonising heat, assisting in the battle against climate change, and making energy accessible to all.
8. Looped
Looped is a circular platform that promotes and connects upcycled designers with brands, materials, and partners to provide a fresh perspective to the industry.
It aims to change how the fashion industry views and consumes waste by recycling or repurposing current materials and clothing to reduce textile waste. It intends to close the gap in the market for a sustainable, e-commerce or peer-to-peer platform that focuses on upcycled fashion, making it easier for upcycle designers to show off their work. Its designers will create one-of-a-kind, high-quality repurposed clothes for our consumers.
9. Circulor
Circulor, founded in 2018 by Doug Johnson-Poensgen and Veera Johnson, works with partners and clients to better understand how traceability and due diligence of raw materials and recycled content may help achieve net-zero.
The importance of industrial supply chains can no longer be overlooked. That’s why Circulor provides the most comprehensive and mature solution available.
They allow businesses to get visibility into their supply networks to demonstrate responsible sourcing, improve ESG performance, lower GHG emissions, and manage supply chain risks.
Circulor is the only proven technology shown to track high-risk, high-human-impact materials used in manufacturing and recycling supply chains, which is critical for advancing the circular economy.
10. Solytic
Solytic, founded in 2017 by Johannes Burgard, Johannes Dahl, Konrad Perenyi, and Steffen Mangold, aims to become the world’s largest decentralised solar PV platform, connecting millions of assets to companies offering services and products.
To meet the globe’s growing energy demand, suitable buildings and fields will be utilised, resulting in a large spread of solar PV worldwide.
Solytic software helps stakeholders to make informed, real-time decisions based on data. Since humans monitor, analyse and manage assets manually, Solytic uses AI to automate processes to maximise production and minimise costs throughout the entire life cycle of assets.
Solytic envisions a fully digitalised solar energy future, with Solytic serving as the go-to platform that allows everyone to play a part in combating climate change by improving the performance of their photovoltaics.
11. Sylvera
Founded in 2020 by Allister Furey and Samuel Gill, Sylvera is the first carbon offset rating provider.
Sylvera uses geospatial data, machine learning, and proprietary climate data to offer a transparent and credible assessment of carbon offset projects. It includes information such as raw carbon performance, additionality, permanence, co-benefits, and risk.
Sylvera assigns a score to projects based on their proprietary rating system, allowing clients to assess projects before making a purchase, track their performance over time, and develop projects at scale and speed.
12. CLUBZERO (Cupclub)
Launched by Safia Qureshi in 2018, CLUBZERO, originally CupClub, is a global leader in providing award-winning returnable packaging systems for food and beverage companies. They collaborate with businesses to make on-the-go food and beverage more sustainable, with the ultimate objective of zero waste.
With a market-leading return rate of 95%, compared to the industry standard of 60%, thanks to their concept of making reusables free and rewarding to use and safe and convenient to return.
Cupclub aims to develop a more robust sustainable consumption model that expands beyond food and beverage to other reusable product categories like Home and Body, using their scale of operations.
13. Almond
Founded in 2018, Almond is a free app that empowers you to become carbon balanced by helping you to ‘Buy Better, Act Better and Offset the Rest’.
Almond can assist you in changing which firms you buy from, and the amount you consume can have a significant impact.
They’ve made a formal commitment to donate at least 70% of their profits to carbon-reduction charities that work with nature. They want to successfully communicate the most up-to-date science while remaining genuine and never leaving out crucial data.
14. Ecologi
Elliot Coad, Lucy Jack, Alex Price, and Ian Hambleton created Ecologi in Bristol, UK, after becoming dissatisfied that many of us cannot contribute enough to the massive climate challenge.
It began in early 2019, while Elliot was on his way to work in the morning. He was buying a coffee, and he wondered aloud to himself, “How much climate action could I fund with the money I spent on a coffee?”
The answer revealed that the change that billions of us have would be a considerable upgrade to our contributions to the situation and could one day account for cutting half of the world’s emissions.
Ecologi provides a simple way for you to fund the world’s finest climate crisis solutions and reforest the Earth, allowing you to have a more significant influence than simply reducing your damage.
15. Ember Core
Ember is the world’s first all-electric intercity bus operator and is now constructing its ultra-rapid charging network.
Its mission is to create a world that is zero-carbon and zero-traffic. Its technology-driven approach creates an integrated platform for managing vehicles, chargers, routes, and drivers, allowing them to use EVs more efficiently than anybody else.
Ember’s technology enhances the passenger experience while encouraging a modal shift away from cars and improving social inclusion.
16. Hark
Hark, an award-winning Energy Analytics and Industrial IoT company based in Leeds, was founded in 2004 by Claire Higgins, Jason Moore, and John Shirley.
Known for the innovative technology in their subscription cloud platform, Hark aims to improve efficiency, maximise yield and reduce waste.
The Hark Platform assists Energy Managers and Asset Operators in detecting anomalies throughout their estate and informing preventative maintenance, regulatory compliance, asset control, and energy management.
Hark believes that all types of users, from professional facilities and asset operators to energy procurement managers, should be able to connect to, monitor, and automatically find efficiency and cost reduction.
17. Teraloop Oy
Founded in 2014, Teraloop is a grid-scale energy storage system that can provide a future alternative to batteries.
It provides a means of storing energy sufficient to meet the population’s needs. And also a zero-waste solution that protects the Earth’s natural resources. Their long-term sustainable, renewable and circular vision is for growth to no longer come to the detriment of their environment.
Teraloop is a highly efficient energy storage system. It works in synergy with renewable generation assets, balancing the natural variation of supply. And demand, enabling a renewable electricity generation system to preserve the world’s resources for future generations.
18. Verv
Since Verv’s beginning in 2010, they’ve been focused on lowering carbon emissions by gaining new and unique insights from previously untapped energy data.
Founded by Peter Davies, Verv’s high-resolution predictive maintenance technology detects irregularities in how the air conditioner and heat pump work.
Verv employs artificial intelligence to provide energy insights about the unit’s performance. Including how efficiently it’s running and where and how energy and carbon savings can be made.
It uses energy signatures, also known as digital footprints. Track the health of residential and commercial air conditioning and white goods in real-time. It also uses high-speed data capture boosted by AI to acquire a high-definition image of how they’re functioning. And also discover anomalies in behaviour.
This allows notifying the appliance manufacturer and its engineers and end-users about manufacturer issues. The thorough, remote diagnosis reduces business costs connected with warranty repairs. While also increasing customer experience and extending the life of white goods, resulting in a lower environmental effect.
19. Tepeo
Founded by Iain Woolley and Johan du Plessis in 2018, Tepeo’s vision is to become industry leaders in low- and zero-carbon heating, paving the way for a world where heating is carbon-free, low-cost, and accessible to all.
Tepeo has the potential to transform the way we heat buildings completely. It will help the transition to a decentralised, decarbonised. Democratised energy sector by enabling quick decarbonisation of domestic heating with no additional upfront or ongoing costs to homeowners.
20. Wondrwall
Wondrwall is a technology company dedicated to transforming how we live and consume energy.
It was founded in 2013 by Daniel Burton to revolutionise the way we live by constructing smart. Convenient net-zero homes utilising cutting-edge technology.
Its intelligent software and IoT solutions employ the most up-to-date self-learning technology. A slew of sensors to continuously analyse everyday activities and adjust for your convenience and energy savings.
Wondrwall’s simple and intuitive home automation system gives you one-stop access to lighting, heating, and security. And also entertainment via an app and voice command.
Also, its clean energy solution provides the most advanced solar PV. And battery storage systems can reduce energy use by up to 90%.
In response to growing fuel costs and inefficient, traditional gas-powered heating. And also has an infrared heating and efficient hot water system that looks great, takes up less space, and saves up to 60% of energy.
Summary
Climate change is a pressing and severe problem that affects all of us.
Fortunately, numerous innovative startups passionate about making a difference embody the growing consumer demand to fight climate change and create a better planet for everyone.
If you want to know more about startups that align with your values and create a better world for everyone, make an appointment with us today.
Rest assured that someone from our team will help you every step of the way.
