Credit: Sustainable Ventures
Start-ups don't just need finance, they need an integrated support model throughout the journey from idea to exit, writes Andrew Wordsworth, co-founder and managing partner of Sustainable Ventures, a sponsor of the UK Green Business Awards 2025
Innovative technology already offers huge potential in the fight against climate change and resource scarcity. Forecasts show that around 45 per cent of the CO2 reductions required to reach net zero could come from technologies that currently exist, but haven't been deployed in the market at scale. These new technologies could make it simpler for businesses and consumers to embed sustainability into their lives in a much easier way, transforming the way we all live and work.
The challenge however lies in rapidly transforming these technologies into scaled commercial solutions which can be brought to market. Startups have the agility and risk tolerance to drive rapid commercialisation, but find scaling notoriously challenging - just 40 per cent survive the first three years. Climate tech ventures face even steeper hurdles to scale, often navigating capital-intensive infrastructure development, significant funding gaps, and complex market adoption barriers.
The typical pain points for climate tech can range from low risk appetite from investors, to scaling their innovation so they are market ready, regulatory pressure and keeping up with necessary compliance, expanding their specialist skill sets, to accessing the necessary funding. Climate tech innovators have a huge range of hurdles to navigate and are often working alone, with little or no support available to navigate these market barriers.
The solution? Start-ups don't just need finance, they need an integrated support model that addresses the key challenges across the climate tech entrepreneurial journey - supporting founders from idea to exit. Which is why I launched Sustainable Ventures in 2011 as a specialist growth partner for climate tech entrepreneurs delivering affordable workspaces for collaboration and community, expert advice to tackle critical business challenges, introductions to key ecosystem partners to accelerate market deployment, and access to investment and funding to fuel growth.
Innovating and sharing knowledge are vital for accelerating climate tech growth
Staying ahead of the game, embracing new innovations, and sharing knowledge is a key tool for enabling success. The debate on AI and its impact on climate change will continue, but equally it also has huge potential to accelerate climate tech starts ups. Our recent partnerships with Google Cloud and You.com will empower Sustainable Venture's ecosystem companies to scale innovative climate solutions faster and more effectively giving them access to cutting-edge AI tools, technical expertise, and resources. One of our most exciting investments, Concrete 4 Change, has already shortened elements of their research and development cycle by up to three years, meaning their low carbon material will become available to reduce emissions in this critical sector earlier than anticipated when we first engaged with the team in 2022.
Climate tech innovation is already delivering and having a big impact
This cohesive end-to-end support is key to maximising startup survival and ongoing success. Our comprehensive support model accelerates companies further and faster along the entrepreneurs journey - from beer mat to exit. And this model is working. Since 2011 at Sustainable Ventures we've supported over 800 startups to date, helping them achieve an industry-leading survival rate of 85 per cent. Successful climate tech ventures include E-Car club (now part of Europcar's mobility division), Powervault (domestic energy storage) and Airex (recently closed at £2.5m Series A round led by Barclays). We've generated 7,000+ highly-skilled green jobs and secured £1.2bn in equity investment into the businesses we support.
What's next?
Regional growth should be a key priority and a significant opportunity for climate tech. Across the UK, talented entrepreneurs are developing the next generation of climate technologies, often drawing on the local industrial heritage and the technical specialities of the UK's leading universities within that region. Creating regional climate tech power houses that are more supportive of their home grown talent will be vital. Our recent partnership with the University of Liverpool, and our accelerator initiative in Glasgow are just the start of how we can provide the support mechanisms for ensuring that our regions become centres of excellence. As with all venture capital sectors, the majority of investment capital is based in London, our role is to connect that capital with the best innovations across the UK, using our 14 years of experience in the sector to de-risk these investments and leverage in regional capital.
For example, Our recent Hydrogen Accelerator, delivered in partnership with the Centre For Process Innovation (CPI), was centred around the North West reflecting the density of industrial end users seeking clean alternatives for their high temperature processes. The initiative brought together seven high growth companies with eight corporate partners.
As I travel around the UK, the train journeys provide a fantastic opportunity to reflect on how best we can blend our sector experience and proven support packages with the ambitions set out in regional growth plans - developed by the people who know the local environment best - for the destination city. Partnering with academic innovation such as universities and existing tech ecosystem partners can together help support the growth of regional hubs of climate tech excellence.
However, we can't do this alone - more funding needs to be available to enable companies to stay in their home regions, creating more local jobs and enhancing their local economies. With 2050 being only 25 years away, the need to accelerate climate tech deployment has never been greater and we have to continue to innovate our support offerings to deliver this objective.
Andrew Wordsworth is co-founder and managing partner at Sustainable Ventures.
Sustainable Ventures is a climate tech growth partner that offers access to investment and funding to fuel growth, affordable workspaces for collaboration and community, expert advice to tackle critical business challenges, and introductions to key ecosystem partners to accelerate market deployment. Our award-winning offices in London with over 140 businesses and soon to be available space in Manchester are thriving hubs for climate tech innovation in the UK. For more information on how to partner with Sustainable Ventures - whether for a corporate or start-up - and to find out more about our workspaces visit our website here.
Sustainable Ventures is a sponsor of the UK Green Business Awards 2025.
