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Digital Catapult unveils powerhouse selection of net zero startups

Posted 24 Mar 2022

The startups and scaleups shaping the net zero future gather under one roof

Digital Catapult has unmasked the next generation of net zero startups and scaleups during its FutureScope Industrial Net Zero Showcase.

Earlier this year Digital Catapult convened 32 investment-ready businesses representing the future of low carbon innovation under one roof to meet industry and investor VIPs. This followed an online event where startups and scaleups pitched their emissions-slashing solutions for pre-seed and seed investment – as they sought funding from £200,000 right up to £6 million.

 

The UK boasts some of Europe’s leading net zero focussed companies; many of these at an early stage of growth. As industry comes under increasing pressure to decarbonise, and the UK pushes for a net zero future, we would get absolutely nowhere without the innovation, agility and drive of the startup community.

David Pugh Digital Catapult Head of Sustainability

With an array of industry-changing solutions to pitch, these innovators are set to be the vanguard of the net zero revolution – and I’m so excited to witness the tremendous impact and successes their bright futures hold.

David Pugh Digital Catapult Head of Sustainability

From Europe’s first marketplace for remanufactured goods, to end-to-end predictive maintenance tools, and even digital clothes, the net zero solutions exhibited at the showcase cut across multiple sectors, technologies and applications.

Some of these solutions – spearheaded by startups on the Build UK-India programme – are being developed jointly alongside titans of industry, including Tata Steel and Godrej Aerospace, part of Godrej & Boyce.

The FutureScope Industrial Net Zero showcase saw the small businesses exhibiting from Industrial Net Zero cohorts under Digital Catapult’s core accelerator, FutureScope. FutureScope enables startups and scaleups to collaborate across technologies, business stages and markets to address real-world challenges through innovation.

The startups and scaleups were from across a selection of programmes under FutureScope – including ‘Accelerate,’ ‘Build’ and ‘Machine Intelligence Garage.’

Some of the businesses exhibiting at the showcase included: 

  • Remade Group [from the Build-UK India programme] – Remade Group’s innovative trading platform will be Europe’s first online marketplace for remanufactured goods providing customers with ethical, environmentally friendly products that come with quality levels and warranty that match those of new products. They use distributed ledger technology to verify the history of products, which will retail at 40% below new value with up to 80% saving in energy costs

 

  • Infyos [from the Accelerate programme] – Electric vehicles promise a future of clean mobility, but their supply chains are complex and opaque. Backed by the climate tech accelerator Carbon13, Infyos helps battery players build supply chain visibility, reduce battery supply bottlenecks and manage their sustainability impact

 

  • E-Nano [from Machine Intelligence Garage] – Sports organisations overuse water, agrochemicals, energy and labour. E-Nano is a robotics and AI company that provides users with data and recommendations to optimise maintenance practices within the field – reducing not only energy and fuel consumption, but water and chemical use too
  • Sensize [from the Accelerate programme] –  A startup providing tracking technology to enable reusable packaging cycles, Sensize’s system is currently used by one of the main parcel delivery couriers and one of the largest supermarkets in the UK. Sensize has helped the supermarket to achieve a 95% reduction in reusable packaging loss, and a 30% reduction in the size of the packaging fleet they need to do the job

  

  • catsAi [from the Accelerate programme] – Has broken the tech cost and implementation barriers that prevent 90% of SMEs from accessing the advanced demand predictions enjoyed by supermarkets – with its retrofit, plug-in subscription service 

 

  • ‘WeWear’ by Augures [from the Accelerate programme] – Looking at digital fashion as an alternative to physical fast fashion, this startup has tapped into the meteoric rise of NFTs by partnering up with a new net zero blockchain and creating digital fashion wearables

 

  • Singular Intelligence [from the Accelerate programme] – Currently with an £11 mn valuation, this startup has developed ‘CatmanAI’ – a data analytics tool using artificial intelligence to create significant resource efficiency in Food & Drink supply chains, by forecasting demand, and estimating quality and shelf life of perishable goods – from farm to store level. They have previously worked with the likes of Unilever, Sainsbury’s and have Nielsen IQ as Global partner


Digital Catapult is also today announcing the successful startups selected to join its ‘Scale’ programme, as part of the FutureScope Industrial Net Zero cohort.

 

Focusing on growth and early stage scale support, Scale is designed for companies approaching Series A+ stage of funding and helps businesses develop a strong ecosystem of support, scale operationally and commercially, and secure higher investment rounds.

The companies will work with the Digital Catapult team, industry experts and growth coaches to assess, iterate and accelerate business processes and significantly expand their network of peers, investors and customers.

The successful startups include: 

  • Carbon Re –  A climate tech startup and joint spinout between ULC and Cambridge University, advancing the frontiers of artificial intelligence to decarbonise energy-intensive industries. Its first software product, Delta Zero Cement, enables the cement industry to substantially reduce fuel costs and CO2 emissions in a matter of weeks

 

  • Greyparrot – A panellist at the Industrial Net Zero showcase, Greyparrot is a startup that uses AI-powered computer vision to monitor, audit and sort waste at scale, thereby increasing recycling rates, and was listed in the World Economic Forum’s 100 most promising global technology providers last year
  • Ai Build – Ai Build’s Additive Manufacturing (AM) cloud-based software is used by the world’s largest companies to simplify and automate the process of 3D printing; allowing even the most complex designs to be converted to a set of streamed machine instructions 

  • JET Engineering –  Using floating, 5G-enabled buoys to offer safe, secure and sustainable smart operations 
  • Maanch – A multi-award winning B Corp, building impact management solutions to break down the complexity of ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) and sustainability data – for organisations to become net positive

 

Through its breath of accelerators, Digital Catapult has been priming startups, scaleups and industry for a net zero future – helping them to design for a circular economy and the development of innovative new business models to transform the way the UK industry operates.

 

Find out more at futurescope.digicatapult.org.uk

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