We believe entrepreneurs will change the trajectory of climate change.

The Venture Builder for the Climate Emergency

Image Bluemethane‘s first-of-its kind technology detects and captures methane emissions from water sources to create a new source of bio-power

We build ventures capable of mitigating at least 10M tonnes of CO2e per annum once at scale

The Venture Builder for the Climate Emergency

Image Dr. Nicky Dee, Carbon13 Co-Founder and Chief Sustainability Officer

“With the help of Carbon13, we’re able to quantify our carbon footprint and carbon impact.”

The Venture Builder for the Climate Emergency

Image Gabriele Barteskaite, CPO and Co-founder at Future Greens, is decarbonising our food system by growing fresh produce using food waste.

Carbon13 builds and backs ventures addressing Earth’s critical life support systems. Initially this means addressing the most urgent problem of our time – climate change.

Determined People

The climate crisis needs determined founders committed to this challenge, including scientists, engineers, and serial entrepreneurs. The average age of our cohorts is 37, and a third hold PhDs.

CARBON AT OUR CORE

Every startup we build has the potential to reduce or remove CO₂e emissions by net 10 million tonnes per year when at scale.

OUR MISSION IS CLIMATE

Our community is rooted in our mission to fight the climate emergency, and driven by our scalability ethos. This is where climate tech startups will succeed on a global scale.

FROM CAMBRIDGE TO BERLIN

Our Cambridge origins have taught us the importance of commercial, carbon and scientific understanding. Our growth to Berlin fuels our ecosystem of domain expertise, investors, and partners.

Apply Now to find your cofounder and build your climate tech venture

Learn more
Apply for the Cambridge Venture Builder Programme
Apply for the Berlin Venture Builder Programme

OUR APPROACH TO CARBON STARTS WITH PEOPLE

Million tonnes (net) of CO2e – the potential annual mitigation of each Carbon13 venture

Number of invested ventures built through our programmes since 2021

Number of founders developed through our programmes

Number of Domain Experts working with our ventures

Our Mission

We will select and support thousands of entrepreneurs to build ventures with the potential to mitigate over 400 million tonnes of CO2e per annum by 2040. We have set this target because humanity has just a few years to reduce our emissions and slow the pace of global warming, and the innovation delivered by entrepreneurs can play a significant role within this fight.

We simply don’t have time for founders to waste on dead ends or incremental solutions, or to build companies which don’t make a true impact on emissions. The future is Net Zero. Our startups are already building it.

listen to our podcast

Welcome to Carbon13’s podcast “Climate Takes” where we ask special guests for their “takes” on their industry and climate challenge, as well as setting a call to action, asking what will it take to solve the climate emergency?

Listen Here

Climate Takes 100 Investments

Climate Takes Deeptech VC

Climate Takes Corporate VCs

Podcast – Climate Takes Synthetic Biology

Climate Takes Critical Materials

Podcast – Climate Takes Venture Builders

Podcast – Climate Takes Capital

Climate Takes 2024

Podcast – Climate Takes – Ammonia

Podcast – Climate Takes – Sea Robots

Our Programmes

Whether you’re already a founder or ready to become one, explore our programmes to see how we’ll work with you to innovate on solutions for the climate emergency.

Venture Builder Cambridge

An eight-month programme for a cohort of 80 determined individuals from the UK and beyond, who don’t have a startup yet but want to find a co-founder and build a climate-tech startup.

Learn more

Venture Builder Berlin

For founders resident in the EU, our Berlin Venture Builder combines the entrepreneurial and academic spirit of Cambridge with the DACH climate tech scene.

Learn more

VENTURE ACCELERATOR

The Venture Accelerator is for pre-seed startups looking to raise their first round and want a superadvisor accelerator to work on product/market fit, go-to-market and investment readiness.

Learn more

News, raises & milestones

Learn more about Carbon13’s progress and community. Here we share fundraising news from our ventures, collaborations with our partners, and our own news, opinion, and milestones.

Sign up for the Carbon13 Newsletter
Berlin Climate Innovation Showcase Day

Berlin Climate Innovation Showcase Day

Mar 2, 2026

Last Thursday, we brought together Berlin Cohort 4 and Cambridge Cohort 8 at Google’s Berlin headquarters — nine teams, two cohorts, one shared mission: building ventures that move the needle on net zero.

What makes today’s pitches special is the community behind them. Our portfolio shows what’s possible when climate ambition meets real execution. Our alumni share hard-won experience with generosity and honesty. Our domain experts help founders navigate complex science and markets with confidence. Our entrepreneurs in awalk alongside teams through every challenge and breakthrough. And our impact experts make sure the climate case at the heart of each venture is as strong as it can be.

TetraxAI ready to scale after raising €1.5m in pre-seed round  

TetraxAI ready to scale after raising €1.5m in pre-seed round  

Jan 29, 2026

TetraxAI raises €1.5 million in pre-seed funding to build their AI-driven platform due to diligence and risk management for clean energy infrastructure. The pre-seed round was led by The Footprint Firm with participation from Norrsken Evolve and non-dilutive funding from NEOTEC, Spain’s national deep-tech prestigious grant programme funded by the Centre for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI).

Forge Minerals Funding Annoucement

Forge Minerals Funding Annoucement

Jan 28, 2026

Founded in 2024 after going through Carbon13’s Venture Builder, Forge Minerals has closed £1M in pre-seed funding. The round was co-led by Sustainable Ventures and The Conduit Impact Fund with co-investment from Old College Capital the University of Edinburgh’s...

Reaforma Secure £1.1M Pre-Seed Investment round

Reaforma Secure £1.1M Pre-Seed Investment round

Jan 27, 2026

Reaforma make strides to decarbonise concrete with the close of their £1.1M Pre-Seed Investment round led by TSP Ventures, supported by the Innovate UK Investor Partnership in Clean Energy and Climate Technologies. The global cement market is currently...

Methane: the fastest climate lever We’re still under-financing

Methane: the fastest climate lever We’re still under-financing

Jan 20, 2026

A special deepdive into methane for angels, VCs, and startup investors looking for insights into underserved opportunities. By Carbon13 CEO Nicky Dee.Methane is responsible for around 30% of observed global warming to date. It's one of the few climate problems where...

Ki Hydrogen secures £899,654 grant from Innovate UK 

Ki Hydrogen secures £899,654 grant from Innovate UK 

Jan 13, 2026

Another win for Ki Hydrogen as they have secured a new £899,654 grant from Innovate UK’s Investor Partnerships programme. This is Ki Hydrogen’s second grant, after the start-up previously secured the 2024 Innovate UK Smart Grant and the Ofgem Network Innovation...

Read all Carbon13 news

Our Upcoming Events & Webinars

Whether investor, partner or participant. We show you how Carbon13 is organised and look forward to your questions and ideas. Our regular webinars and in-person events offer a great opportunity to get to know us better.

See all events

Here is what our founders say

"As a scientist on the Venture Builder, yes it was great to join a group which also had lots of other scientists and engineers, but I was also taken out of my comfort zone and challenged by amazing entrepreneurs and commercial founders. That's what took it from an idea to a business."

Yubiao Niu
Co-founder and CTO, Nium
from Cohort 3

“One of the great things about Carbon13 was meeting people from all walks of life, ages and backgrounds.”

Natalia Dorfman
Co-founder and CEO, Kita
from Cohort 2

“I still consider myself to be an engineer and not an entrepreneur. It was never really my plan to move into entrepreneurship but I do believe that it is the best vehicle that humans have developed in order to actually take ideas to accelerate them, make them grow and actually have a profound effect on the world.”

Jonathan Bean
Co-founder and CEO, Materials Nexus
from Cohort 2

"It would have taken me years to meet 50 exceptionally talented and passionate founders who are determined to solve the climate crisis and Carbon13 did it in just a few weeks"

Sarah Montgomery
Co-founder and CEO
at Infyos from cohort 1

Carbon13's participants are uber qualified. I was blown away by the people in the room when I stepped in there. And they actually want to do a startup. Often the biggest challenge is getting someone great to leave a really comfortable job.

Lucy Lyons
Co-founder and CEO
at Kestrix from cohort 4

Kita

Natalia Dorfman, CEO
Thomas Merriman, CPO
Paul Young, CTO

Kita is the carbon insurance specialist; developing bespoke carbon insurance products that safeguard the quality and performance of carbon transactions. By reducing risk, carbon insurance channels investment towards high quality carbon projects, enabling them to scale at the pace needed to address the climate crisis.

Our Portfolio

Materials Nexus

Dr Jonathan Bean, CEO
Robert Forrest, CTO
Dr Jon Pillow, CSO
Nic Stirk MBE, CCO

Materials Nexus is a deep-tech company originated at Cambridge University and Carbon13, who combine the insights of quantum mechanics with the power of AI to predict the properties of materials. Materials such as concrete, steel and glass contribute towards 50% of all CO₂ emissions. New, better materials are needed for a new, low carbon world – but it typically takes 20 years to develop a new material to be commercialised.

Their ground-breaking AI-enabled Materials Discovery Platform transforms the way new materials are designed using a rapid automated process and advanced quantum calculations that give high accuracy at larger scales.

Our Portfolio

 

Nium logo

 

Phil Hunter, COO
Lewis Jenkins, CEO
Yubiao Niu, CTO

 

Nium eliminates emissions by delivering hydrogen as a more efficient energy vector. Their novel nanotechnology revolutionises the Haber-Bosch process and enables the synthesis of truly green ammonia. With two patents filed, Nium helps build the infrastructure and network for a cleaner future of food and fuel.

Our Portfolio

 

 

Louise Parlons Bentata, CEO
Néstor Rueda-Vallejo, CTO

3 billion tonnes of CO2e are emitted from methane in water each year. There is no way to remove this methane at scale. Until now. Bluemethane measures and removes methane from water. The methane is then used as a new source of clean energy. Their technology is scalable and can be deployed in a variety of settings, including wastewater treatment plants, reservoirs and rice cultivation. With methane’s global warming power 34x that of carbon, Bluemethane is tackling a core problem for global warming.

Our Portfolio

Infyos

 

Sarah Montgomery,  CEO
Tony To, Co-Founder, CTO

Infyos are building a future where every electric vehicle battery is sustainable. Using the team’s expertise in the battery industry and supply chain technology for large organisations around the world, Infyos are helping car makers, battery manufacturers and mining companies map and measure the impact of their supply chain, identify hotspots, and enable collaborative action to improve impact and reduce supply chain risk.

Our Portfolio