The Venture Launchpad

Food, Land & Nature

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Image Agreed Earth monitors farm nutrient flow and pollution with geospatial analytics to enable targeted sustainable practices that rehabilitate the soil

The Carbon13 Venture Launchpad, in partnership with Barclays Eagle Labs, supports early stage startups to launch high-potential, global impact climatetech ventures. Of particular interest are scalable innovations for food, land and nature.

Land, Food & Nature

Through a 20 week sprint, each startup will work intensively on understanding its potential on carbon reduction and on the business fundamentals such as value proposition, go-to-market strategy and investment readiness. Those that are successful at the end of the first phase will receive £120,000 pre-seed investment. Applications are open now to start November 2023.

Food, land and nature with Barclays
Barclays and Carbon13 logo

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Step 1 for world changing innovation

Entrepreneurs have a vital role to play in delivering climate innovation at the speed and scale needed by our planet, and the Carbon13 Venture Launchpad is the proven starting point for founders with this appetite for impact. “World changing innovation” is not just a platitude here, it is Carbon13’s singular focus.

For Climatetech Ventures

The Venture Launchpad is for teams of two or more founders who want to build high-potential climatetech ventures, who have not raised equity investment yet. A climatetech venture is any startup that address the climate emergency and helps humanity reach Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions. At Carbon13, we require every venture we invest in to demonstrate a potential for CO2e emissions reduction of 10 million tonnes per year when at scale.

Support on Carbon Intelligence

Founders are not expected to know how they’ll reach that 10 million tonne target when they join. They will work with Carbon13’s roster of carbon experts, utilise our GHG Toolkit and methodologies, and work to build their carbon strategy. Then they’ll work on how to credibly communicate their carbon impact story to investors, customers and stakeholders.

Creating the future of food for our communities

Agriculture and the food system is one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions, and a leading cause of nature decline. Yet how we produce food and manage the land can also be a leading driver of the solutions. The challenges are complex, interconnected, with much more at stake than just emissions reduction. Food security and the economies of rural communities lie at the centre of the future of food.
Achieving all these aims, emissions reduction, biodiversity, food security and thriving communities, will require innovations that are not just technologies, but also business model innovations and systems thinking.
We invite entrepreneurs to tackle these challenges and apply to build their ventures with the Carbon13 Venture Launchpad.

At a glance

Across two Phases, founders will rapidly develop their venture.

01 - The application process
  • We assess applications on a rolling basis. There is an advantage in applying as early as possible.
  • The final deadline for applications will be the 27th March.
  • Applications are assessed on a rolling basis so we strongly recommend you do not wait for the deadline but apply as soon as you are ready.
  • The first step is a written application form. This will also require you to film a two minute video.
  • The second stage consists of two interviews with the Carbon13 team to understand your venture and team in more detail.
  • For successful candidates, we will also have a due diligence process to confirm our offer to you.
02 - The Venture Accelerator structure

The next cohort starts 4th May.

There are two Phases to the programme.

Phase 1

  • A 7 week sprint focused on your pitch for Carbon13 investment.
  • The programme is completely remote, built around one on one deepdives with your Entrepreneur In Residence.
  • Focuses include your go-to-market, tech roadmap, traction, investment readiness and carbon case.
  • Startups which begin the programme give Carbon13 1% in options, recognising our role as advisors.

Phase 2

The ventures Carbon13 invests in proceed to Phase 2 - the Growth Phase.

  • 12 month phase focused on supporting you to raise 1-3 million euros within 12 months.
  • Again support is highly bespoke and one on one. Focused on hitting milestones and investor conversations.
  • In-person pitch opportunity at our Showcases, to an audience of invited investors and partners.
  • For ventures that do not receive our investment, we will still provide some lighter touch support.
03 - The key benefits
  • You become part of Carbon13's ecosystem, one of the leading investors in early stage climatetech in Europe
  • A highly bespoke approach where you work with us one on one to tackle your venture's specific challenges
  • You'll build your "Carbon Pitch" and carbon case, to understand how to strategise for impact and lock in to your business model a potential 10 million tonnes of CO2e emissions reduction per year
  • 1-1 weekly deep dives with Entrepreneurs-In-Residence (all successful founders)
  • Milestones on product/market fit, go-to-market, and team and culture.
  • Investment Pitch and strategy for raising the next round
  • Opportunity for pre-seed investment from Carbon13 of €150 000 - €250 000. This is done through a SAFE and is designed to supply you with the capital to go on to raise the follow on funding of €1-3 million. This SAFE targets a 4-7% equity stake. There may be an opportunity for follow on funding from Carbon13.
  • For ventures which win our investment, we support you to raise your next round through access to our investor community and invitation to Climate Innovation Showcase to partners and investors
Explore the Venture Launchpad Phases in full

At the end of Phase 1, each startup will pitch to the Carbon13 Investment Committee for £120,000 in pre-seed funding. Successful ventures will proceed to Phase 2.

Uniquely to Carbon13, the ventures will also make a second pitch, their Carbon Pitch, based solely on their venture’s potential for climate impact. Our Investment Committee will not invest in any venture which cannot present a robust case 10 million tonnes of CO2e emissions mitigation. To learn more about the Phases click below.

Who should apply to the Venture Launchpad?

The Venture Launchpad supports founding teams (2+ cofounders) of early stage software or deeptech/science-based startups, who fit our theme of the sustainability of the built environment.

To be eligible for the Launchpad, founders must not have raised equity funding, have registered their venture in the UK, and must be committed to building a venture with the ambition of reducing emissions by millions of tonnes a year.

The Venture Launchpad adapts to the specific needs of each venture and our approach differs whether the venture is based on software or science/deeptech. Likewise, we evaluate applications differently, we are looking for the following:

For software ventures
  • The team should ideally include founders who between them can lead on both the product development and business development sides of the business.
  • Software ventures may already have a functioning MVP or equivalent product with users.
  • But, we’ll also consider applications from strong founding teams without a product but with a deep understanding and relevant experience of the opportunity their idea will address.
For science-based or deeptech ventures
  • The technology the venture is working on should be TRL 4-6
  • Or, the founding team has deep expertise in the technology and its application, for example a PhD or Postdoc or relevant industry experience or qualifications.
  • The venture or team must own the IP their innovation is based on.
Explore requirements further

Why choose Carbon13 and Barclays Eagle Labs?

Carbon13 is the Venture Builder for the Climate Emergency. We believe that entrepreneurs are the creative force which will build the Net Zero future that our climate so urgently needs. Our Cambridge origins have taught us the importance of world class carbon, commercial and scientific understanding, and our expansion to Berlin places us at the heart of Europe’s climatetech momentum.
Barclays Eagle Labs is on a mission to support the UK’s entrepreneurial community. Our passion is innovation and growth and our labs provide a wealth of support to start-up businesses as follows:
Explore Barclays Eagle Labs

Carbon13’s Ventures

Carbon13 has launched and invested in 46 ventures since 2021. Half of these are software-based, including the world’s first carbon removal insurance, AI-powered building design, and quantum computing for materials discovery. The other half are science-based/deeptech ventures, leveraging innovations such as precision fermentation, bioplastics, zero carbon concrete, and methane capture.

Explore the Carbon13 portfolio

Key Venture Launchpad facts

  • Programme starts 13th November
  • 20 week programme across two Phases of 10 weeks
  • 4-5 hours of mandatory, and 4-5 hours opt-in programming a week
  • Demo day and pitch to Carbon13 for pre-seed investment
  • 20-25 teams will be selected to participate in the Venture Launchpad