The
Venture Launchpad
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.
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.
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
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.
What if we can…
… create more food with fewer inputs to support today’s producers and future generations
… ensure every family can consume a healthy, varied, and affordable diet with little wastage
… support and accelerate a transition to regenerative and sustainable farming, fishing and production methods through enabling access to the right incentives, financial support, business models and data insights
… create a countryside with space dedicated to nature, biodiversity and carbon capture, with the process and results valued and measured accurately
… empower rural communities to come together and engage actively in achieving Net Zero.
At a glance: The Venture Launchpad
Across two Phases of ten weeks, founders will rapidly develop their venture. Founders will:
Build carbon expertise
- Progress towards milestones such as product/market fit, customer discovery, value proposition validation.
- Receive structured individualised support tailored to your venture’s starting point.
- Understand how to push their venture’s potential to 10 million tonnes of emissions mitigation
- Build carbon intelligence to empower the founding team to make long-term decisions based on carbon
Be investment ready
Produce a venture ready for pre-seed investment and beyond
Plug into a world class ecosystem
Plug into the Carbon13 ecosystem spanning the UK and EU, including a community of Domain Experts, Entrepreneurs in Residence, Carbon Experts and alumni.
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
To learn more about the kinds of ventures which should apply to the Venture Launchpad, and understand how our support adapts to each venture, click below.
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:
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.
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
The application process
- Next round of applications closes 30th September
- Applications are assessed on a rolling basis
Book a 1-1
Book a short call with Puja Balachander, Head of the Venture Launchpad