Digital Catapult unveiled the next generation of Net Zero startups and scaleups during its FutureScope Industrial Net Zero Showcase.
Described as the UK authority on advanced digital technology, Digital Catapult brought together 32 businesses representing the future of low carbon innovation to meet industry and investor VIPs.
It 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.
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 UK boasts some of Europe’s leading Net Zero-focused companies, many of these at an early stage of growth,” said Digital Catapult head of sustainability David Pugh.
“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.
“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.”
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’.
Here are a selection of those which pitched.
Remade Group
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
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
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
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
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
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
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