Fourteen of the UK's most promising climate tech companies have been selected for EarthScale's second cohort, spanning biomaterials, energy, carbon removal, the built environment, and the circular economy.
EarthScale is a 12-month UK-wide programme that supports IP-rich climate tech ventures to scale, navigate manufacturing and raise Series A funding. Led by Imperial College London and co-funded by the Research England Development Fund, EarthScale brings together a network of UK universities - Cranfield University, the University of Derby, the University of Exeter, the University of Leeds, and the University of Nottingham - with further regional expansion planned.
Among those selected for the programme's second year: sustainable sequins grown from cellulose, a mechanical stomach engineered to separate food waste at source, and thermal drone technology described as the 'Google Maps' of building heat loss - with each company representing a considered and impactful response to a specific dimension of the climate crisis.
Collectively, the companies employ over 100 people and have raised in excess of £20 million. More than a third are based outside London, reflecting EarthScale's commitment to cultivating climate innovation across the whole of the UK.
Biomaterials & biotechnology
- Arda Biomaterials: Transforms brewery and distillery spent grain into sustainable biomaterials. Their flagship product, New Grain™, is a plastic-, animal-, and rubber-free leather-like material for fashion, automotive, and interiors.
- Cellcraft: The world's first AI plug-and-play operating system for bio-manufacturing, turning any bioreactor into an intelligent, self-optimising system across biopharma, fermentation, cultivated meat, and cell therapies.
- Radiant Matter: Creators of BioSequin™, biodegradable sequins made from renewable cellulose that are non-toxic, colourfast, and pigment-free - bringing sustainable innovation to the fashion industry.
- SAGES: Transforming the dye industry by producing biodegradable, non-toxic dyes derived entirely from food waste.
Built environment
- Anzen Technologies: Decarbonising hard-to-heat buildings with a solid-state thermoelectric heat pump that delivers low-disruption, refrigerant-free heating, cooling, and ventilation.
- Blast Studio: Creators of Cupsan, a range of finished panels for furniture and interior fit-out made entirely from recycled coffee cups.
- Kestrix: Using thermal drones and AI to map precisely how heat escapes from buildings and generate targeted energy retrofit plans, tackling the 20% of global emissions attributable to heating and cooling.
- Nellie Technologies: Using proprietary biological and mechanical engineering to capture CO₂ at speed and scale, converting it into long-lasting biogenic materials that sequester carbon for over 1,000 years.
Circular economy
- CircKit: An AI-powered Circular ToolKit for fashion and footwear brands; a modular, self-service platform empowering businesses to design sustainable products and embed circularity from the outset.
- Danu Robotics: Deploying AI-guided, multi-arm robotic systems that retrofit into existing waste sorting facilities, improving the accuracy and efficiency of recyclable material recovery.
- PulpaTronics: Transforms paper into conductive circuits to create metal‑free RFID tags that are affordable and sustainable to revolutionise how we tag and track everything
- Sorted: Empowering recycling facility managers to optimise operations and maximise material recovery through AI-powered technology.
- Vuala: Intelligent, automated food waste handling powered by advanced robotics.
Energy
Keep Energy Systems: Developing advanced thermal and compressed air energy storage systems that capture surplus energy from intermittent renewables and release it as reliable, on-demand power.
Participants from the first cohort of the EarthScale programme.
The next 12 months
EarthScale exists to bridge the critical gap between prototype and commercialisation, a stage often underserved by traditional funding and support structures. The programme supports pre-Series A startups and spinouts, helping them advance their technical, manufacturing, and commercial readiness to secure Series A investment.
The programme offers each venture 12 months of tailored support based on individual diagnostics, including:
- Sourcing, matching and providing access to cutting-edge manufacturing facilities, labs and technical expertise across the UK, supported by prepaid vouchers for prototyping and research access.
- Investor introductions and readiness coaching to position ventures to raise Series A.
- Policy and regulatory navigation to protect and commercialise innovation.
- Talent support to attract and retain skilled, diverse teams.
- Strengthening the UK climate tech ecosystem.
This cohort is notable not only for the quality of its individual ventures but for what it signals collectively. Circular materials and biomaterials feature prominently, indicating mounting pressure on fashion and manufacturing to transition away from fossil fuel-derived and resource-intensive inputs. This cohort also introduces software climate solutions (21%) to the programme, alongside hardware and hybrid, reflecting the full diversity of emerging solutions.
"The diversity of sectors, approaches, and technologies on display [in this cohort] is a reminder of just how much talent exists in this ecosystem." Melissa Mahdi Programme Manager for EarthScale
The ventures enter the programme with meaningful commercial traction, working alongside some of the world's most recognised organisations, among them energy majors including E.ON and EDF; major retailers such as Amazon, M&S and Tesco; and global fashion brands including Stella McCartney, Balenciaga, and Adidas. This depth of traction speaks to the real-world demand for the solutions they are building.
With EarthScale's inaugural cohort now at the halfway point of their programme, thirty ventures are being supported across both cohorts. All companies will convene in person at an upcoming Manufacturing Strategy workshop hosted at Cranfield University, one of a series of shared touchpoints designed to foster shared learning and peer networks.
Melissa Mahdi, Programme Manager for EarthScale, said: "We are thrilled to welcome EarthScale's second cohort of fourteen ventures that represent the very best of UK climate innovation. The diversity of sectors, approaches, and technologies on display is a reminder of just how much talent exists in this ecosystem. We look forward to supporting each of them over the coming year and ensuring they have every possible advantage as they scale."
Could you be part of our next cohort?
Applications for cohort 3 will open in late 2026. Sign up for the EarthScale newsletter to stay informed and to follow the journey of this year's cohort as they scale climate impact across the UK and beyond.
