01Move
DNA dimensions
ARR per enterprise customer + tCO2e under management, GHG Protocol Scope 1/2/3 audit-readiness, SECR + ISSB + SBTi alignment, Innovate UK / ATI / DESNZ grant pipeline, runway months and verified-impact metrics.
All playbooksStartup & tech
Climate tech playbook.
An early-stage London climate-tech founding team building emissions measurement, carbon-accounting, energy-management, grid-flex, circular-economy or hard-tech decarbonisation. The win is reaching investor-grade GHG Protocol + SECR + ISSB-aligned data with first paying enterprise pilots and grant-funded matched capital.
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Overview
A London climate-tech at pre-seed → Series A typically has £0–£2m ARR, 5–22 staff and 14–28 months of runway. The UK is one of the most grant-rich climate-tech markets in the world (Innovate UK, ATI, DESNZ Energy Entrepreneurs, Net-Zero Innovation Portfolio) — top teams cover 30–50% of cash burn with non-dilutive grants. The biggest lever is engineering rigour on emissions calculations from day one — Scope 3 numbers that don't survive a Big-4 audit kill enterprise sales. The second lever is buyer choice — FTSE 100 sustainability teams pay £80k–£400k ACV but take 9–15 months; mid-market / Tier-1 suppliers pay £18k–£80k in 3–6 months. This playbook covers operationalising a London climate-tech from incorporation through first enterprise contracts + Innovate UK grant.
9–18 months from MVP
First FTSE 250 contract
0.6–1.4x grant per £1 dilutive
Grant-to-equity ratio
£18k–£140k UK 2026
Carbon accounting ARR per customer
What you'll need
Equipment list with real 2026 UK prices.
Sized for a 2–4 chair shop. Buy mid-range on chairs and clippers; cheap kit fails inside 12 months and walks away with your barbers.
01
Team setup (5–14 staff)
Workstation per FTE (climate models + ML compute heavy)
£2,200–£4,200 each
Co-working (Sustainable Ventures / Plexal / Mindspace)
£340–£780 / desk / month
Pilot-site IoT kit (energy / metering / sensors)
£3,400–£28,000 per pilot site
Bookable demo space for FTSE sustainability teams
Included or £45/hr
02
Product + data infra
Cloud + Snowflake / Databricks for emissions data
£900–£14,000 / month
GHG Protocol + ecoinvent + DEFRA emission-factor libraries
£1,400–£14,000 / yr
ERP + procurement integration toolkits (SAP / Coupa / Ariba)
£2,400–£18,000 one-off + per deployment
Observability + data-quality (Datadog + Monte Carlo)
£420–£3,400 / month
B-Corp + SBTi dashboards
£280–£1,400 / month
03
Compliance + GTM
ISO 27001 + Cyber Essentials Plus (cert body + auditor)
£12,000–£32,000 / yr
Methodology + assurance opinion (Big-4 light / BSI / Verifavia)
£14,000–£60,000 / yr
SBTi + B-Corp application
£8,000–£24,000 over 12–18 months
Grant-writing retainer (Innovate UK / ATI / DESNZ)
£3,400–£14,000 per application or 8–12% success-fee
CRM + analytics + accounting + payroll stack
£300–£1,200 / month
Where to set up
Location is half the business.
DESNZ / DEFRA / Innovate UK access
Within 1 hr of Whitehall + Swindon
Grant programme officers + DESNZ stakeholder meetings happen in person.
Enterprise sustainability buyer density
Within 30 min of City / Canary Wharf / Paddington
FTSE 100 CSO + procurement teams cluster in central + west London.
Climate-tech VC + accelerator cluster
SE1 / EC2 / E1
UK climate-active VCs (Counteract / 2150 / Lowercarbon / Octopus Energy Generation / Sustainable Ventures) cluster here.
Hardware-test access (if hard-tech)
Within 1 hr of Catapult network site
Energy Systems / Offshore Renewable / Connected Places Catapults provide test infra at near-zero cost.
Area tier
Rent / month
Notes
County Hall / Sustainable Ventures (SE1)
£420–£820 / desk
Largest climate-tech co-working in Europe; perfect for Seed–A teams.
Shoreditch / Old Street (EC1, EC2)
£400–£900 / desk
Best tech-talent catchment; strong climate-VC density.
Stratford / Plexal (E20)
£300–£640 / desk
Hard-tech friendly; Catapult adjacency; lower cost.
Licences & registrations
Get the paperwork done before you sign a lease.
UK figures for 2026. Lead times assume you submit complete applications — councils will pause the clock if you miss documents.
Requirement
Who issues
Cost
Lead time
ReqCompanies House Ltd + EMI + IP assignment
Companies House + solicitor
£600–£3,400
1–2 weeks
ReqICO + DPO + DPIA (supplier data is personal in many cases)
ICO + DPO
£60 + £140–£420 / month
1–3 weeks
ReqISO 27001 + Cyber Essentials Plus
Cert body
£12,000–£32,000 / yr
6–12 months
OptMethodology assurance opinion (limited / reasonable)
BSI / Verifavia / Big-4 light
£14,000–£60,000 / yr
3–6 months
OptSBTi commitment + validation
SBTi
£2,400–£14,000
12–24 months
OptB-Corp certification (signal)
B Lab UK
£500–£14,000 / yr by revenue
6–18 months
OptInnovate UK / DESNZ / ATI grant agreements
Innovate UK / DESNZ / ATI
£0 + match-funding
3–9 months per call
Build-out timeline
From decision to open in 12 weeks.
01
Months 1–3 · Incorporate + methodology
1–12- Topco + EMI + IP assignment + Vanta live
- Lock methodology aligned to GHG Protocol + DEFRA factors
- First Innovate UK / DESNZ grant application drafted
- Pilot scope agreed with 2 design-partner enterprises
02
Months 4–9 · MVP + pilots + first grant
13–36- Ship MVP across 2–4 enterprise pilots (£0–£40k)
- ISO 27001 stage 1 + Cyber Essentials Plus
- Land first Innovate UK / DESNZ grant (£150k–£600k)
- Engage assurance partner for methodology opinion
03
Months 10–18 · First FTSE contract + SBTi
37–72- Land first FTSE 250 paid contract (£40k–£140k ACV)
- Achieve ISO 27001 + Cyber Essentials Plus
- Publish first assurance opinion + SBTi commitment
- Hit £300k–£800k ARR; open Series A round
04
Months 19–30 · Scale enterprise + 2nd grant
73–120- Grow to 8–25 enterprise contracts; £800k–£2m ARR
- Win 2nd / 3rd grant (ATI / Net-Zero Innovation)
- Achieve B-Corp; team to 16–22 FTE
- Series A close with verified impact data
Budget
Realistic startup and monthly cost ranges.
One-off · Startup
Setting up the shop
Legal + topco + EMI + IP
£6,400 → £20,000
ISO 27001 + Cyber Essentials Plus (yr 1)
£14,000 → £32,000
Methodology + assurance partner retainer (yr 1)
£14,000 → £40,000
Initial team kit (10 FTE)
£22,000 → £42,000
Office deposit + first 6 months desks
£12,600 → £36,000
Pilot IoT / metering kit (2 sites)
£6,800 → £28,000
Typical total
£75,800 – £198,000
Recurring · Monthly
Keeping the lights on
Co-working (10 desks)
£3,600 → £8,400
Cloud + Snowflake + emission-factor libraries
£2,400 → £12,000
Compliance + fractional DPO + assurance subs
£2,000 → £8,400
Salaries (10 FTE blended £68k)
£44,000 → £64,000
Grant-writing retainer + enterprise GTM
£2,400 → £12,000
Travel + Catapult test sessions + sustainability events
£900 → £4,800
Typical total
£55,300 – £109,600
Numbers that compound
How a climate tech actually looks on a chart.
Illustrative planning ranges, not measured customer data. Toggle the views to see ramp, mix and weekly load.
12-month revenue ramp
Low vs high scenario (£ monthly)
High Low
Illustrative example for planning, not measured customer data.
First 90 days
Dates that actually matter after opening.
01Day 0
Topco incorporated; methodology v1 + Vanta live
02Day 30
Design partners signed; first grant draft submitted
03Day 120
MVP live in 2 enterprise pilots; ISO 27001 stage 1 booked
04Day 240
First Innovate UK / DESNZ grant awarded (£150k–£600k)
05Day 360
ISO 27001 + Cyber Essentials Plus; first FTSE 250 contract signed
06Day 540
£600k+ ARR; 6 enterprise customers; Series A data room ready
What's inside
DNA, route, automations, integrations, benchmarks, advisors — tuned for a climate tech.
02Move
Suggested route
Pick a wedge (carbon accounting / supply-chain Scope 3 / energy management / grid flex / hard-tech), align to GHG Protocol + ISSB + SBTi from day one, layer Innovate UK + DESNZ + ATI grants for non-dilutive capital, then sell into FTSE 250 sustainability + procurement teams.
03Move
Automations
Daily tCO2e + customer-data-ingest digest, weekly investor update with grant + revenue pipeline, GHG Scope 3 supplier-data refresh, SBTi validation tracker, ICO + DPIA cadence, ISSB / SECR reporting reminders.
04Move
Integrations
ERP (SAP / Oracle / NetSuite / Dynamics), procurement (Coupa / Ariba), energy data (Octopus / EDF / N3rgy), supplier-data portals (CDP / EcoVadis), HubSpot CRM, Mixpanel / Amplitude, Vanta / Drata, Trustpilot, B-Corp dashboard.
05Move
Benchmarks
tCO2e per £1 ARR, time to first FTSE 250 contract and grant-to-equity ratio vs UK Seed–Series A climate-tech in same wedge, refreshed quarterly.
06Move
Advisors
Encore advisors with verified Scope 3 deployments, Innovate UK / ATI grant wins, or B-Corp + SBTi-validated operations, plus NAVIZIX AI for runway + grant-cycle projection.
Stack
Modules used in this playbook.
01DNA Engine02Route Map03Launch Twin04Automation05Verified06Encore
Related playbooks
Owners of a climate tech often run — or cross-sell with — these adjacent operations.
Start with this playbook
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