The Greenhouse

Supporting ClimateTech startups from lab to traction

Some of the UK’s most ambitious ClimateTech companies started with support from The Greenhouse
Nanomox

Raised £2.4m in 2026 to scale sustainable ionic liquid platform for advanced materials and critical minerals.

Notpla

Earthshot Prize winners, raised £20m additional investment in 2024 and now rolled out across Imperial.

Carbon Cell

Raised a £1.2m pre-seed round in 2025 to scale plastic-free foam made from biochar and natural polymers.

Sequinova

Unveiled its plant-based sequins during Stella McCartney’s A/W 2025 show during Paris Fashion Week.

Lixea

Building a 25,000 tonne/year biomass processing plant producing commercial volumes of novel materials.

Puraffinity

Raised £17m in 2024 and is now scaling up its water treatment tech.

Iterate faster, win pilots, and raise your first major funding round
Step 1
Innovation Readiness Diagnostic: understand your biggest gaps and the next steps required to develop a market-ready solution.
Step 2

Get matched to a peer coaching group led by an experienced entrepreneur

Step 3

14-week Foundation Programme to test assumptions and implement best practices

Step 4

Monthly sprints and group coaching sessions led by experienced entrepreneurs

Our core programme: support available to all selected startups

Funding

Up to £20k in grant funding

Monthly sessions with investors

1:1 investor introductions
Access to non-dilutive funding opportunities
Space

World-class shared labs

Advanced Hackspace for prototyping
Co-working, meeting and office space
Advice

Regular 1:1 and group coaching

Mentor feedback and support

Pro bono support from service providers

Community
Off the Record sessions with entrepreneurs
Monthly community meet-up

Based at the Imperial Incubator in WestTech London

DeepTech hub

The Greenhouse is in WestTech London – London’s DeepTech hub at the heart of the White City Innovation District.

World-class facilities

Tap into a growing ecosystem of DeepTech startups and world-class facilities including the Royce Institute (pictured above).

Prototyping support

Get access to shared lab benches and prototyping facilities through Imperial Incubator and Advanced Hackspace (pictured above).

Thriving community

Once startups graduate from the 12-month Greenhouse programme, support continues via our alumni programme and the Imperial Investor Network.

What our alumni say

“Notpla wouldn’t exist if we didn’t have the support of what is now Undaunted. They were the first ones to believe in us and the idea, and provided the necessary guidance and connections to start this journey.”

Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez
Co-founder & Co-CEO, Notpla

“The Greenhouse is one of the best programmes we’ve been on. It’s supported by a well-connected ecosystem which spans into legal, recruitment and much more.”

Abiel Ma
CEO & Co-founder, Vuala

“It felt so exciting, and gave us hope that our messy, weird design “project” could be a real, tangible business. Many tech programmes are focused [mainly] on scale and growth. While that is important to The Greenhouse, they don’t question the fundamental values of your business around sustainability and eco-friendliness. The support we’ve received has played a huge part in the progress we’ve made.”

Elizabeth Lee
CEO & Co-founder, Carbon Cell

“The Greenhouse workshops, trainings and exposure were first class. The programme connected us with the biggest player in our industry, and with all the legal, IP and business services we could possibly need. The mood among the startups was really supportive, and we accelerated each others’ growth a lot by learning from each other.”

Dan Ellis
Founder, Decarbonite

How to apply

Find out everything you need to know about making an application, plus opportunities to meet the team

The application process

Eligibility criteria

We support ambitious individuals or teams developing breakthrough climate technologies. To apply, you must:

  • Be developing a tech-based climate solution with potential for significant climate impact and commercial growth
  • Have proven science in the lab ready to test with customers (TRL 3-5)
  • Be UK-incorporated or willing to register immediately upon selection. Founders don’t need to be London-based, but the business must have a UK-based HQ and be able to attend in-person sessions at Imperial locations when required
  • Have at least one full-time founder committed to the business
  • Commit to 12 months of programming, with at least one day per week for coaching and implementation

We welcome teams from all backgrounds and sectors – from agriculture and energy to fashion and financial innovation and more. Most teams we support are early-stage and haven’t raised significant commercial investment yet.

We recognise the value of diversity in innovation and acknowledge the current underrepresentation in the climate tech sector. We actively encourage applications from women, Black and other minority ethnic groups, disabled persons, and people from all backgrounds.

Read full eligibility criteria in the Cohort 10 Info Pack. Not sure if you qualify? Get in touch

Application form

Teams will be assessed on the basis of their application forms and submitted pitch decks, and scored against the following criteria and the quality of their application:

  • Climate impact / relevance
  • Strength and uniqueness of innovation / IP
  • Potential to scale / Likelihood of market success
  • Team capability
  • Overall suitability for The Greenhouse

We will also assess each application on the basis of how much the team is likely to benefit from our support. 

The Bootcamp

The two-day Bootcamp is focused on identifying and testing teams’ critical business assumptions via coaching, peer-reviews, and presentations. It gives us an opportunity to get to know teams better than we would in a traditional interview process, whilst providing them with an opportunity to learn and network. We expect the startup founder(s) to attend the Bootcamp in-person. We do not normally conduct interviews as part of the Bootcamp selection process, though in certain circumstances we may choose to do so.

The final selection of up to 15 startups for The Greenhouse will be made following completion of the Bootcamp.

Selection for The Greenhouse

The selection for The Greenhouse will be made based on the startup’s application form, their interactions and engagement at Bootcamp and the outputs from the Bootcamp process. Offers will be contingent on a fully engaged and committed approach to The Greenhouse, which will need to be maintained throughout the programme in order to remain a participant.

While we do not normally conduct interviews as part of the selection process, in certain circumstances we may choose to do so.

The selection panel is formed by Alyssa Gilbert, Maiko Schaffrath and Stefanie Mulder from the Undaunted. We generally also involve others from the British cleantech ecosystem.

Events

Greenhouse Q&A – Cohort 10

For founders and startups who are considering applying for Cohort 10 of The Greenhouse. Our online Q&A sessions are informal opportunities to meet the team, learn more about what makes a strong application and ask any questions you’ve got.

Pitch Pod

Climate founders: keen to get feedback on your pitch? The Greenhouse team runs monthly pitch feedback sessions for Climate Tech Founders, a great opportunity to get some radically honest feedback on your pitch. Register for a slot below.

Cohort 8 Demo Day

Our eighth cohort will graduate from The Greenhouse on 21 May 2026, when they’ll pitch to an audience of climate innovation investors and supporters on the historic stage on The Royal Institution in Mayfair. Sign up to the Undaunted newsletter to stay in-the-loop.

Our current cohorts

The Greenhouse in numbers

The survival rate of Undaunted startups is 88 per cent, compared to the industry average of 10 per cent. 5 per cent of these companies have exited through acquisition.

180

180 startups have taken part in Undaunted’s accelerator, now known as The Greenhouse

>$1.33bn

Undaunted alumni have gone on to raise over $1bn investment since 2012

>1,600

They operate across 30 countries worldwide, and have created over 1,600 jobs. As of September 2024 the total number of employees stands at 1,617

Our alumni will have real-world impact

Impact forecast of Undaunted alumni by 2030

29 million tonnes of cumulative carbon dioxide equivalent forecast to be saved by 2030. This equates to 7% of the UK's annual greenhouse gas emissions

76 million tonnes cumulative waste forecast to be avoided by 2030 across the Undaunted startup portfolio. This is equivalent to a third of the UK's annual waste

7.4 million litres total fresh water to be saved by 2030, equivalent to the annual consumption of 75 thousand UK households

Supported by

The Greenhouse programme is funded by HSBC UK, the Inflexion Foundation, and CO2RE: the Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub.

HSBC logo
Inflexion logo
CORE logo

We conduct thorough due diligence to ensure that our supporters and partners are committed to reducing their environmental impact. Whilst we are aware that HSBC currently finances a number of industries that significantly contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, we know they have a strategy in place to help their customers reduce their emissions and to reduce their own – for more information please visit the HSBC Climate Strategy webpage.

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