2025 Round Up: A Year of Scaling the Home of Climate Tech & Powering Green Growth across the UK
After a decade of year-on-year growth, 2025 presented a number of challenges for the climate tech sector, with investment falling back and the decade-long UK political consensus fracturing. At Sustainable Ventures, we have faced up to these “net zero headwinds” and stepped up our efforts to champion the sector, whilst strengthening our integrated model, accelerating our national reach, and decisively reinforcing our position as Europe's leading growth partner for climate tech.
Below, we’re highlighting some of the key milestones that have met our strategic objectives for 2025.
01 | Lead the Climate Tech Sector
Facing this year’s challenges head-on, we have delivered decisive thought leadership and raised the profile of UK innovation globally through:
Global Influence: We hosted high-profile international delegates, including the Icelandic President and The Ambassador of Paraguay, connecting UK innovation directly to global markets.
The Epicenter of Innovation: Our community was at the heart of action, hosting 29 events during London Climate Action Week with multiple appearances from London’s Deputy Mayor Mete Coban and Howard Dawber. Howard noted how the city had claimed the #1 spot for developing climate tech businesses in Europe, calling our County Hall workspace the "epicenter".
Leading the Conversation: We produced a crucial white paper with Barclays on the regional aspects of the climate tech sector and partnered with Cambridge University and Beauhurst to research the impact of AI on the sector. We also hosted a climate leaders summit with influential voices, including Andy Burnham and met with Claire Holland, Leader of Lambeth Council, for a fireside chat to understand the need for climate entrepreneurs to highlight the wider benefits of their tech; delivering inclusive white collar and blue collar jobs, reducing fuel poverty, delivering cleaner air and increasing energy security.
Recognised Excellence: Our leadership was recognised at the UK Green Business Awards, where we were Highly Commended for Company of the Year and our investment team was highly commended in the Investor of the Year category.
Community Footprint: We increased our total social media following by 20%, with a community of 31,000 followers, and held a record 334 events with approximately 15,800 visitors across our sites.
Deputy Mayor for Business, Howard Dawber, addresses guests at one of our London Climate Action Week events
02 | Create a Platform for Sustainable Growth
Our integrated model is built on creating a profitable, high-impact platform that channels capital and expertise into the climate economy. In 2025, we scaled our capacity to deliver this value proposition through:
Strong Growth: We continued building a robust and resilient business, with overall annual group revenue growing by 20% during the year.
Deploying Capital with Purpose: We successfully launched new EIS and SEIS Sustainability Impact Funds, channeling capital to startups driving commercial solutions for climate mitigation, circularity, and ecosystem protection. We raised a record amount of new funds and invested into 9 new portfolio companies.
Strategic Partnerships: We secured key corporate partnerships with big industry players, including Amey, Arup, Barclays Business Bank, E-on, Google Cloud, and Nestlé, ensuring our startups have pathways to large-scale deployment.
AI for Systemic Change: The Bridge.AI project consortium, led by SV, launched an AI-driven pilot that has so far helped to redistribute the equivalent of 30,000 meals, directly tackling food waste at scale and demonstrating how multi-stakeholder collaboration can solve systemic sustainability challenges.
Operational Success: Our core SME services delivered their highest ever performance, with R&D increasing their client base to over 120 climate SMEs. London workspace occupancy remains greater than 95%.
03 | Enhance Entrepreneurial Relationships and Support
This year, we proved we are the indispensable co-founder for UK climate tech. Our integrated model is built to ensure founders accelerate success, turning ambitious ideas into market leaders. Our progress is reflected in four major achievements:
The 1000 Start-Up Milestone:: We hit our ambitious target of supporting 1,000 start-ups and scale-ups in June, six months ahead of schedule.
Unlocking Economic Impact: These supported ventures have gone on to create over 7,000 direct jobs and raised an impressive £1.2bn in investment.
Trusted Ecosystem: Our dedication to quality support is reflected in outstanding feedback, with client satisfaction remaining high and Net Promoter Scores (NPS) consistently measured above +50 - a score generally seen as excellent.
Future-Proofing Support: We began the exciting development of AI-enhanced support services and appointed our first product manager to enhance the quality of support we provide.
04 | Consolidate and Scale UK-wide Presence
Our mission demands a national platform. In 2025, we rapidly scaled our physical hubs and specialist programmes, ensuring climate tech founders across the UK can access our ecosystem. This year’s progress includes:
An Eight Region Footprint: We successfully achieved programme scale in eight regions, with a presence (workspace or programme) now in Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Bristol, Belfast, Liverpool, London, and Cambridge.
New Northern Hubs: We successfully launched our new Manchester workspace, creating a new hub for climate founders across the North.
UK's Largest Climate Tech Workspace Incoming: Glasgow City Council approved the 99-year lease for the Lighthouse building, where we will create the UK’s largest workspace for climate tech entrepreneurs.
Regional Programmes: We launched and delivered high-impact accelerators, including the Glasgow - Powering the Future programme, the National Climate Tech Accelerator in partnership with Barclays Innovation Bank and a first-of-its kind accelerator with the University of Liverpool, turning academic innovation into commercially viable solutions.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, gives a speech at our Sustainable Leaders Dinner
"Boots on the Ground": We invested in building local relationships, welcoming a new team member in Belfast to cement our presence and highlight the crucial importance of a local focus in the regions we serve.
As we close out 2025, one thing is clear: despite the challenges facing our sector, Sustainable Ventures has not slowed; We’ve scaled, strengthened, and stepped up. This year saw us expand our national footprint, deepen our founder support, unlock new sources of capital, and push the sector’s conversation forward at a critical moment.
In 2026, we will continue building the UK’s most powerful platform for climate innovation, one that backs founders from idea to impact, connects regions into a unified climate economy, and accelerates solutions that deliver real economic, social, and environmental value.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey.
