Cofounder of a climatech startup - Scientist/Engineer in Cambridge

Solve the most urgent problems in climate and build the solutions - become a cofounder of a scalable climatetech startup through Carbon13’s Venture Builder in Cambridge (UK). We'll kick-off our next programme in April 2026 and open applications in January. Please put your name on our waiting list to not miss any updates.

What we’re looking for:

• Scientists, engineers and inventors to become co-founders of startups that fight climate change.
• Join our eight-month Venture Builder starting in late October.
• Whether you’re working on a startup idea already or not, you’ll use the Venture Builder to find a cofounder, develop the idea, and launch an investable startup with the potential to mitigate emissions by millions of tonnes.

You’ll join a cohort of over 80 founders, made up of scientists, experienced founders, leaders from emitting industries, engineers, sustainability leaders, and more. The average age is usually around 37, but our youngest and oldest participants have been 23 and 60+ respectively. All are ready to find a cofounder and start working now on solutions that can reduce carbon emissions by millions of tonnes.

Apart from a few days in Cambridge, you can participate in the rest of the programme remotely. The climate doesn’t have time for us to waste on false starts, tinkering at the edges, or greenwashing. Apart from nine in-person days in London/Cambridge, you can do the programme from anywhere in the world. The rest of the programme is delivered remotely.

We train you in deep carbon knowledge that will enable you to build your startup in a way that climate tech VCs will need to invest. “One of the unique things that we are doing at Carbon13 is we are not expecting our founders to outsource this knowledge, we are very much training all of our founders, so they have access to the latest tools and techniques, so that they can assess their carbon mitigation potential, understand how to communicate it and of course be transparent in how they are measuring it.” - Carbon13 Co-Founder and Chief Sustainability Officer Dr. Nicky Dee

What startups have scientists and engineers built on Carbon13?

• Materials Nexus - materials discovery through quantum computing
• Nium - green ammonia, replacing Haber-Bosch
• Sun Bear Biofuture - alternative palm oil through precision fermentation
• Biozeroc - carbon negative concrete
• Ki Hydrogen - biomass electrolysis for low energy green hydrogen production
• Bluemethane - methane capture from water

You can view our portfolio of 80+ ventures here.

Many entrepreneurial scientists and engineers choose our Venture Builder because they’re already working on an idea or have IP which they want to develop and commercialise. However, this is not a requirement and around half our technical founders do not have an idea for a climate startup. You will either be supported to find an idea to develop which can significantly reduce emissions, or join a cofounder/team who bring IP or an idea or strong insights into an emitting industry. Half of our ventures are software, half are science-based/hardtech.

We are running a series of webinars available to everyone who would like to learn more about Carbon13 and how to build startups with breakthrough solutions for the climate.

Carbon13 in numbers:

• £12 million investment across 93 ventures since 2021
• £40 million – Carbon13 companies have gone on to raise up-rounds totalling more than £40 million.
• 500 million tonnes – Carbon13’s portfolio is collectively working towards a decarbonisation potential at scale of 500 million tonnes per year.
• +10% of the Carbon13 portfolio is Earthshot nominated, including Kita, Samudra Oceans, Forge Minerals, and Nium
• 33% of our participants hold a PhD
• 90% of each cohort forms a cofounding team within Phase 1
• +500 domain experts, carbon experts, entrepreneurs in residence

We caused climate change. Let’s fix it.