Who is Sustainable Ventures?
Sustainable Ventures is a full-service ecosystem empowering sustainable startups to scale through community, investment, innovation and workspace.
How has London & Partners helped you?
London & Partners has been a valuable partner working with Sustainable Ventures in the following ways:
- Cross-referring startups to each company’s services and free business support.
- Organising common events focused on sustainability.
- London & Partners and Sustainable Ventures have also worked collaboratively through the Women in Cleantech (WiCT) Steering Group. WiCT is a network dedicated to promoting, supporting and connecting women in the exciting field of cleantech in London.
Why is London a great place to set up and grow a sustainable business?
Few other big cities have the momentum of public and private support for climate solutions that London has. Practically, what this means for businesses is:
- Easy to set up a new sustainable business.
- Wider and local government support in the form of constant grant funding opportunities for sustainable solutions.
- Several free business, technical and legal support opportunities.
- Exciting ecosystems of sustainable startups that allow for peer connections, learnings and collaborations. Many exciting stories of collaboration have come out of our ecosystem.
- Consumer appetite for innovative and sustainable products and services.
- Significant investor appetite to support climate tech solutions.
What steps are you taking to become a greener business?
Sustainable Ventures brings together each stakeholder in the net zero transition, such as investors, government, corporates and consumers.
Since 2011, Sustainable Ventures has created Europe’s largest cluster of net zero and sustainability startups through venture development, workspaces, investment and venture support services.
How has your company grown in the last couple of years?
Within 12 years of existence, Sustainable Ventures has successfully:
- Supported 450 startups in our direct ecosystem.
- Created or maintained 4,200 total jobs.
- Maintained a 65% diversity index.
- Developed eight spinouts with one exit.
- Secured more than £9m of grant funding and £3m of R&D tax credit for our companies.
Does your presence in London help your company progress faster?
The success Sustainable Ventures has had in starting and expanding its operations can partly be attributed to London’s supportive environment for sustainability. This has been possible due to:
- London having the highest concentration of cleantech companies in the UK and the highest investment rate with 70% of all UK VC climate tech investments happening here.
- Many free business support programmes are being funded by local and wider government.
- Sustainable Ventures’ flagship Better Futures + programme, aiming at supporting climate tech SMEs with underrepresented founders (71% diversity rate) has been funded by the Greater London Authority.
What are some challenges for your business in the sustainability field?
Sustainable Ventures believes that the current environment presents a three-fold opportunity. Firstly, the company strongly believes that businesses that are built sustainably are more resilient in the long term.
In addition, many startups are commercialising solutions that can save energy and costs, helping organisations drive their sustainability agenda while improving their financial position. Finally, the links of climate change and inclusion are undisputed; creating green jobs and addressing fuel and energy poverty can address both.
In your opinion, what is London doing well in the sustainability field?
London has quite a few examples of impactful initiatives in the sustainability field:
- A constant availability of grant funding for net zero solutions making it easy for risky early-stage solutions that would struggle finding public funding to test and launch.
- An encouraging Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme and Enterprise Investment Scheme for early investors making it easier to deploy capital to innovative solutions. In October 2021, the Global Green Finance Index put London at the top of its ranking on the quality of its green finance proposition.
- Consumers are a big driver in those changes. According to Deloitte, “there is a sharp increase in the number of people who have adopted a more sustainable lifestyle in the last 12 months”.