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Syndicate Room and Carbon13 have closed their first joint SEIS fund - proving appetite for climatetech amongst UK's angel community continues in 2025
Summary
Fully subscribed fund has invested in eight startups from Carbon13's Venture Builder.
It will include technologies across biotech, energy, AI, materials, and more.
Another SEIS Fund is anticipated later in 2025.
16 April
Venture capital fund SyndicateRoom, in partnership with climatetech-focused fund and venture builder Carbon13, have closed their first joint fund. The fund surpassed its target, demonstrating a strong appetite for high potential climate investments.
The Carbon13 SEIS Fund VII comprises a portfolio of eight SEIS-eligible companies that have passed through Carbon13’s prestigious venture builder programmes, invested at the end of the 24/25 tax year. A new fund is anticipated later in 2025; interested investors can contact us to be notified.
"We're thrilled to close our first fund in partnership with Carbon13 and to back more of the UK's high-potential climatetech startups. Carbon13 stands out for the calibre of founders they work with – over half the founders in their current cohort have founded a startup before – and their emphasis on innovation that stands to make a real, measurable difference." – Tom Britton, Founding Partner, SyndicateRoom
"Carbon13 as a venture builder is purposefully designed to be far more than a traditional fund; venture studios can create twice the value at half the speed compared to startups in "the wild". We've chosen this model to urgently leverage the emerging commercial opportunities which are now arising as a consequence of the cost of climate inaction exceeding the cost of action. This opportunity is clearly being recognised by our investor community. I'm delighted to have Syndicate Room as partners who believe in the work we are doing, and look forward to expanding our mission in 2025." – Dr Nicky Dee, CEO and Co-founder, Carbon 13.
Strong appetite for impact investments
The launch and close of Carbon13 VII – the third SEIS fund that Carbon13 has closed in the 24/25 tax year – comes at a time when the UK is seeing significant appetite for climatetech, and more and more investors look to back companies that stand to make a real impact.
“The big shift is that people have stopped asking ‘why do we need to do something?’ and started asking ‘how?’.” commented Nicky Dee.
Investment into UK-based climatetech companies surged 24% in 2024 to reach a total of £4.5 billion according to a report from PwC.
Investment into UK-based AI climatetech firms saw a 128% increase in investment to hit a total of £1.01 billion.
PwC reported that 22% of all investment globally into AI-related climatetech startups went into UK-based companies.
Carbon13’s contribution to UK climatetech innovation is already significant: since 2021, Carbon13 has invested £8 million into over 76 climatetech startups who hold a current potential decarbonisation of 500 million tonnes per year when at scale.
Their six previous SEIS funds have harnessed strong investor appetite by offering a truly compelling proposition: exciting, impactful deeptech startups that are combining ambitious commercial goals with decarbonisation on a global scale, founded by some of the UK’s most talented founders.
Some of Carbon13’s notable companies include:
MatNex - leading AI-driven materials discovery company building the world's largest supercomputer for materials science.
Cocoon - working to capture CO₂ in industrial waste and upcycle this into a green cement alternative with the aim of decarbonising the steel and cement industries.
Kita - the world’s first carbon insurance company that removes the ‘carbon delivery risk’.
Nium - eliminates emissions by delivering hydrogen as a more efficient energy vector. Their novel nanotechnology revolutionises the Haber-Bosch process and enables the synthesis of truly green ammonia.
Harnessing the UK’s top deeptech talent
The UK’s flourishing startup ecosystem is the ideal place for climatetech investors looking for the best in new impact opportunities, thanks to its great wealth of talent for building deeptech startups.
Around 55 percent of Carbon13’s founding teams have already done a startup before, about a quarter have a PhD and the average age is 37. Carbon13 companies have gone on to raise up-rounds totalling more than £38m.
Carbon13 lays huge emphasis on carbon credibility – its current portfolio has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 500 million tonnes per year by 2040. Its most recent fund represents an opportunity for investors who want their investment to have impact on a global scale, and actually make a difference.
“The Carbon13 SEIS Fund represents a particularly compelling partnership and a truly exciting portfolio of companies. We are all aware of the dire state of climate change and the immediate actions required. Carbon13 companies are working to develop solutions that we hope will prove impactful and profitable.” - Tom Britton
Carbon13’s venture builder programmes
Typically Carbon13 receives around 600 applicants to each of their venture builder programmes from individuals who are exceptional in their fields and committed to building scalable and impactful businesses. They carefully select around 80 founders to join each new programme.
After six months, ventures pitch for pre-seed investment. Those who get backed also get exposed to stakeholders capable of supporting their next steps – from technical, professional services, through to investors, as well as opportunities to showcase their venture, including with Carbon13’s industry-leading corporate partners: Barclays, Siemens Energy, Arm, and Herbert Smith Freehills and additional contributions from Google Cloud Credits, PEM, TechSpace, Geovation, Honda Innovations and many others.
More about SyndicateRoom
"With this and future partnerships, SyndicateRoom aims to further broaden its offering to investors, allowing a combination of diverse, sector agnostic investing and focused, sector-specific investing across EIS and SEIS” – Tom Britton, Founding Partner, SyndicateRoom.
SyndicateRoom emphasises data analysis in its fund building and the importance of diverse portfolios to optimise growth potential.
Its Access EIS Fund builds large portfolios by co-investing with a carefully vetted selection of the UK’s most successful angels, and gives investors access to investment opportunities in some of the UK’s most promising companies on exactly the same terms as their angel co-investors.
Since 2017 SyndicateRoom’s funds have made more than 360 investments into EIS and SEIS-eligible startups, investing alongside institutions including British Business Investments.
More recently, it has begun operating joint funds with strategic partners, including Carbon13, to offer its investors further diversification into EIS and SEIS-qualifying companies in specific high-growth sectors. To find out more about our funds and portfolio, visit us at https://www.syndicateroom.com/.
For more information about SyndicateRoom and the funds it operates you can reach us by email or call us on 01223 478 558.
