Carbon13 Venture Builder
About this Programme
Carbon13 is the venture builder for the climate emergency. We are selecting and supporting 1000 entrepreneurs over 5 years who will build scalable ventures with the potential to reduce carbon emissions by over 400 million tonnes. Join our programme. Become a founder and reduce carbon emissions.
Salaried retraining
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Apart from nine in-person days in Cambridge, you can do the programme from anywhere in the world
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Carbon13
Carbon13 is the venture builder for the climate emergency.
We are selecting and supporting 1000 entrepreneurs over 5 years who will build scalable ventures with the potential to reduce carbon emissions by over 400 million tonnes.
Join our programme. Become a founder and reduce carbon emissions.
About the Programme
Become a co-founder of a startup that fights climate change.
If you want to fight climate change, then Carbon13 is currently the strongest launchpad for you to build a decarbonisation venture from scratch— because our Venture Builder programme is the only place where a commercial cofounder can do all these three things:
- Find their technical cofounder among the scientists, developers and engineers who make up the rest of our cohort (~90% find a cofounder)
- Understand the carbon intelligence of their solution to maximise its potential to reduce emissions
- Develop both the commercial and strategic groundwork to scale the startup to 10 million tonnes of emissions reduction.
Typically, commercial founders include entrepreneurs, operators, corporate professionals, commercial directors from industry, anyone with a track record of execution and commercial acumen. You will most likely become the CEO of the startup and lead on the commercial strategy, fundraising and customer development.
Working on a climatetech idea already?
Unlike accelerators, you do NOT need an idea or MVP to join Carbon13, though you can apply with one if you do. You will either be supported to find an idea to develop which can significantly reduce emissions, or join a cofounder/team with strong insights into an emitting industry and together execute the implementation of their validated customer pain points.
As a commercial founder, you may choose to apply your skills to a software idea, or, you may choose to cofound a hardtech or deeptech startup with a scientist/engineer cofounder. Half of our ventures are software, half are science-based/hardtech. You can view our portfolio of ventures at www.carbonthirteen.com/our-portfolio
How does Carbon13 work?
On Carbon13 you are building a startup as part of a cohort of 70 founders. You are not sat in a room being told what you already know. Our programme is designed to 10x the work you're doing, because the planet doesn't have time to waste on theory or incremental ideas.
- Phase 1: Teaming in 6 weeks
You will find a cofounder in the first 6 weeks. As a commercial cofounder you most likely will team up with a technical cofounder from a science, engineering or software background. On average 90% of the 70 founders on the cohort form teams within 6 weeks.
- Phase 2: Ideation & Validation in 9 weeks
Your team will intensely work on:
Team strengthening | Carbon intelligence | Rapid iterations of concepts | Business model forming | Prototype testing | Intellectual property | Customer development | Stakeholder development | Behaviour change | Governance | Venture incorporation
- Phase 3: Acceleration in 4 months
After Phase 2, we invest pre-seed into 14 ventures. They then use Phase 3 to focus on market, product, business model and strategy to prepare the venture for further seed-stage investment. We also help you look at scaling strategies, managing growth pains and developing a funding strategy.
The next cohort will begin in Cambridge, UK on 19th September 2022. (Apart from nine in-person days in Cambridge, you can do the programme from anywhere in the world.)
Learn More
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. Our next one for commercial founders can be found here.
Carbon13 in numbers:
- 50 startups launched since March 2021
- £2.5 million investment across 20 ventures
- 50% of the ventures are software, 50% science or hardware based
- 70 potential cofounders on every cohort
- 35 technical, 35 commercial cofounders
- 90% of each cohort forms a cofounding team within 6 weeks
- 100s of domain experts, carbon experts, entrepreneurs in residence
- 19th September, the start date for the next cohort
- 10 million tonnes of emissions every year. We only launch startups that have the potential to reduce emissions by 10 million tonnes.
We caused climate change. Let's fix it.
Carbon13 testimonials
Take a look at our founders below, to discover their teaming journeys with Carbon13.
Sarah Montgomery
"It would have taken me years to meet 50 exceptionally talented and passionate founders who are determined to solve the climate crisis and Carbon13 did it in just a few weeks"
Jonathan Bean
“Joining Carbon13 was a breath of fresh air as it enabled me to execute much faster than any other time in my career. One of the biggest parts of a company is the team and finding others with a similar vision has transformed my business from idea into reality.”
Amyas Phillips
“There is finally a consensus in the world that change has to come and some are starting to try to make that change. I joined Carbon13 to catalyse that change and Carbon13 is here to catalyse us.”
Paul Young
“Meeting Natalia was like discovering a missing piece to our puzzle. Suddenly all our ideas and values clicked into place! Together our ability to be both creative and to execute our plans leapt forward. Carbon13 is the perfect place to form such a team, and we have benefited from their support at every step.”
Programme FAQs
All your questions should be answered here.
The application process is in multiple stages. Stage 1 is a brief eligibility questionnaire. Stage 2 is an application form which will require about two hours to complete via SurveyMonkey Apply. Your submitted application will be independently assessed by two members of our team using a scoring matrix. Using the scoring matrix the team will decide who will be invited for an interview. Applicants chosen for interview will be interviewed by two people from our team. The team will then reconvene and agree which applicants should be offered a place on the programme.
If you want to build a venture with the potential to reduce carbon emissions, then please apply to the programme. We encourage you to be honest about your experience.
The radical innovation the climate crisis requires is best supported by diverse mindsets, ideas and backgrounds.
This is currently not reflected in venture investment, with founders from “non-traditional” backgrounds struggling to secure the funding despite studies overwhelmingly demonstrating that, when it comes to radical innovation, diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones.
Our positive approach to diversity allows us to contribute to transforming this element of the status quo and to give every founder a chance to secure funding. We will assess applicants based on the principles mentioned here and as outlined in our diversity and inclusion policy.
Yes, but at least two members from the existing team members need to apply as individuals and reference their cofounder/s name within their Stage 2 application.
Our industry/corporate partners may provide problem statements they are working on solving, and the Carbon13 team along with our Domain Experts and Entrepreneurs in Residence will help you develop your systemic innovation and find the right area to work on that will make the biggest impact on carbon. But entrepreneurial teams have to make their own minds up about how they want to build a lasting, impactful, valuable venture.
We are looking for entrepreneurs who have experience in or are ambitious to create carbon emissions reducing ventures in the key industries listed below:
Agriculture and food
Energy
Buildings and construction
Manufacturing
Transport, mobility and logistics
Finance
Consumer
All our founders are asked to commit to attempting to build a venture, if it reaches its potential, which can reduce emissions by 10m tonnes of CO2e per annum. This requires systematic, ambitious thinking about solutions, markets and business models.
One of the core ideas underlying Carbon13 is that it’s the strength of the team that matters, more than the idea. “Ideas” evolve many times between their original conception and the arrival of a solution to a customer’s problem in the marketplace.
However:
Technical founders:
If you are a data scientist, a software developer, an AI/ML specialist: you may join with or without an idea for a startup.
If your work as a scientist or engineer is rooted in the physical or natural sciences: typically we would expect you to come with the beginnings of an idea, or at least a domain space that you intend to explore for startup opportunities.
Commercial or Venture Catalyst founders:
Most commercial or venture catalyst founders join in the expectation of working up an idea in collaboration with a technical founder. Of course your cofounder will welcome you having your own ideas, especially if you have validated them with customers. And, you will perhaps have domain spaces in which you feel particularly passionate about making an impact. But normally, if you have a specific idea that you want to pursue, as a commercial or venture catalyst founder you should be bringing the first customers for that idea to the table with you.