London Leads Europe’s Climate Tech Evolution

Mayoral Advisor Touts Infrastructure, Commitment to Net-Zero by 2030

It may be surprising to some outside the corporate venture capital sphere, but London has quietly ascended to lead Europe in deep tech investing and entrepreneurial support.

“Each year, we partner with 300 tech-sector businesses to provide support with their international expansion planning, connect them with investors, and coordinate events in London and trade missions all over the world,” noted Ben Johnson, London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s lead advisor on economic and business policy.

Speaking to the live and online audience assembled for TDK Ventures’ and Climate Investors’ Energy Week 2023 symposium at London’s prestigious Goldsmiths’ Centre, Johnson said the city’s flagship program, Grow London Global, works to open international markets to local companies by offering free expert advice tailored to each organization’s business aims. It is just one of the ways London is rivaling Silicon Valley, Bangaluru, and Beijing among the elite cities for technology-based startups and venture capital.

“We’re third globally, both in climate tech funding and the number of climate and energy tech investors,” Johnson said. “We’ve got corporate-friendly governance, familiar taxation and board structures, and a legal environment for venture-backed startups to find appropriate exits.”

London also is attracting both large-scale late-stage and growth-equity funds and progressive US companies operating in the climate tech space. Johnson highlighted Atlanta-based Cloverly, a sustainability-as-a-service platform that connects businesses, consumers, and organizations to voluntary carbon markets. The company will use part of the $19 million in venture funding it recently raised to triple its workforce, build additional infrastructure, and establish a second headquarters in London.

Also, Antenna Group, a New York City-based integrated marketing, public relations, and public affairs agency focused on climate, real estate, mobility, and health sectors, selected London as the first location in a planned major expansion across Europe. The company’s website says it was drawn to London by the city’s “ambitious climate policies, surge in environmentally conscious space, inclusive public transportation system, and emphasis on public health.”

Solving climate issues and the health and environmental troubles stemming from the use of fossil fuels are high on London leadership’s agenda. The city that birthed the Industrial Revolution is committed to reducing our carbon footprint,” Johnson promised. “Mayor Kahn, my boss, has set a distinctively ambitious, world-leading target to achieve net-zero by 2030. We’re trying to give investors, startups, businesses looking to expand, the certainty they need to invest in London.”

He acknowledged net-zero by 2030 will not be easy, but in the face of the climate crisis, London’s leaders recognize the need for an effort that matches the scale of the challenge.

“More than 60% of the carbon emissions in our city come from the built environment, offices, homes, and public buildings,” Johnson said. “To achieve net-zero, we need to reduce the total heat demand of those buildings by 40%. That requires more than 2 million homes and a quarter-million non-domestic buildings to be properly insulated and retrofitted. The mayor’s ambitious requirements for new homes to be net-zero and air-quality neutral are going to shift to low-carbon heating solutions such as heat pumps rather than gas boilers and solar panels.”

Energy Week 2023 came less than six months after TDK Ventures announced it would headquarter its European market expansion in London. The venture capital arm of the Japanese multinational electronics company announced in June that London would be the base for its new $150 million Fund EX1 (Energy Transformation 1) concentrating on electrification and decarbonization seed- and series A-stage startups based in primarily in Europe.

TDK Ventures has received strong support from the British government’s Department for Business and Trade over the years, making the decision to base TDK Ventures first European presence in London an easy one. Adding to the strategic decision to bolster its commitment to the region, TDK Ventures cited recent breakthroughs in materials science and advanced manufacturing throughout the European Union, setting it up as a hub for aggressive energy transition and environmental innovation. The potential to develop, scale, and commercialize these breakthroughs coincides perfectly with TDK Ventures’ history and mission to provide not only monetary support but also industry insights and advice to entrepreneurial organizations dedicated to achieving carbon neutrality.

Energy Week 2023 gathered climate tech and energy sector experts to highlight the efforts of industry entrepreneurs, investors, and the scientific community in solving the world’s energy challenges and finding sustainable paths to decarbonization.

Johnson said London made the perfect setting, in part because with promotional assistance from the non-profit growth and destination agency, London & Partners, “the mayor’s economic authority is to create growth that is resilient, sustainable, and inclusive. That means creating well-paid jobs for Londoners, bringing the world’s most innovative companies, and helping our own home-grown companies to scale and win business overseas.”

Grow London Global has proven so successful that it is being expanding it to include other regions of the UK, notably the West Midlands and Scotland. Those plans, he said, “create a huge opportunity for business and investment. Green is good business sense. Our green economy is currently worth £48 billion, and the mayor’s ambition is that we will more than double that by 2030.

The private sector has responded to the challenge, he said, with the advertising of 336,000 green jobs in 2022 across the UK, with more than 100,000 of them in London and the Southeast.

“We like to think of it as leveling up in action,” Johnson said. “In our mission to bring the best companies in the world to London, we are especially proud that TDK Ventures has chosen our city for their European headquarters and for hosting this first conference in Europe here.

He emphasized that London shared the vision of EW23’s entrepreneurs, investors, and researchers for aggressively attacking climate change and commercializing net-zero technologies. He invited everyone to explore what his city has to offer.

“So, whether you’re in finance, clean tech, sustainable infrastructure, or focused on the circular economy, London is the place to be,” Johnson concluded. “Beyond this, London is also the best city to set and grow a business, regardless of your central focus. if you’re looking to grow sustainably and reduce your carbon footprint.”