Climate First recently launched their second delegation of Israeli climate tech startups visiting the UK for their UK Roadshow, which happens in the final week of the company's eight-week scale-up program. During the program, the startups are to meet with UK government officials, senior executives from global corporations, asset managers from investment funds, and leading climate tech venture capitalist firms.
The Roadshow Program
"The program was initiated to support extraordinary climate tech companies in scaling up, accelerating market entry, and ultimately succeeding and doing it faster. Our focus is on startups developing hardware and deep tech solutions for global decarbonization, particularly those at the series seed/A stage. These companies often face a funding gap as they operate in uncharted territory for generalist B2B-SaaS venture capital. Yet, it is typically too early for private equity or debt financing to be viable options," says Nadav Steinmetz, co-founder and managing partner at Climate First.
Climate First's tailored scale-up program includes sessions led by industry experts covering finance, carbon markets, hardware product design, legal trends, pitching, and storytelling. Additionally, their network of over 120 mentors, including climate investors and professionals, provides guidance to the companies. The program culminates in an exclusive roadshow in London, the world's second-largest climate tech hub.
"This provides unparalleled opportunities to connect with major financial institutions and industry leaders, helping the companies amplify their impact, scale, and global presence."
For each delegation, 9 companies are selected that Climate First considers leaders in their respective domains. Their portfolio companies are focused on developing sustainable and scalable products across various high-emission sectors, such as energy, manufacturing, materials, buildings, mobility, and more.
"We specifically seek impact-driven companies with strong and diverse teams that are creating technologies with attractive unit economics and significant climate impact potential. The startups we work with are cherry-picked for their unique approach to key environmental issues, and this opportunity to connect them with leading UK financial investment houses is set to deliver tremendous progress for the climate and in particular the slashing of carbon emissions," says Guy Cherni, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Climate First.
The second delegation
The delegation's journey began with a welcoming event at The House of Lords, hosted by Lord Ian Austin, with the UK Ambassador to Israel, Simon Walters, and UK Israel Business' Danny Kesler and Dor Bershadsky, emphasizing the enduring partnership and shared commitment to climate technology advancement held by both the UK and Israel.
Comprising 9 dynamic Israeli startups—Carbon Blue, Chiral Energies, Climate Crop, First Airborne, Nitrofix, RepAir, SolCold, Xfloat, and Polymertal— all will hold strategic meetings to explore future partnerships, secure additional funding, and encourage industrial collaborations, building an important network for climate tech growth.
Throughout the week roadshow, the Israeli startups had the opportunity to meet with representatives from prestigious investment funds such as Blackrock, Temasek, Decarbonisation Partners, Beyond NetZero, General Atlantic, BP, Shell, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Barclays, Centrica, Coca-Cola, HSBC, EBRD, Just-Climate, and others. These engagements are integral to Climate First's mission to integrate Israeli climate-tech innovations into the UK market, promoting a collaborative approach to achieving net-zero emissions.
"Both delegations have been highly successful, but the roadshow's success is, of course, measured over time, with initial connections often leading to long-term relationships and investment opportunities. The majority of Delegation I companies secured funds through connections made at their roadshow last year, a statistic Climate First is incredibly proud of. The roadshow of Delegation II will also be evaluated over time, but we are confident that tangible value will have been created as a result of the roadshow," Nadav concludes.
For more information:
Climate First
Haarbaa 28, Tel-Aviv, Israel, 6473925
Email: team@climatefirst.vc
https://climatefirst.vc/