The Inflexion Foundation is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute  – Climate Change and the Environment through a grant of £195,000 per annum for the next two years. The grant will support Undaunted – a hub for the UK’s climate innovation community that creates new routes into climate entrepreneurship and supports the acceleration of startups and SMEs tackling climate change.

Undaunted is a partnership between Imperial College London and The Royal Institution, based within London’s White City Innovation District.  The Inflexion grant will specifically back its accelerator programme, The Greenhouse – the UK’s first climate-focused accelerator, which has supported over 190 ‘pre-seed’ startups over the past 12 years. This unique programme supports cohorts over 12-months and includes up to £20,000 equity-free grant funding, mentoring, masterclasses, and free workspaces. Across all industries, the survival rate of new startups is 10 per cent; for startups graduating from Undaunted, the survival rate is over 93 per cent. By 2030 Undaunted alumni are projected to have saved:

• 29 million tonnes of cumulative carbon dioxide equivalent, which equates to 7% of the UK's annual greenhouse gas emissions
• 76 million tonnes cumulative waste, equivalent to a third of the UK's annual waste
• 7.4 million litres total fresh water, equivalent to the annual consumption of 75 thousand UK households

The Greenhouse is co-funded by the Inflexion Foundation, HSBC UK (through the bank the bank’s global Climate Solutions Partnership) and the Greater London Authority (via the Mayor of London).

Finding innovation solutions for the climate crisis that we are facing is absolutely critical. We have been impressed by the strength of the Undaunted programme and are delighted to be supporting entrepreneurs as they seek to scale technology-based climate solutions.

John Hartz, Trustee at the Inflexion Foundation

Climate and public good are our core focus at Undaunted, and our base within Imperial allows us to embrace high-quality deeptech solutions that tackle harder-to-change sectors. The ventures we’ve supported have gone on to raise upwards of $1bn in investment, operating across 30 countries and creating over 2000 jobs globally; their tech – which needs to be scalable as well as sustainable – will have increasingly vital real-world impact over the coming decades. None of this would be possible without key funders, whose vital financial contributions enable us to provide consistent support for the next generation of climate innovators.

Alyssa Gilbert, Director of Undaunted and Director of Innovation, Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment