London backs its climate ambitions with real public infrastructure for startups.
Programs and agencies like Innovate UK and London & Partners offer grants, incentives, testing, and incubation to help climate companies get started and scale here.
Innovate UK
Innovate UK is the country's national innovation agency and the main source of non-dilutive grant funding founders can access while keeping full equity. Vehicles include open-call Smart Grants, sector and challenge competitions, innovation loans, knowledge-transfer partnerships, and free advisory support through its business-connect network and the Catapults. Founders should confirm current open competitions, since grant lines are periodically paused and refreshed.
London & Partners: Grow London
London & Partners is the Mayor's growth and investment-promotion agency, a support and soft-landing body rather than a fund. Founders get free business-growth programs, market-entry help for international firms, trade missions, greentech networking, and export support, plus referrals into climate partners like Sustainable Ventures. It provides no direct capital.
Greater London Authority: Green Economy Programs
The Greater London Authority funds cleantech support rather than delivering it directly, chiefly through Better Futures and Better Futures+, backed by the Mayor's green funds. Founders get grant-subsidized support including workspace, prototyping, investment-readiness, and net-zero help, delivered by partners such as Sustainable Ventures and Undaunted. Applications run through those delivery partners rather than the GLA itself.
Energy Systems Catapult
Energy Systems Catapult is a government-backed energy innovation body, not an investor, whose value to founders is testbeds, expertise, and market navigation. Its Living Lab is a real-world network of connected UK smart homes where startups trial products and gather technical and consumer data at far lower acquisition cost, and its Energy Launchpad adds incubation, investor-readiness, and policy navigation. It is best used to validate energy hardware and software in real conditions.
Connected Places Catapult
Connected Places Catapult is the UK's innovation accelerator for cities, transport, and place, not an investor. It runs challenge-led SME accelerators across mobility, freight, maritime, and local-authority decarbonization, providing business development, investment-readiness, technical support, space, and, in several programs, real-world trials with public and corporate partners plus pilot contracts. Programmes typically suit companies at TRL 5 and above.