Backed under the £7 million IFB programme, the projects show how smart tech can tackle tough climate and biodiversity challenges – from restoring peatlands to predicting storm surges.
Each received between £250,000 and £500,000, and several have already secured new contracts or follow-on investment.
Ocean Ledger is using geospatial AI to forecast coastal erosion and storm risks, arming insurers, councils and engineers with tools to protect vulnerable shorelines.
In Mexico, TierraSphere and the University of Huddersfield restored 40 hectares of land using their AI-driven carbon sequestration platform, which is also now tracking biodiversity and soil health.
Auquan, working with UCL, has built an agentic AI model that speeds up due diligence for nature-based investments by crunching complex environmental data faster and more accurately than ever.
In Scotland, Caledonian Climate Partners and New Gradient are slashing lead times for peatland restoration planning, winning work from the Cairngorms National Park Authority and contributing to the UK’s Peatland Code.
Closer to home, City Science Corporation and Caerphilly Council created a land assessment tool that helps local planners factor in natural capital – a move that could help halt biodiversity loss before development breaks ground.
Meanwhile, Zulu Ecosystems and Severn Trent built a suite of land optimisation models that show where habitat restoration boosts water supply, flood control and carbon capture.
Catherine Makin, Innovate UK’s Innovation Lead for Green Finance, said: “The grants were designed to enable the development, acceleration and commercialisation of six brilliant projects to unlock investment into nature. Each project addresses a crucial environmental need – be that coastal conservation, enhancing water resilience or encouraging investments in peatlands.”
With two projects already securing further funding and all six deep in talks with investors, the success of this green tech cohort, signals a shift the market is starting to notice.
