Carbon13 has built more than 300 climate-tech startups since 2021, earning a reputation as one of Europe’s most active early-stage climate investors. Five of its newest ventures — Climingo, Algaenic, Mushroom+, HexSeed Technology and Viridys Bio — are now entering Carbon13’s new 12-month Growth Phase, each backed at pre-seed through SyndicateRoom’s Carbon13 SEIS Fund IX.
The five span the frontline of climate tech in 2026: adaptation to a warming climate, resilience of critical supply chains, and the electrification and autonomy shaping the next industrial cycle. Every founding team has already won grant funding and moved through early technology-readiness milestones before raising equity.
“In 2026 we’re seeing fierce competition at pre-seed — investors expect more progress at this stage than ever before, and these five are meeting those expectations. Their teams are often led by serial founders who know what it takes to go from idea to scaling. Now we’re excited to have them enter the new 12-month Growth Phase of Carbon13, which will enable them to progress even faster.”
Michael Langguth, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Carbon13
The five ventures
Climingo, accurate weather and climate forecasting
Climingo combines and benchmarks weather and climate forecasts so organisations can pick the most accurate provider, preventing damage, improving resilience and cutting emissions.
Why: Climate models are highly location and asset specific, so someone independent needs to combine them. As Europe’s latest heatwave showed, the stakes are only rising, and the team has lived the problem for years.
Founders: Dr Avi Baruch (CEO), who scaled a flood-forecasting startup from Series A to multi-million ARR; and Alper Dincer (CTO), 20+ years building national early-warning and geospatial systems.
Algaenic, harvesting harmful algal blooms
Algaenic detects, removes and harvests harmful algal blooms (HABs) with a low-cost, low-energy system, turning a pollution problem into sellable biomass.
Why: Maritime engineering is brutally complex. Algaenic pairs deep maritime know-how with a realistic beachhead market before taking on the high seas.
Founders: Exited maritime-autonomy founder Peter Bebbington; and Dr Blessing Allen-Adebayo, a PhD microbiologist in algal bioremediation along with a serial climate deep-tech founder who is remaining in stealth mode at present.
Mushroom+ boosting mushroom protein 10x
Mushroom+ uses molecular engineering to raise the natural protein content of mushrooms by 10x, matching meat, without GMO.
Why: Food resilience depends on more sustainable protein sources, and mushrooms are a standout opportunity. The team are world-leading molecular mycologists.
Founders: Dr Corinne Pinder (CSO) and Dr Ressa Lebedinec (COO), molecular-mycology PhDs with 20+ years’ combined experience and 13 peer-reviewed papers between them.
HexSeed Technology, lab-grown diamond for chip cooling
HexSeed develops lab-grown industrial diamond as a thermal coating for next-generation semiconductors.
Why: As AI compute scales, cooling is the bottleneck. As a chip coating, diamond conducts heat roughly 5x better than today’s materials and extends device life under heavy AI workloads.
Founders: Mark Tandy (CEO), 20+ years in oil & gas, including TotalEnergies’ CCUS portfolio; Leonardo Santoni (CTO), a PhD chemist in thin-film deposition; and Michael Glerum (CCO), a Cambridge PhD engineer with prior CVD startup experience.
Viridys Bio, biosensors that read plant stress
Viridys builds low-cost, non-living biosensors that detect the VOCs plants emit under stress, an early-warning system for crops.
Why: Farmers need to cut pesticide use, and Viridys gives them the data to do it. NIAB has already verified the technology’s efficacy.
Founders: Dr Rotem Berman (CTO), 20+ years in biosensors, including the world-first operational deployment outside the lab; and Stuart Dixon (CEO), ex-Goldman Sachs Executive Director and Army Officer with a biotech background.
Already raised £500k pre-seed from Carbon13 and SFC Capital, plus a large Innovate UK grant.
“Climate tech in 2026 isn’t one bet; it’s several. These five span adaptation, supply-chain resilience, food security and the AI compute crunch, problems that only get bigger from here. I back breadth at pre-seed because breadth is what protects you. The quality of these founding teams is what makes the breadth worth having.“
Tom Britton, Co-founder, SyndicateRoom
