Eco startups across the world have been taking on climate change with innovative solutions in 2023. From repurposed waste to clean energy solutions, these companies and their passionate founders are leading the charge toward a more sustainable future.
These top 50 standout startups are setting new standards and proving that a more sustainable future could be approaching. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at these 50 startups and how they’re making a real impact on environmental sustainability.
In this article, we will explore the top 25 out of the full list of 50. You can find the remaining 25 startups here.
1. Krill Design
Founder: Ivan Calimani, Martina Lamperti, Yack H. Di Maio
Website: https://en.krilldesign.net/
Krill Design is an Italy-based sustainable design startup that turns food waste into homeware. Their 100% circular and sustainable process transforms orange peels, lemon peels, and coffee into beautifully designed products such as lamps, incense holders and pocket emptiers.
Krill Design have created the first 100% circular designed lamp made from 100% orange peels. Not only are these lamps sustainable but their speckled orange design mimics the look and texture of orange peels.
2. PiLi
Founder: Jérémie Blache and Thomas Landrain
Website: https://www.pili.bio/
PiLi aims to fix the environmental problem posed by pigments and dyes. 99% of colours are currently produced with fossil resources, which threatens our environment. PiLi uses hybrid processes combining industrial fermentation and green chemistry to generate high-performance colour ranges.
They tackle textiles, inks, polymers, paints & coatings, which are the most polluting pigments. Their technology is based on microbial enzymes, re-engineered to produce dyes from renewable resources
3. Treeapp
Founder: Leo Ng, Jules Buker, and Godefroy Harito
Website: https://www.thetreeapp.org/
Treeapp is a tree-planting company that aims to make an environmental difference. Users view ads from eco-friendly brands to unlock the ability to plant a tree. After watching the add, they select the tree planting location with just a single tap.
Treeapp only partners with businesses that have a positive environmental focus. These businesses advertise and conduct market research through the Treeapp app, and in return, the businesses pledge to fund the planting of the trees. They have worked with brands such as L’Occitane, Nordgreen, Georganics, and Dash-Water.
4. Wild
Founder: Charlie Bowes-Lyon,
Website: https://www.wearewild.com/
Wild combats throwaway culture by providing sustainable bathroom solutions. Their durable, reusable deodorant applicator and Shower Gel case, made from aluminium, stand out as eco-friendly alternatives. The company offers bamboo pulp refills, saving over 30 grams of plastic with each use.
With seven natural scents and a cruelty-free, vegan approach, Wild plants trees with every purchase through its partnership with ONAMISSION, making them not just carbon neutral but carbon negative, having planted over 445,994 trees and counting.
5. Angell
Founder: Marc Simoncini
Website: https://angellmobility.com/
In the face of the climate emergency, electric bikes offer a clean alternative to combustion vehicles, electric bicycles reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Angell’s bikes aim to keep cities cleaner.
These smartbikes offer some advantages that cars don’t. They have visual and audible alarm, automatic locking and geolocation monitoring to keep your bike safe.
Angell smartbikes benefit from a wide range of integrated digital features, which are supported by an ever-evolving app. Their design and tech integrations could mean that city-dwellers might be more likely to use them instead of cars.
6. Tandem
Founder: Ricky Knox, Matt Cooper and Michael Kent
Website: https://www.tandem.co.uk/
Tandem is a digital bank with a mobile app, and no branches. Tandem’s marketplace aims to make it easier to reduce your monthly bills and your carbon footprint at the same time.
Tandem offers customers Savings, Mortgages, Personal and Secured Loans, Green Home Improvement Loans and Motor Finance. One of their key eco products is Greener Motor Finance, which is car financing that helps people transition to eco-friendly vehicles.
7. SolarMente
Founder: Wouter Draijer and Victor Gardrinier
Website: https://solarmente.es/?locale=en
Solarmente aims to help people make the switch to solar power. They are the first Spanish company to offer a solar subscription model for consumer solar panel installations. This means homeowners can switch to solar energy with no upfront savings.
They also collaborate with eco-friendly investors, banks and town councils to create the opportunity to outroll instant sustainability projects. They even work closely with local councils that directly need assistance with making their cities greener.
8. Carbonplace
Led by: CEO Scott Eaton
Website: https://carbonplace.com/
The carbon credits market is designed to direct the large-scale investment needed to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 by guiding investment to funding carbon reduction and removal projects. Carbonplace connects buyers and sellers of carbon credits through their banks.
This allows businesses to turn their sustainability mission into a market advantage without changing their existing banking system. Backed by the world’s leading banks, Carbonplace allows businesses a level of security while they meet their environmental goals.
9. Energy Dome
Founder: Claudio Spadacini, Dario Rizzi, and Francesco Oppici
Website: https://energydome.com/
Energy Dome offers energy storage as a service. They aim to solve the problem of long-duration energy storage with technology that is made with off-the-shelf components. It is made from sustainable materials such as steel and CO2.
Energy Dome’s technology operates through a thermodynamic cycle. It draws carbon dioxide from a ‘Dome’ gasholder, storing it under pressure, and then dispatching it by evaporating and expanding the gas through a turbine back into the gasholder.
10. Wastefront
Founder: Vegard Bringsjord and Inge Berge
Website: https://wastefront.com/
Wastefront is a rubber waste recycling company which converts disused tyres into useful goods. Their goal is to decrease the negative environmental effect of End-of-Life-Tyres (ELTs), which would otherwise contribute to pollution.
Wastefront uses pyrolytic reactors to thermally depolymerise the components of a tyre at high temperatures. The products of this process are used as a reinforcement for natural rubber in tyre production, mechanical rubber goods, or as a filler for plastics. This circular use is sustainable as it extends the life cycle of its materials.
11. Phycom
Founder: Erwin Houtzager
Website: https://phycom.eu/
Phycom strives to improve food availability and quality for humans and animals by using algae. Their innovative algae ingredients enhance specialty production through algae’s functional properties. Algae is vegan and sustainable, and can produce an eco-friendly food source.
Algae is full of amino acids and can be used as a meat source for humans and animals. It can be used as a natural flavour, a salt substitute, and a way to fortify starchy foods with extra benefits. It’s also eco-friendly and cruelty-free, meaning Phycom’s customers are making a positive change.
12. Grove
Founder: Stuart Landesberg
Website: https://www.grove.co/
Grove is a marketplace of 200+ vetted brands who are eco-friendly and sustainable. The average Grove order removes the equivalent of 26 plastic water bottles from nature, and they are a plastic-neutral business, aiming to go plastic-free.
Their products meet a high standard of ethics including cruelty-free production, plant-based and filler-free formulas, and natural fragrances. They always ship 100% carbon neutral, use sustainable packaging materials, and support nonprofits like The Nature Conservancy.
13. Loam
Founder: Tegan Nock, Mick Wettenhall, Guy Webb, Guy Hudson
Website: https://www.loambio.com/
Loam uses microbes to capture carbon from the atmosphere. This carbon is then stored in soil. Their oam’s microbial library contains over 2000 unique fungal and bacterial isolates from across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Loam partners with farmers to provide technologies to consistently build soil carbon in their cropping systems. Their goal is to reduce carbon from the environment and securely capture, lowering CO2 levels in the air.
14. Aurora Solar
Founder: Christopher Hopper and Samuel Adeyemo
Website: https://aurorasolar.com/
Aurora Solar is a cloud-based platform that uses data, automation, and AI to help solar businesses to design and sell advanced PV systems. Their design software allows solar companies to design efficiently with tools that let them fill roof surfaces with pre-strung modules, run NEC compliance checks, and present it using a 3D model.
Their Sales Mode tool allows companies to create custom proposals for their clients, making it easier for potential customers to visualise how they can benefit from clean energy. These interactive proposals can be sent digitally, including in a mobile-friendly format.
15. Heliogen
Founder: Bill Gross
Website: https://www.heliogen.com/
Heliogen’s goal is to replace fossil fuels with more eco-friendly, renewable alternatives such as sunlight. They developed HelioHeat, a carbon-free high temp heat that can power industrial processes that produce steel, cement, and petrochemicals. They use receiver towers to absorb concentrated sunlight and generate heat for energy.
Heliogen also uses AI via their heliostat tracking system. Their cameras installed at the top of the tower measure the colour intensity of the sky as reflected in the mirrors. Their technology then calculates mirror orientation and the direction of the beam, meaning they can align efficiently in real-time.
16. Emitwise
Founder: Mauro Cozzi, Eduardo Gómez and Ben Peddie
Website: https://emitwise.com/
Emitwise aims to transform carbon management with a pioneering platform, placing carbon at the heart of every business decision. Enabling companies to measure, track, report, target, and reduce emissions across the supply chain, Emitwise breaks down barriers with a universal language of data, making climate solutions accessible.
Aligned with the Science-Based Targets initiative, Emitwise boasts a substantial impact, with 1 in 4 customers setting net-zero targets and 85% of emissions tracked falling under Scope 3. Founded by Mauro Cozzi, Eduardo Gómez, and Ben Peddie, the team’s daily commitment goes beyond tech, striving to accelerate the global transition to net-zero.
17. Bio Bean
Founder: Arthur Kay and Benjamin Harriman
Website: www.bio-bean.com
Bio-bean Limited, founded by Arthur Kay and Benjamin Harriman in 2013, pioneers green energy by industrialising the conversion of the UK’s waste coffee grounds into advanced biofuels. The London-based company partners with coffee waste producers and waste management services to collect and process coffee grounds in their 20,000 square foot facility, producing biomass pellets for heating buildings and future biodiesel for transport systems.
With £3 million in funding, patent protection, and endorsements from Innovate UK, Shell, and the Berkeley Group, bio-bean is a trailblazer in the sustainable energy sector, poised for strong turnover growth and recognition for transforming waste into a valuable resource.
18. Currensea
Founder: James Lynn
Website: https://www.currensea.com/
Currensea offers an eco-friendly travel debit card. Co-founded by James Lynn, the card, a first of its kind, liberates users from traditional bank ties, drawing directly from their primary accounts and eliminating hefty foreign exchange fees.
Targeting the convenience-seeking demographic of travellers over 40, Currensea also integrates an eco-conscious feature, allowing users to donate a portion of savings to environmental causes with each transaction. Positioned as a global leader in decoupled card technology, Currensea’s commitment to sustainability marks it as a transformative force.
19. Worn Again Technologies
Founder: Cyndi Rhoades
Website: https://wornagain.co.uk
Worn Again bridges textiles and a sustainable future. Their groundbreaking dual-input/dual-output method addresses an untapped market, using specially formulated chemicals to clean, extract, separate, and regenerate virgin-quality polyester and cellulose.
This innovative process eliminates the need for fossil fuel extraction and mitigates the depletion of natural resources. As well as recapturing and regenerating chemicals post-use, Worn Again’s commitment extends to feedstock development, unlocking new life for post-use textile resources through responsible reuse and recycling processes.
20. LettUs Grow
Founder: Charlie Guy, Jack Farmer, and Ben Crowther
Website: https://www.lettusgrow.com/
LettUs Grow, founded in Bristol, is a visionary company uniting growers, engineers, and software developers to advance sustainable agriculture. Specialising in aeroponic technology and farm management software for indoor and vertical farms, LettUs Grow pioneers eco-friendly solutions, reducing environmental impact and supporting farmers’ livelihoods.
With a mission to empower global access to locally grown, healthy food, the company embodies values of impact, ambition, care, responsibility, and openness. As a certified B Corp, LettUs Grow is committed to a triple bottom line—people, planet, and plants—making significant strides in reshaping the future of farming.
21. Budbee
Founder: Fredrik Hamilton
Website: https://budbee.com/
Budbee is a forward-thinking parcel delivery company dedicated to providing a seamless and sustainable experience for its customers. Whether opting for Budbee Home or Budbee Box, clients enjoy the convenience of having parcels delivered directly to their doorstep in the afternoon and evening or to a smart, accessible locker of their choice.
Budbee only uses renewable diesel and electricity throughout its transportation process, ensuring a minimal carbon footprint from pick-up to the last mile. Beyond delivery, Budbee embraces a two-way service by facilitating easy, label-free returns through their app, allowing customers to choose between doorstep collection or return via a Budbee Box.
22. HumanForest
Founder: Agustin Guilisasti
Website: https://www.humanforest.co.uk/
HumanForest stands as London’s premier green shared micro-mobility company, committed to changing urban transit with eco-friendly accessibility. The company boasts a fleet of complimentary electric bikes, providing the first 10 minutes of each ride at no cost, promoting sustainable commuting throughout the city.
Recent expansions include electric mopeds, specifically designed for delivery drivers, offering emission-free and efficient transport options. With over a million rides completed in London, HumanForest has emerged as a leader in the micro-mobility sector, contributing to a greener urban landscape and saving 220 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
23. Sulapac
Founder: Dr Suvi Haimi and Dr Laura Tirkkonen-Rajasalo
Website: https://www.sulapac.com/
Sulapac, founded in Finland, envisions a plastic waste-free future by providing innovative and sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics. Specialising in bio-based and biodegradable materials, Sulapac assists companies in transitioning to materials that are not only eco-friendly but also meet the quality standards of the world’s most prestigious luxury brands.
Unlike traditional plastics leave no microplastics or toxic load behind, ensuring they are safe for both people and the planet. Sulapac is committed to saving the world from plastic waste as they strive to set a new standard for sustainable materials replacing plastics.
24. CLUBZERØ
Founder: Safia Qureshi
Website: https://www.clubzero.co/
CLUBZERØ aims to combat the global single-use plastic crisis. Recognising the shortcomings of existing solutions, they developed an award-winning returnable packaging system for food and beverage establishments. With a commitment to user convenience and environmental impact, they have saved 34 tonnes of CO2 and prevented 2.2 million single-use plastic items from entering the environment.
Their design-led approach has earned them accolades, including a D&AD pencil and recognition at the Design Museum’s Waste Age Exhibition. Going forward, CLUBZERØ aims to expand globally, envisioning a world where its sustainable model becomes the standard in every city by 2030.
25. The Library of Things
Founder: Emma Shaw
Website: https://www.libraryofthings.co.uk/
Functioning as a hub for the emerging sharing economy, a Library of Things lends a diverse array of items to local community members. Their products range from DIY tools and garden machinery to kitchen appliances, camping gear, and various household essentials.
By enabling individuals to borrow rather than own, these libraries contribute to the environment by minimising waste, reducing consumption, and reducing carbon emissions. In the future, they aim to support a network of over fifty locally-rooted Library of Things around the country.
