Clean Growth Fund held its third Roadshow event in Leeds this week as part of its mission to grow local economies through investment in cleantech startups across the country.
Leeds city has achieved an ‘A’ grade from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) for the second year running. Only 13% of the 900 global cities that received a rating received an ’A’ grade.
Beverley Gower-Jones started her welcome speech “As we look to the future, the urgency to reach net-zero emissions is a defining challenge. Leeds and Yorkshire are uniquely positioned to take the lead in the green transition, with local strengths in energy, technology, and sustainable manufacturing. Growing green jobs is not only an environmental imperative but also an economic opportunity, creating thousands of roles across multiple sectors”. So Leeds was a fitting choice to hold the CGF Roadshow.
Clean Growth Fund is a specialist cleantech VC fund investing in Seed to Series A across the UK. The Roadshow allows the team to meet cleantech start-ups from across the Yorkshire region, to understand the propositions, evaluate the suitability to CGF mandate and provide feedback and advice. The team met 14 exciting start-ups from the region with a wide variety of innovation from sustainable solvents and adhesives, a platform for industrial biotech register to zero-carbon hydrogen generators to AI and machine learning solutions for managing renewable energy sites, creating green home decarbonisation plans to solving last mile cold chain logistics challenges.
The evening networking event was open to the wider climate tech ecosystem and was opened by the Lord Mayor of Leeds Abigail Marshall Katung who give an impassioned speech about the significance of CGF holding its Roadshow in Leeds. The Lord Mayor said it “represents Yorkshire’s role in reshaping the greener future. By bringing together the local ecosystem we’re creating an environment that fosters innovation, boosts our local GDP and creates new green jobs to sustain the region and our people”.
The event saw attendees from the local council, civil service, banks, investors, entrepreneurs, university hubs and accelerators come together to network, share challenges and support one another.
The next Roadshow will be held in Spring 2025. Please follow CGF on LinkedIn to be kept up to date with the details as well as other Clean Growth Fund news.
