CodeBase's flagship programme for early-stage climate-tech founders in Edinburgh, funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in partnership with The City of Edinburgh Council.
Over three years it brought together founders working across sustainability, clean energy, circular economy, and environmental innovation, connecting them with the tools, community, and startup methodology to move their ideas forward.
Shared Prosperity Fund
City of Edinburgh Council
Edinburgh
Greentech
Hybrid
Cohort, meetups, hackathons
From a programme that was built on a clear thesis: put the right founders in the right room with the right tools, and the results follow.
Three years in, that thesis has returned more than £58m.
Ecosystem advocacy (NPS) vs target of +75
R&D enterprises brought into active knowledge exchange vs target of 60
Enterprises receiving support vs target of 90
Founders and ecosystem members convened across curated events
Active subscribers following the greentech ecosystem
Education sessions delivered
Hackathons for applied innovation challenges run
Founder-led community sessions delivered
Scotland's climate-tech sector has ambition in abundance. What early-stage founders consistently lacked was a place to build in community, access real startup methodology, and connect with peers moving at the same pace.
Greentech Futures was designed to close that gap, specifically in Edinburgh.
The programme covered sustainability, clean energy, circular economy, conservation, and environmental innovation.
It was open to any early-stage concept with a credible positive impact on climate or sustainable energy, including physical product founders: startup thinking applies across the board.
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Structured, closed cohort covering startup thinking, digital product development, and innovation methodology.
Delivered in-person at CodeBase (Edinburgh) and online, with watch parties introduced at cohort request and met with strong attendance and feedback.
Monthly in-person sessions open to the wider Edinburgh greentech community. Each one built around real founder journeys and live greentech challenges, with genuine space to connect. Consistent, well-attended, and community-driven across all three years.
Intensive in-person sessions designed to bring the community together around applied greentech challenges. Eight delivered across the programme, including a co-production with ECCAN in Year 3, broadening reach into Edinburgh's wider climate action network.
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Greentech Futures was designed to sit inside Edinburgh's broader climate action ecosystem, not apart from it. In Year 3, CodeBase co-delivered a hackathon with ECCAN, the Edinburgh Climate Communities Action Network, bringing together greentech founders and community climate activists around shared challenges.
The cohort brought together people at every stage of the early founder journey, from the earliest ideation through to first traction, with 52% women contributors in Year 3.
What moved them wasn't any single session or module. The two things participants consistently pointed to were a shift in how they thought about building, and the people they built alongside. Almost every participant flagged the community as a key accelerant, as much as the curriculum itself.
By the programme finale, Parag had completed a product, assembled a prototype for imminent launch, filed a patent, hired his first permanent employee, and secured a Scottish Enterprise grant.
Engaged customers, built a financial model, created and delivered a pitch deck to the cohort, then left for Miami to meet potential customers directly the following month.
Joined with a vague idea and the first idea failed fast, by design. Now on a new concept with renewed momentum, connected to Ceri Shaw and the Robotarium to test her MVP.
The programme shifted his entire strategic thinking. He's returned to university to complete a Masters in Strategy, with a view to better understanding the commercial landscape and leaning into startup culture on completion.
Featured in het Financieele Dagblad
Greentech Futures was covered by het Financieele Dagblad, the Dutch equivalent of the Financial Times, as part of wider coverage of the growing greentech startup sector in east Scotland.
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