How to Start a Climate Tech Startup Without VC (2026)

Short answer: To start a climate tech startup without VC, skip the capital-heavy categories and build software or services for businesses that already have a reason to pay: a big customer asking for their emissions, a public tender that needs a Carbon Reduction Plan, a reporting deadline, or an energy bill they want to cut. Start with a service or a narrow tool, charge from the first customer, and use grants only where your product genuinely involves R&D.

Every regulation, price and funding figure below comes from the official or vendor page, checked on 12 Nov 2026. Founder quotes come from published interviews. The analysis in between is ours and is marked as such.

TL;DR#

• Most of climate tech's reputation for burning money comes from hardware, carbon removal and energy projects. Software and services built around emissions data, compliance and efficiency cost far less to start.
• Bootstrapped climate founders exist and talk about it. Ed Perryman of Replacer and Jack Linnett of Earthmark told Above & Beyond Climate News why they self-funded, and Impact Zero's Erin Andrews told Climate North that her non-profit "helps people bootstrap".
• Demand comes from rules and buyers, and the rules changed a lot in 2025-2026. California's SB 253 reports were due 10 Nov 2026 (CARB), SB 261 is still under development with a CARB enforcement advisory, the EU's Omnibus package narrows CSRD, UK SRS is voluntary, and UK central government asks bidders on contracts above £5 million a year for a Carbon Reduction Plan (PPN 006).
• Prices for SME carbon tools range from free to four figures a month. Persefoni Pro is free for one user, Aclymate Navigator shows $45 a month for small teams, Gaia starts at £300 + VAT a month, and several big names sell only on quotes.
• Non-dilutive funding fits R&D, not resale. SBIR/STTR takes 0% equity, the EIC Accelerator grant goes up to EUR 2.5M, and Innovate UK has climate competitions open. Frontier is a buyer of carbon removal, not a software fund.

Disclosure: ZeroRaised is a launch site for products built without institutional VC. We have no commercial relationship with any company, programme or vendor named here and earn nothing if you use them. Facts come from the linked sources as checked on 12 Nov 2026. None of this is legal, tax or financial advice.

Why climate tech looks like a VC game (and where it is not)#

Most climate tech headlines are about companies that need a lot of money before they sell anything: batteries, electrolysers, direct air capture, green steel, fusion, grid-scale storage. They need labs, pilot plants, certification and then project finance to build at scale. A founder cannot fund that from savings, and customers will not prepay for a technology that has not been tested.

But "climate tech" is a broad label. A large share of the work that actually cuts emissions in a normal company is not new hardware. It is:

1. Measuring. Working out a company's emissions across what the GHG Protocol calls scopes 1, 2 and 3. Scope 2 covers "purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heat, and cooling", and the Scope 3 Standard lets companies "assess their entire value chain emissions impact and identify where to focus reduction activities".
2. Reporting. Turning those numbers into the document a regulator, a customer, a lender or a public buyer asked for.
3. Reducing. Energy efficiency, procurement changes, logistics, waste and materials.
4. Matching. Connecting used, surplus or recycled goods with buyers (the circular economy).

All four can be done with software, spreadsheets and expertise. That is where bootstrapping works.

Our read on what makes a climate segment bootstrap-friendly:

• Someone has a deadline or a buyer forcing the issue. Voluntary climate goals get postponed. Supplier questionnaires, tender requirements and legal deadlines do not.
• The first version can be a service. If you can deliver the outcome by hand with a spreadsheet, you can charge before you build.
• No physical risk. If your product failing means a wrong number in a report, you can fix it. If it means a fire, you need insurance, testing and capital.
• Short path to first revenue. Weeks or months, not a three-year pilot.

If you are set on hardware, read our guide on how to bootstrap a hardware startup first. It covers pre-orders, contract manufacturing and how to keep inventory risk small. This post concentrates on software and services.

Bootstrapped climate founders, in their own words#

We only include founders who described their funding in their own words, in a published interview. We do not include revenue figures because none were given.

Replacer: self-funded until at least MVP#

Ed Perryman, CEO and co-founder, founded Replacer in 2024. The interview describes it as "a sustainability solutions platform to help organisations transition away from problematic plastics, disposable and single-use items" (Above & Beyond Climate News, Issue 23).

On why they bootstrapped:

"As a software startup with a much lower cost base than most hardware solutions, we felt we could run a lean operation and self-fund until at least the MVP stage, thereby retaining complete control of our early-stage journey."

On early costs, he says setting up the company, the tech stack and customer discovery "were actually very low", and that "Our first significant cost was in outsourced software development."

On team and runway: "We are three co-founders who worked together for around six months to feel confident that we had trust, shared values, and complementary skills. We also all had at least 12 months of runway to work with in terms of not paying ourselves."

On staying lean: "We've also pursued free support from industry bodies, government, foundations etc. - there is a lot of help available if you look for it."

His advice to founders weighing the choice is the clearest test we have seen:

"Think about the type of product or service you are building and establish a) can you get it up and running with relatively little? And b) can you somehow charge customers early (even by doing something that doesn't scale)? If 'yes', then bootstrapping is probably a good call."

Earthmark: four years, customers close#

Jack Linnett, CEO and co-founder of Earthmark, had been operating for four years at the time of the interview. The piece describes the product as "Trustpilot for the climate", an AI-powered platform giving brands and marketplaces benchmarked environmental insights.

On why he bootstrapped: "We knew we could get the first product to market ourselves with our own cash. I was still in a corporate day job, so that helped financially too."

On building without outside money: "Plenty of user interviews, a Slack focus group, idea competitions and venture builders (ClimateKIC and Carbon13) got us there. Since V1 launch, we've reinvested revenues to keep building out."

On the climate-specific advantage: bootstrapping brings "a laser focus on commercials (if the numbers don't stack up then you're going to find out much sooner than with VC funding)".

And on customer relationships: "We don't have AI sales agents, chatbots or CS teams - we're in regular close contact with customers and partners."

The interview is also honest about the downside. On hiring, one answer reads: "Attracting and keeping the right people bought in is tough when you're offering equity and a bit of cash rather than VC-backed salaries."

Impact Zero: keep the job, sell early#

Erin Andrews is founder and executive director of Impact Zero, a Canadian non-profit that helps underrepresented founders commercialise climate solutions. She told Climate North:

"Through my own personal experience in the small business and climate tech world, I've learned that access to capital is not the easiest thing to come by. That is why Impact Zero helps people bootstrap"

She goes on to say the training is about generating "sustainable revenue" and growing "through sales and smart growth tactics".

And, on the part most founders are told the opposite about:

"We actually encourage people to hold down a full-time or part-time job as they build their business (VC's think that's a red flag and founders "aren't committed" if that's the case)."

She also mentions that Impact Zero posts "a monthly grant watch on the 1st of the month so founders don't miss funding opportunities", which is a cheap habit worth copying even if you are not in Canada.

What these stories have in common#

Our read: none of them started with a lab. They started with software or a service, a founder who could survive without a salary for a while (a day job, savings, or both), free support programmes, and revenue that went back into the product. That is the template this guide follows.

Where the demand comes from in 2026#

A bootstrapped climate startup needs a buyer with a reason to pay this quarter. In 2026 those reasons mostly come from rules and from big customers passing rules down their supply chains. Rules have changed a lot in 2025 and 2026, so check each one on the day you pitch it. Here is what the official pages said on 12 Nov 2026.

California SB 253 and SB 261#

CARB's programme page says SB 253 "will require business entities ... with total annual revenues in excess of one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) that do business in California ... to annually disclose their scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the prior fiscal year" (CARB).

On timing, the same page says: "2026 report submission: the November 10, 2026 reporting deadline remains in effect" for the first Scope 1 and 2 reports, and that CARB's initial regulation was approved by the Office of Administrative Law on October 12, 2026.

SB 261, the climate-related financial risk law, applies to "both public and private U.S. companies that do business in California with annual revenues of $500 million". CARB says the programme is "currently under development" and links an SB 261 enforcement advisory dated December 2025. Treat SB 261 as unsettled and check CARB's page before you sell anything built on it.

Our read: you will not sell to the billion-dollar reporting entities as a solo founder. The opportunity is one step down. Scope 3 covers their value chain, which means their suppliers, many of them small, get asked for data.

The EU: CSRD narrowed by the Omnibus package#

The European Commission's CSRD page says the simplification Omnibus package "proposes to apply the CSRD only to the largest companies (those with more than 1000 employees)" and "seeks to ensure that reporting requirements on large companies do not burden smaller companies in their value chains" (European Commission). The page's timeline records a political agreement between the Parliament and the Council on the Omnibus I package on 9 December 2025, and a Commission recommendation on a voluntary sustainability reporting standard for SMEs (VSME). It also refers to standards "for voluntary use by undertakings protected by the value chain cap".

Our read: if your pitch deck from 2024 says "50,000 EU companies must report under CSRD", throw it away. The EU opportunity for a small startup is now the voluntary SME standard and the value-chain requests that still arrive from large companies, not mass compliance. Check the final directive text on EUR-Lex for the exact thresholds that apply in your customer's country.

The UK: SECR, UK SRS and public procurement#

SECR. The UK's environmental reporting guidance says SECR requires "all UK quoted companies to report on their global energy use in addition to greenhouse gas emissions", with requirements for large unquoted companies and large LLPs too. For everyone else: "The government encourages all other companies to report similarly, although this remains voluntary" (GOV.UK).

UK SRS. The government has published final UK Sustainability Reporting Standards, based on the ISSB standards. GOV.UK says: "The standards are available for voluntary use, by any entity that chooses to do so." The government and the FCA "will consider whether to introduce requirements for certain UK entities" (GOV.UK).

PPN 006, the one that matters most for small firms. UK central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies should apply PPN 006 when awarding contracts "with an estimated contract value above £5 million per year", for procurements advertised on or after 24 February 2025. Bidders must provide a Carbon Reduction Plan "confirming the supplier's commitment to achieving net zero by 2050 in the UK", including "current emissions for the sources included in Scope 1 and 2 of the GHG Protocol, and a defined subset of Scope 3 emissions" (PPN 006). GOV.UK publishes a technical standard and a template alongside it (PPN 006 collection).

Our read: this is the clearest example of a demand driver that hits mid-sized companies with a hard deadline (the tender closing date). A company that wants a £5 million a year contract and has never measured its footprint will pay someone to produce a compliant plan quickly. If you want to sell to government directly instead, our guide on how to sell software to the government covers frameworks and tenders.

SBTi's SME route#

The Science Based Targets initiative has a streamlined route for smaller companies. Under the definition it announced to take effect on 1 January 2024, companies are eligible if they have "<10,000 tCO2e across scope 1 and location-based scope 2 emissions" and employ fewer than 250 people (SBTi). Check SBTi's site for the current fee before quoting it to a customer.

Our read: SMEs set science-based targets mostly because a customer asks them to. Helping a supplier go from "no data" to "validated SME target" is a well-defined, sellable project.

Supply chain pull#

The common thread: large companies and public buyers are asking smaller companies for numbers. That pull is where bootstrapped climate startups make money, because:

• the buyer (the small supplier) has a concrete reason and a date,
• the work is repeatable from one supplier to the next,
• and the first version is a service you can deliver by hand.

Pick a slice: the segments compared#

This is our editorial assessment, not data. "Capital needed" means what it takes to reach first revenue.

How to use the table: choose a row where you already know the buyer. Founders who spent years in facilities management, procurement, logistics, hospitality or manufacturing usually have a better climate startup idea than someone who starts from "carbon accounting is a big market".

If the row you choose is a single industry, our guide on how to build a vertical SaaS without VC goes deeper on choosing and owning a niche. If it is a circular economy marketplace, read how to build a two-sided marketplace without VC first: liquidity is the hard part, and it is the same problem whether you are selling surplus pallets or vintage clothes.

What climate software for SMEs actually costs#

Your pricing has to make sense next to what buyers can already see. Here is what four vendors publish, and what two well-known ones do not, as checked on 12 Nov 2026.

What this tells a bootstrapper:

1. Free tools exist. A small company that only needs a rough footprint can get one from Persefoni Pro or Aclymate Explorer for nothing. You cannot win by being a cheaper calculator.
2. The money is in the work around the number. Aclymate's jump from $45 to $448 at the same company size is the difference between software and software plus people. Gaia's tiers start at hundreds of pounds a month. Buyers pay for help, accuracy and a document that passes someone else's review.
3. Quote-only pricing means sales calls. Greenly and Normative sell on demos. As a bootstrapper you can win the customers they consider too small to call back.

Our read on pricing models that work:

• One-off project fee plus a subscription. Charge a fixed fee for the first footprint or Carbon Reduction Plan, then a monthly or annual fee to keep data current, answer customer questionnaires and produce next year's report. The project pays for your time; the subscription builds recurring revenue.
• Price by company size, not by feature. Aclymate's slider by employee count is a good model. Small buyers understand "you have 30 staff, so it costs X".
• Sell the outcome. "A PPN 006-compliant Carbon Reduction Plan in 10 working days" is easier to buy than "carbon accounting software".
• Annual billing. Reporting happens once a year. Annual plans match that rhythm and give you cash up front.

Non-dilutive funding for climate founders#

Grants and awards can extend your runway, but they fit R&D-heavy products far better than a services business or a simple SaaS. Our wider guide to startup grants for bootstrapped founders covers general programmes. Here are the climate-relevant ones, from their own pages.

US: SBIR and STTR#

SBIR.gov describes the programmes as "America's Seed Fund", coordinated by the SBA and "funded through 11 participating federal agencies", with "0%" equity or IP ownership taken by the government (SBIR.gov). The about page says: "As of October 16, 2026, agencies may issue a Phase I award (including modifications) up to $335,937 and a Phase II award (including modifications) up to $2,239,578 without seeking SBA approval" (SBIR.gov about). Those are ceilings, not typical awards, and each agency runs its own solicitations and topics.

Our read: the Department of Energy is the obvious agency for climate work, but read every participating agency's solicitation, because climate-relevant topics can sit anywhere. SBIR rewards genuine research and technical risk. A carbon accounting dashboard built on standard emission factors is unlikely to fit; a new method for measuring methane from sensor data might.

EU: EIC Accelerator#

The EIC Accelerator is open to "Single start-ups and SMEs, individuals intending to launch a SME and small mid-caps (can apply for equity only)". It offers a "Grant component up to EUR 2.5M for innovation activities (TRL 6 to 8)" and an investment component from "EUR 1M up to EUR 10M for scaling up and other activities (TRL 6 to 9)". The page says the overall budget for the EIC Accelerator Open in 2027 is EUR 428 million (EIC Accelerator).

Our read: the EIC Accelerator is competitive and paperwork-heavy, and it targets breakthrough technology. Consider it if your product has real deep-tech content and you are in an eligible country. It is not a way to fund a consultancy.

UK: Innovate UK#

Innovate UK competitions are listed on the Innovation Funding Service. On 12 Nov 2026 the listing included climate-related competitions such as "Healthy Soils and Water for a Sustainable Environment", "Scaling Interoperable V2X: bidirectional charging", "Testing and validating underground hydrogen storage components" and "Growth Cohorts: Next-gen low carbon concrete cohort entry Round 2". Each competition has its own scope, eligibility, funding level and dates, so read the brief before writing a word.

Tax credits#

If you write software that solves a genuine technical problem, R&D tax relief may be worth more than a grant and needs no competition. See our guide to ways to fund a product without venture capital for how tax credits fit with customer revenue, revenue-based financing and other options.

Frontier: a buyer, not a fund#

Frontier is often mentioned in climate funding lists, so be precise about what it is. Frontier is "an advance market commitment to buy $1.8B of permanent carbon removal by 2040". It "facilitates purchases from high-potential carbon removal companies on behalf of buyers", through low-volume prepurchases for early suppliers and offtake agreements for larger ones. It looks for removal that "Stores carbon permanently (>1,000 years)" and "Has a path to being affordable at scale (<$100 per ton)" (Frontier).

If you are building carbon removal, Frontier is a potential customer. If you are building software, it is not a source of money for you.

Free support programmes#

Both Replacer and Earthmark mention free or low-cost support: Ed Perryman pursued "free support from industry bodies, government, foundations", and Jack Linnett names "venture builders (ClimateKIC and Carbon13)". Impact Zero runs "Go-to-Market Sprints", which Erin Andrews describes in the Climate North interview as "an evolution of our 7-month accelerator program that is laser-focused on helping climate founders generate revenue". Read each programme's terms carefully: some venture builders take equity, which may or may not matter to you.

Distribution: how bootstrapped climate startups find customers#

Follow the request, not the mission#

The best leads are companies that just received a supplier sustainability questionnaire, are bidding for a public contract above the PPN 006 threshold, or have a lender asking about emissions. Ways to find them:

• Tender notices. Public contracts that require a Carbon Reduction Plan are advertised. The bidders are your prospects, and they have a deadline.
• Supplier days and procurement portals. Large companies publish supplier sustainability requirements. Read them, then build a service that gets a supplier compliant with that specific request.
• Accountants and bookkeepers. They hold the spend data that a spend-based footprint needs and get asked "do you do carbon?" by clients. A referral partnership costs nothing.
• Trade associations. A logistics, hospitality or construction association can introduce you to dozens of members facing the same request.

Communities#

• Work on Climate describes itself as "a global network of professionals helping each other build a just and regenerative future", with a Slack community and programmes it says are "free and open to all". Good for finding co-founders, advisors and early users who already care.
• Terra.do calls itself "the global platform for climate learning, jobs, and community", with live courses, including an eight-week course for climate software developers. Useful if you are a developer moving into climate and need the domain knowledge.
• Above & Beyond Climate News and Climate North, the newsletters quoted above, are good examples of the niche media where climate founders and buyers read. Being interviewed in one is a realistic early PR goal.

Our read: climate communities are full of people who want to work in climate and fewer people with a budget. Use them for learning, hiring and partners. Find paying customers where the buyers are: in their industry's associations, tenders and supply chains.

Content that answers a specific deadline#

Write the page a panicked operations manager searches for at 9pm: "Carbon Reduction Plan template for PPN 006", "how to answer a customer's scope 3 request", "what SB 253 means for suppliers". Specific, dated, sourced content beats broad climate thought leadership for a small company. Our guide to validating a SaaS idea before building shows how to use these searches and pages to test demand before you write code.

Services first: the bootstrapper's shortcut#

Every founder story above involves doing things by hand before automating them. In climate this is especially useful, because:

• your early customers want a finished deliverable (a footprint, a plan, a report), not a dashboard,
• each engagement teaches you exactly which data is hard to collect,
• and services cash pays for the software.

A services-first path in practice:

1. Pick one deliverable with a clear standard. A PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan has a published template and technical standard. An SME footprint following the GHG Protocol has a recognised method.
2. Deliver five by hand. Use spreadsheets, published emission factors and a free tool such as Persefoni Pro or Aclymate Explorer if it helps. Write down every question you ask and every file the client sends.
3. Productise the intake. Turn the questions into a form and the file requests into a checklist. This alone often halves delivery time.
4. Automate the calculation and the document. Now you have software that does what you were doing by hand.
5. Sell the subscription. Next year's report, supplier questionnaire answers and progress tracking.

Be careful about claims. If you produce numbers clients will put in a tender or report, state your method, your data sources and what you did not verify. A wrong number in a public document is a reputational risk for you and your client. Get professional indemnity insurance before your first paid engagement.

Worked example: a Carbon Reduction Plan service that becomes software#

This is an illustrative example of ours. The prices are assumptions for the arithmetic, not market data, and are not a forecast.

The business: a solo founder in the UK who previously worked in procurement sells fixed-price Carbon Reduction Plans to SMEs bidding for central government contracts, then converts them to a yearly subscription.

Offer:

• Carbon Reduction Plan to the PPN 006 template, scope 1 and 2 plus the required scope 3 categories: £1,200 one-off (our assumption).
• Subscription for data updates, the next annual plan and up to three customer questionnaire responses a year: £100 a month, billed annually at £1,200 (our assumption).

Months 1 to 3 (services only):

• 2 plans in month 1, 3 in month 2, 4 in month 3 = 9 plans.
• Revenue: 9 × £1,200 = £10,800.
• Assume 5 of the 9 take the annual subscription at £1,200 = £6,000 cash up front.
• Total cash in the first quarter: £10,800 + £6,000 = £16,800.

Months 4 to 12 (intake form and calculation tool built, 4 plans a month):

• 9 months × 4 plans = 36 plans × £1,200 = £43,200.
• Assume the same conversion as before, 5 in 9: 20 new subscribers × £1,200 = £24,000.

Year one total (example): £16,800 + £43,200 + £24,000 = £84,000, before costs, tax and VAT.

Year two (example): the 25 subscribers renew at £1,200 = £30,000 of recurring revenue before any new plan is sold. If 80% renew, that is 20 × £1,200 = £24,000.

Costs to subtract: professional indemnity insurance, accounting, software, a sensible budget for a second reviewer on early plans, and your own time. The point of the example is the shape, not the numbers: services cash in year one, recurring revenue in year two, and a product built from real engagements.

What could break it: a change to the procurement rules, a free government tool that does the same job, or a competitor offering plans much more cheaply. Mitigation: add adjacent deliverables (SBTi SME targets, supplier questionnaires for specific large customers) so you are not tied to one rule.

A 90-day plan#

Days 1 to 30: choose the request and prove someone pays#

• Pick one buyer type and one trigger: "SMEs bidding for UK central government contracts", "suppliers to a specific large retailer", "small logistics firms asked for scope 3 data".
• Read the rule or request in full from the official source. Save the page and the date.
• Talk to 15 to 20 people who have faced that trigger. Ask what they did, who they paid and what it cost.
• Offer a fixed-price deliverable to the most motivated three. Take payment before you start, even a deposit.
• Set up the basics: a company, a business bank account, insurance, a one-page site with the offer and a booking link.

Days 31 to 60: deliver by hand and write everything down#

• Deliver the first three to five engagements using spreadsheets and free tools.
• Record every data request, every client question and every hour spent.
• Ask each client for a referral and a short testimonial you can quote with permission.
• Write two or three deeply specific guides based on the questions you heard.
• Apply to one relevant free support programme or accelerator (check whether it takes equity).

Days 61 to 90: productise and add recurring revenue#

• Build the intake form and the calculation template. Keep it ugly and functional.
• Launch the annual subscription to existing clients first.
• Approach one channel partner: an accountant, a trade association or a procurement consultant.
• Check grant competitions only if your roadmap now includes genuine R&D.
• Launch publicly. Our product launch checklist for bootstrapped makers covers the assets, timing and launch sites, and you can launch on ZeroRaised for free.

Common mistakes#

• Selling the mission instead of the deadline. "Help the planet" gets polite nods. "Win the £5 million contract you are bidding for next month" gets a purchase order.
• Building a calculator. Free calculators exist. Build the workflow, the document and the follow-up around the number.
• Pitching a regulation that has moved. CSRD scope, SB 261 and UK SRS all changed status in 2025-2026. Check the official page before every pitch and date your claims.
• Overclaiming accuracy. Spend-based scope 3 estimates are estimates. Say so.
• Confusing buyers with funders. Frontier buys carbon removal; it does not invest in software. Grant bodies fund R&D, not resale.
• Starting with hardware because it feels more "real". It is real, and it needs capital. Start with software or services unless the hardware is your genuine edge.
• Hiring before revenue. The interview quoted above shows how hard hiring is without VC salaries. Contract help for specific deliverables first.

Frequently asked questions#

Can you start a climate tech startup without venture capital?#

Yes, if you pick a slice that does not need a factory, a project balance sheet or years of lab work. Software and services around emissions measurement, supplier data, compliance reporting, energy efficiency and circular economy marketplaces can be built on savings and early customer revenue. Founders interviewed by Above & Beyond Climate News describe self-funding a climate software product until at least the MVP stage because the cost base is far lower than hardware.

Which climate tech niches are easiest to bootstrap?#

Our read: services-first carbon footprints and Carbon Reduction Plans for SMEs that need them to win contracts, narrow supplier-data tools that plug into a bigger customer's request, energy monitoring for small commercial buildings, and vertical tools for a single industry's emissions. The hardest to bootstrap are carbon removal, new energy hardware and anything that sells verified credits, because they need capital, testing and long sales cycles.

Do small companies have to report their carbon emissions?#

Mostly not by law. UK SECR applies to quoted companies and large unquoted companies and LLPs, and the government says reporting remains voluntary for others. California's SB 253 covers entities with over $1 billion in annual revenue. The EU's Omnibus package moves CSRD towards the largest companies. Small firms usually report because a customer, a public buyer or a lender asks, which is the demand a bootstrapped climate startup can serve.

What grants can a climate tech startup get?#

In the US, SBIR/STTR awards from 11 federal agencies take no equity; as of 16 October 2026 agencies can award Phase I up to $335,937 and Phase II up to $2,239,578 without SBA approval. In the EU, the EIC Accelerator offers a grant component up to EUR 2.5M. In the UK, Innovate UK lists open competitions, including several climate-related ones in November 2026. These fit R&D-heavy products better than a simple SaaS.

How should I price climate software for small businesses?#

Look at what is published. Aclymate shows a free Explorer plan and Navigator at $45 a month for 1 to 10 employees (shown as $538 a year). Gaia lists Start-Up at £300 + VAT a month, Pro at £650 and Enterprise at £1,500. Persefoni Pro is free for a single user. Our read: charge a one-off fee for the first footprint or report, then a modest subscription for updates, supplier requests and the next year's report.

Launch your climate product without investors#

ZeroRaised is a launch directory for products built without institutional VC, including climate tools funded by customers and savings. When your first version is ready, submit your product for free. For more guides on building and funding a company without investors, join the ZeroRaised newsletter.

Sources#

• Above & Beyond Climate News, Issue 23: Lessons from Bootstrapping a Climate Startup with Jack Linnett and Ed Perryman, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• Climate North: Impact Zero interview with Erin Andrews, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• CARB: California Corporate Greenhouse Gas Reporting and Climate Related Financial Risk Disclosure Programs, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• European Commission: Corporate sustainability reporting, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• GOV.UK: Environmental reporting guidelines including SECR, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• GOV.UK: UK Sustainability Reporting Standards, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• GOV.UK: PPN 006 Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• GOV.UK: PPN 006 collection, technical standard and template, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• SBTi: updated SME definition and fees, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• SBIR.gov, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• SBIR.gov: About, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• EIC Accelerator, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• Innovate UK Innovation Funding Service: competition search, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• Frontier, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• Persefoni pricing, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• Aclymate pricing, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• Gaia pricing, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• Zevero pricing, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• Greenly pricing, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• Normative pricing, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• Work on Climate, last checked 12 Nov 2026
• Terra.do, last checked 12 Nov 2026