Unreasonable Impact announces new roster of ventures for UK & Europe programme

- Unreasonable Impact adds 13 ventures tackling climate and social issues to its UK & Europe programme.
- The initiative, run by Barclays and Unreasonable Group since 2016, helps scale growth-stage businesses through mentoring and a network of support.
- The new 13 ventures have raised over US$400 (£300) million in capital.

Unreasonable Impact, a strategic partnership between Unreasonable Group and Barclays, has announced the latest ventures to join its UK & Europe programme.

This year’s ventures offer solutions ranging from food waste-reducing AI to compostable packaging and have been carefully selected to join the prestigious programme. The 13 ventures include:

● Constellr: Using temperature readings, constellr enables deep insights into our planet’s water, energy, and carbon cycles. For example, vegetation and soil monitoring can support food security and prevent crop failure. CEO Max Gulde has over a decade of experience in research across various fields and is passionate about tackling food security and climate change.

● Shellworks: Addressing the global plastic crisis, Shellworks produces a new generation of materials and packaging that are like plastic in performance but zero-waste wherever they end up. Co-Founder & CEO Insiya Jafferjee’s engineering background and passion for environmental innovation drive the venture’s mission toward a waste-free world.

● Winnow: Transforming the food industry, Winnow employs AI to reduce waste by identifying commonly discarded items. Food waste costs the hospitality industry over US$100bn (£79bn) annually, and Winnow provides insights to help reduce the sector’s environmental impacts and commercial costs. Founder & CEO Marc Zornes was a former McKinsey consultant who was a leader in consumer and sustainability practices.

Over half of 2024’s UK & Europe cohort are female or from a diverse background. Collectively they have raised more than US$400m (£300m) to date and generated US$47m (£37m) in revenues in 2023.

During the programme, the fellows will work with specialists to break down barriers they have experienced. This includes a week in residence with industry deep dives, masterclasses, investor guidance, and mentorship. Post-programme, ventures will continue to receive access to specialist advice from over 1,700 investors and 1,000 mentors, many of whom are Barclays colleagues, through the Unreasonable community.

Scaling for change with world-class support
Barclays and Unreasonable share the belief that high-growth entrepreneurs – leveraging profit and advanced technologies – are well-placed to offer solutions to sustainability challenges while creating the jobs of tomorrow. That’s why they’ve collaboratively established Unreasonable Impact. After achieving their goal to support 250 ventures by the end of 2022, Barclays and Unreasonable will support an additional 200 entrepreneurs over five years through the Unreasonable Impact programme. Since it started in 2016, the programme has supported over 300 ventures, some of which are used in Barclays’ own operations today and/or have also been supported through Barclays’ Sustainable Impact Capital mandate.

The Unreasonable Impact ventures, having raised over US$11 billion since their inception, now employ more than 25,000 people. Over 60% of alumni report job growth within one year. Furthermore, these ventures have collectively reported preventing the release of 89 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions due to their products and services. 

Daniel Epstein, CEO of Unreasonable Group, commented:
“In collaboration with Barclays, Unreasonable Impact is dedicated to empowering 13 visionary entrepreneurs with scalable solutions to address pressing global challenges. By providing essential resources, mentorship, and access to a global network, we aim to catalyse impactful change, tackling societal and environmental issues while fostering job creation.”

Deborah Goldfarb, Global Head of Citizenship, Barclays, commented:
"Barclays is providing expertise to nurture climate tech and other sustainability-focused ventures at each stage of their journey as they scale from idea to IPO. Through our partnership with Unreasonable Group, we are giving entrepreneurs access to our ecosystem, mentors, and investors to help tackle key social and environmental challenges. I am excited to see this new cohort flourish under the power of this partnership.”

Max Gulde, CEO of Constellr, commented:
“I’m excited about constellr joining Unreasonable Impact UK & Europe; our space-based temperature monitoring to enhance food security aligns seamlessly with the programme’s mission. We aim to empower efficient resource management to support 10 billion people by 2050 amidst a changing climate. I look forward to collaborating with industry experts, mentors, and fellow entrepreneurs. Together, we can not only scale constellr’s growth but also contribute meaningfully to addressing critical global challenges.”

The 13 ventures joining the 2024 Unreasonable Impact UK & Europe programme:

● Agricarbon - Agricarbon provides affordable soil carbon measurement to verify carbon removals, enabling regenerative agriculture.
● Better Dairy - Better Dairy produces dairy products in a way that doesn’t rely on animals and is low in greenhouse gas emissions without compromising on taste and texture.
● Chatterbox - Chatterbox offers students and professionals a language-learning platform using the language skills of marginalised talent.
● Constellr - Constellr measures temperature from space to support food security on Earth, thus enhancing crop yields and preventing crop failures.
● Enough - Enough produces a sustainable protein called ABUNDA using fungi and natural sugars from grains.
● Land Life - Land Life specialises in sustainable reforestation by employing innovative technology to restore degraded land at scale.
● Mimbly - Mimbly designs products focused on laundry to enable optimal water use through recycling, filtration, and connectivity.
● Nuada - Nuada builds energy-efficient carbon capture machines to reduce hard-to-abate industrial emissions.
● Plend - Plend is an open banking lender on a mission to unlock more lives with accessible and low-cost credit.
● Qualis Flow - Qualis Flow provides construction teams with the data to track and manage cost, quality, and carbon.
● Shellworks - Shellworks produces a new generation of materials and packaging that are like plastic in performance but zero-waste wherever they end up.
● Vertical Future - Vertical Future designs, manufactures and deploys autonomous indoor vertical farms focused on improving the health of people and the planet.
● Winnow - Winnow employs AI to identify and reduce food waste in the kitchen, offering actionable insights for the hospitality industry.

ENDS

Notes 

● Unreasonable Impact runs three regional programmes annually across the UK and Europe, the Americas, and Asia Pacific, bringing together a select group of fast-growth businesses and handpicked investors. The next regional programme after the UK & Europe programme is in Singapore in May 2024.

● Other notable Unreasonable Impact alumni include Project Etopia, which combines energy, construction, and intelligent technologies to create future eco-cities and Olio, the social platform for people to redistribute surplus food rather than throw it away.

● Unreasonable Impact reports to have positively impacted 370 million lives, removed over 89 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions due to ventures’ products and services, and avoided or diverted 670 million kgs of waste from landfills.

Find out more in the latest Impact Report
Further information about the programme and its impact can be found in the latest impact report.

About Unreasonable Group
Building a global community between entrepreneurs, investors, creatives, and business leaders, Unreasonable acts as a catalytic platform for entrepreneurs tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Part global community and part investment firm, Unreasonable operates at the intersection of profit, advanced technologies, and impact. Via its international Fellowship, Unreasonable is uniquely positioned to support a select portfolio of growth-stage entrepreneurs to scale up by deploying knowledge, networks, and capital. Unreasonable believes in the power of business to drive lasting and scalable change.
Find out information about Unreasonable here:
www.unreasonablegroup.com

About Barclays
Our vision is to be the UK-centred leader in global finance. We are a diversified bank with comprehensive UK consumer, corporate and wealth and private banking franchises, a leading investment bank and a strong, specialist US consumer bank. Through these five divisions, we are working together for a better financial future for our customers, clients and communities.

For further information about Barclays, please visit our website home.barclays

Find out more about Barclays’ approach to climate change here: https://home.barclays/climate-change