Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based CEO’ operating in the CleanTech space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Erik Fairbairn
Founder & CEO of Pod Point
Erik founded POD Point in 2009, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. he saw the potential of electric vehicles as the next major mode of transportation and set himself the goal of wiring up the UK with charge points to facilitate the switch to EV from internal combustion engines. Fairbairn is also a member of the UK Automotive Council Technology Group and YPO (Young President’s Organisation) and featured on the 35th episode of their podcast.
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About Pod Point: We’re building the infrastructure needed for the mass adoption of electric vehicles in the UK & Europe.
Henrik Hagemann
CEO and Co-Founder of Puraffinity
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About Puraffinity, Tech London Advocates: Puraffinity develops precision materials to target chemicals, with an initial focus on PFAS in water
Erik Nygard
Founder and CEO of Kofa
Erik is the Founder and CEO at Kofa.
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About Kofa: Kofa is an automotive company that utilizes the latest electric battery and motor technology.
Hasna Kourda
Co-Founder & CEO of Save Your Wardrobe
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About Save Your Wardrobe: FashionTech startup using AI to make Fashion more digital and sustainable
Pierre Paslier
Cofounder & Co-CEO of Notpla
Pierre is a London-based Innovation Design Engineer. He started his career as a Packaging Engineer for L’Oréal in the daytime and hacking 3D-printers in his living room at night. He then decided to study design at the Royal College of Art and in 2013, he co-designed one of the first consumer delta 3D-printers. He loves DIY, especially if it involves drones lifting dangerous electronic components or street art robots redecorating the streets. This passion for innovation led him to co-found two startups, Gravity Sketch (3D creation in VR) and Notpla (edible packaging). Driven by the urge to act on our plastic crisis, he’s now 100% focused on Ooho, the edible water bottle as Co-CEO of Notpla. He has a Masters degree from the RCA’s Innovation Design Engineering programme (MA & MSci) and INSA de Lyon (MEng). He has written articles for Wired Magazine and given a number of conferences about his projects at TEDx conferences in Athens and Warwick.
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About Notpla, Skipping Rocks Lab: Sustainable packaging made from seaweed and plants.
Rodrigo García González
Cofounder, CoCEO of Notpla
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About Notpla, Skipping Rocks Lab: Sustainable packaging made from seaweed and plants.
Carina Cunha
Co-Founder & CEO of Be Nosy
Carina is a business strategist and inventor of Nosy with passion for science, sales and marketing. In her former role as MD and Launcher of Crimson Education Europe, she created sales, marketing and service delivery teams from scratch, achieving millions in ARR and 150%+ YoY growth. Prior to working with startups Carina was corporate strategist at JPMorgan, Strategy Consultant at Accenture, Investment Banker at Credit Suisse, and a fashion model with Elite. Carina is also an innovation and commercial consultant through Meta Strategy and Founders Intelligence where she helps startups and scale-ups find product-market fit and corporates build new revenue lines. She has a B.A. from Columbia University and PgD. from the University of Edinburgh.
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About Be Nosy: Nosy is a MedTech startup developing wearable air filter and air pollution tracking network.
Aniruddha Sharma
Co-founder & CEO of Carbon Clean Solutions
Aniruddha Sharma is responsible for all day-to-day operations and leads the company’s product and customer development strategy. While pursuing his Masters Degree in Statistics at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, Aniruddha co-founded Carbon Clean Solutions in the year 2009. Selected as one of the Top 50 Brightest Young Climate Leaders, he was a part of the youth delegation to COP15 and COP/MOP5 (Kyoto Protocol), held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the fall of 2009 (December 7th to 18th). He has also been selected as one of the top 27 entrepreneurs working on accelerated commercialization of Technology & Innovation by Accelerator India. Currently working towards tying partnerships for ‘Carbon capture and reuse/sequestration’, he was invited to the esteemed World Economic Forum’s India summit in 2011. Aniruddha works closely on all policy issues related to CCS and also looks into hiring talent for the company.
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About Carbon Clean Solutions: Carbon Clean Solutions develops CO2 separation technology designed for industrial and gas treating applications.
Steven Boyle
Chief Executive Officer of HCS Control Systems
Steven Boyle is the chief executive officer of Integrated Cloud Group and HCS.
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About HCS Control Systems: HCS Control Systems designs, manufactures, assembles and tests direct hydraulic production systems for the oil and gas industry.
Axel Thiemann
Chief Executive Officer of Sonnedix
Axel Thiemann became CEO of Sonnedix in September 2018 after serving as a member of the senior leadership team and Board of Directors. Since joining Sonnedix in 2011, Axel has played a fundamental role in its evolution, initially based in London, as COO with responsibility for Asset Management, Finance, HR and E&C, and more recently based in Miami, overseeing M&A, integration and strategy during a four year period when the company experienced five-fold growth. Prior to joining Sonnedix, Axel spent seven years in banking and held various senior roles with Barclays Bank in London. Before this he was a consultant with McKinsey and Company in Cologne, Germany. Axel graduated as an Electrical Engineer from Hannover University in Germany and holds an MBA from IESE Business School, Spain. To Axel, the most special thing about Sonnedix is its team of bright and passionate people across four continents that have come together to create a sustainable future for the world.
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About Sonnedix: Sonnedix Solar is a global power producer dedicated to produce low-carbon solar energy for the future.
Keiran Olivares Whitaker
Founder & CEO of Entocycle
Environmental engineer, YC alumni, five years expertise in rearing insects, passionate environmentalist, deep sea diver.
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About Entocycle: Entocycle’s automated insect farm produces environmentally friendly insect protein to feed farmed animals.
Kyle Grant
Founder & CEO of Oxwash
After a career at NASA, Kyle founded Oxwash during his Synthetic Biology PhD at Oxford University. Armed with just a bike and a backpack, Kyle started collecting and washing clothes for fellow students, this quickly snowballed into a growing on demand laundry business as interest grew. Kyle’s passion for sustainability and tenacious entrepreneurial attitude continue to propel Oxwash to lofty heights.
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About Oxwash: Oxwash is developing a clinical-grade laundry/dry cleaning service with space age technology.
Cristian Parrino
CEO and Co-Founder of Greengame
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About Greengame, OpenUK: Working with organisations to incentivise sustainable behaviour using automated activity detection, gamification and behavioural economics
Julian Melchiorri
Founder and CEO of Arborea
Julian Melchiorri is an inventor, engineer, and entrepreneur recognized by Forbes as a leading EU social entrepreneur under 30 years of age. Julian is the Founder and CEO of Arborea, a food-tech start-up that applies break-through proprietary biological and chemical engineering technology platforms to produce healthy food ingredients at low-cost and massive scale to help food producers build a food system where everyone eats well. Earlier in his career, Melchiorri designed and engineered both products and manufacturing processes for major Italian lighting production company and for the London high-tech collective ‘’Random International’’, making technology-driven interactive experiments and large scale installations, utilizing a multitude of technologies such as robotic, sensing and hydraulic technologies.
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About Arborea: Arborea is industrialising photosynthesis to expand the world’s food supply
Thomas Delgado
CEO & Founder of Pollution Solution
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About Pollution Solution: Pollution Solution provides patented ground-breaking technology to eliminate road-based pollution in towns and cities.
Alexander Patto
Chief Executive Officer of Waterscope
Alexander Patto and Tianheng Zhao founded Waterscope in 2015, since which Alexander has been serving as its chief executive officer.
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About Waterscope: Waterscope is a not-for-profit impact-defined company based in Cambridge.
Mark Roberts
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lightfoot
Mark Roberts is a Founder and CEO at Lightfoot and Ashwoods Electric Motors.
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About Ashwoods Electric Motors, Lightfoot: Lightfoot is a fresh, vibrant, and highly innovative cleantech engineering company.
Charlie Guy
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of LettUs Grow
Charlie Guy is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at LettUs Grow.
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About LettUs Grow: LettUs Grow design aeroponic irrigation and control technology for vertical farms.
Monika Tomecka
Executive Director, CEO & Co-Founder of uFraction8
Dr Monika Tomecka has a PhD with a background in biology, genetics and biomedical research. This gives her insight into the science and operations of uFraction8’s customer segments. She is able to converse at an appropriate level to engage and sell the benefits of uFraction8 technology.
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About uFraction8: uFraction8 develops microfluidics-based filtration systems to help bio-manufacturers to harvest biomass sustainably and more efficiently.
Omer Kutluoglu
CEO of Environmental Technology Evolution
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About Environmental Technology Evolution: ETE focuses on generating and licencing proprietary technology through R&D in the field of plastics recycling.
Nadeem Abbas
CEO & Founder of Love2Laundry
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About Love2Laundry: Founded in 2014, Love2Laundry is a digital laundry and dry-cleaning delivery service.
Tom Mason
Co-Founder and CEO of Bramble Energy
Tom has led the engineering and manufacturing development of the PCBFC since 2013. He was involved in the development of the PCBFC whilst working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at UCL. With initial proof of concept shown, Tom was appointed as the technical lead of an InnovateUK funded manufacturing project (101979). As a co-founder of Bramble Energy Tom joined the company as a director and Chief Technology Officer when the company spun-out of the universities in late 2016 before moving to the role of CEO in September 2017. With close to 10 years of electrochemistry experience, Tom is the foremost authority on all things PCBFC. Tom’s appointment to the role of CEO brings a fresh approach to leading the Bramble Energy team.
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About Bramble Energy: Bramble Energy is an innovator energy technology company that designs and manufactures high-performance, low-cost, and fuel cell stack
Julian Turner
CEO of Westfield Technology Group
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About Westfield Technology Group: Westfield is an autonomous vehicle provider that is known for selling niche sports cars globally.
Arnaud Didey
Founder & CEO of Neoptera Aero
Arnaud Dide is the Founder and CEO at Neoptera Aero.
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About Didey Consulting Ltd, Neoptera Aero: Neoptera Aero is developing a patented winged eVTOL aircraft aimed at Public Services, Military Applications and Future Urban Air Mobility
Revannth N Murugesan
CEO of Antonym
A visionary mobility entrepreneur, investor, speaker, engineer, former motorsport racer, and an ardent environmentalist. Currently heading an award-winning automotive tech company that is developing electric self-driving vehicles.
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About Antonym: Award-winning electric autonomous transportation addressing the £1.8 trillion road freight market.
Tom Mowat
CEO and Co-founder of Vesta Smart Packaging
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About Vesta Smart Packaging: Vesta Smart Packaging provides environment-friendly packaging services.
Eduardo Estelles
CEO & Founder of Logic Energy ltd.
Technology entrepreneur and techno junkie. Specialised in custom software for the renewable energy sector, in particular for Utilities: DSM, data aggregation, IoT, remote data collection, data analysis and custom back and front ends.
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About Logic Energy ltd.: Keyturn software solutions for new energy technologies and Utilities
Kosta Mavroulakis
Founder and CEO of Empact Ventures
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About Empact Ventures: Empact Ventures co-designs some of the leading startup, tech and non-profit initiatives for large private or public sector organisations
Kaushal Shah
Founder and CEO of envoPAP
Trying to turn Ideas into Reality!
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About envoPAP, Inwius: envoPAP is a Sustainable Materials Company utilizing green technology to provide agricultural waste with a second life.
Christine Boyle
CEO of Senergy Innovations
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About Senergy Innovations: Senergy Innovations is a smart solar thermal panels designer and manufacturer.
Marcin Piatkowski
Founder & CEO of JIVR
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About JIVR: JIVR is a hassle-free commuting bike, allowing you to enjoy the benefits of cycling, without any lifestyle compromises.
