The climate crisis is the greatest
challenge of our generation.
The climate crisis is the greatest
challenge of our generation.
It affects every aspect
of life on earth.
To make the progress required
at a pace that's rapid enough.
We need to go against the grain
and give it everything we've got.
We are Kiko Ventures.
The climate crisis is the greatest
challenge of our generation.
It affects every aspect
of life on earth.
To make the progress required
at a pace that's rapid enough.
We need to go against the grain
and give it everything we've got.
We are Kiko Ventures.
PURPOSE
We’ve set out to tackle the world’s most pressing challenge with an approach to venture that’s fit for purpose as well as profit. An approach that marries financial returns with environmental impact and aligns our incentives with the entrepreneurs we invest in. By deploying permanent capital that provides the flexibility and freedom to invest with conviction across every stage and sector, we back businesses and breakthroughs that will support the return to a regenerative world, moving towards a future in which people and the planet can thrive in perpetuity.
Values
The values we believe in and live by.
Make **it Happen.
We engage with intention and focus all our actions on delivering quality outputs. No weak-hearted attempts or half-finished endeavours. If it’s not valuable, we don’t do it. We operate in real time and see things through.
Look beyond tomorrow.
Patience and tenacity are superpowers. Consistent effort over years can achieve wonders. We look to understand the bigger picture on climate, both now and in the future.
Be a good human.
We’re humans first, foremost and above all else. We shift the focus outside ourselves and consciously consider others.
Hydrogen fuel cells at gigafactory scale using existing PCB fabs.
Bramble Energy is powering the transition to net zero with unique fuel cell technology. Using bonded layers of printed circuit boards, rather than metal plates and manifolds, they’ve created a low cost, lightweight, digital alternative that can be manufactured in almost any PCB factory across the globe.
First Light is on a mission to revolutionize power production by creating safe, clean, fusion energy with a rate of triple product improvement faster than any other fusion scheme in history. Based on the radical idea of delivering energy to confine the fusing plasma with a projectile hitting a target containing fuel, their unique approach offers the simplest and cheapest route to commercial fusion power at scale.
Transforming the efficiency of wind and electric vehicles with magnetic fields.
Magnomatics is changing gears to tackle some of the largest challenges for net zero. By replacing teeth with magnets, gears become more efficient, adaptable and durable. The upshot? The potential to improve everything from renewable energy to railways.
Universal autonomy: any vehicle in any environment at any time.
Oxbotica is leading the charge towards sustainable mobility for all, improving safety and enhancing access with ground breaking autonomous vehicle technology at scale. Spun out of the world-leading Oxford Robotics Institute, its adaptable universal platform delivers infrastructure-free autonomy for any vehicle type in any environment.
The future of energy storage: the world’s lowest cost flow battery.
A breakthrough in long duration energy storage based on combing new chemistry from Imperial College with best practice fuel cell engineering from the co-founder of Ceres Power. RFC Power has foundational IP for a new class of gas-liquid hybrid flow batteries with the potential to create the world’s lowest cost of long-duration, long cycle life energy storage for balancing renewables.
Digital heat for net zero buildings.
Mixergy applies thermodynamics from Oxford to one of the biggest challenges in climate change: heat in buildings. Coupling and coordinating electrical heating systems, like immersion heaters and heat pumps, with electricity supply from the grid or solar panels, Mixergy dramatically increases efficiency and reduces costs, bringing forward the advent of carbon-free heat.
Green hydrogen. Efficiency wins.
Hysata is set to play a central role in the trillion-dollar hydrogen economy with its new ultra-high efficiency electrolyser. Their scientific breakthrough in alkaline electrolysis uses capillary action to transport water into the cell, via the membrane, giving an overall system efficiency of up to 95% HHV. With a highly scalable manufacturing process, Hysata has the potential to make green hydrogen competitive years earlier than previously assumed, accelerating the transition to net zero.
Making carbon-free power possible with ammonia as a fuel.
Sunborne Systems is a joint venture between space propulsion company Reaction Engines and the UK government Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). Sunborne combines Reaction Engine’s world-leading heat exchangers with a new class of ammonia catalysts from STFC to create reactors that allow pure ammonia to substitute fossil fuels for shipping and power generation.
Converting CO₂ into fuels.
University of Oxford spin-out focused on turning CO2 directly into jet fuel range hydrocarbons using a novel, one-step catalyst and process. Their vision is to give future generations the acknowledged benefits of hydrocarbons but without their climate impact.
Avoiding packaging waste.
Vytal is the largest digital re-use system for food packaging in take-away and delivery. Deposit free and used by 1,000s of partners in 8 countries.
Smart energy controls and tariffs for the home
tado° is the European leader in intelligent home climate management. Its smart thermostats curb heating costs by 22% on average. Its smart time-of-use tariffs allow for next-generation energy pricing
Insight.
The latest from our community.
The humans behind Kiko have been working on climate technology for decades; in the lab, in the field and in the board room; as engineers, operators and investors. Whether it was foundational work on solar cells in the lab at Cambridge, creating the first steel cell at Ceres Power, inventing self-healing materials at EPFL, or pioneering the roll out of solar energy with SolarCentury. From origins as climate practitioners, we’ve dedicated our careers to the environmental cause.
But was it possible to marry environmental impact with financial returns?
With the financial crisis we were told “cut the green crap”*; “stop talking about carbon”; “cleantech doesn’t work”. And then, IP Group provided a home, a harbour, and a sponsor. A place where passionate people could pursue world-changing ideas. We knew cleantech could work and were given the chance to prove it.
We used the opportunity to combine our expertise with the flexibility of IP Group’s evergreen capital to unlock advances in clean technology. Helping companies like Ceres, C-Capture, Dukosi and First Light to bridge the gap from idea to adoption. In a time when few cared, IP Group became the largest funder of cleantech in the UK. Standing out by backing companies often with no revenues but big roles to play in the regenerative future. After years of effort, we started to see that backing entrepreneurs with outrageous ambitions could deliver outsized returns, both commercially and environmentally. Ceres became our first unicorn. Re-built over 8 years from £1m to £1bn. The ‘impossible’ made tangible at scale, with others, we believe, following close behind.
As net zero became front page news, we had the benefit of years spent working alongside cleantech entrepreneurs and a portfolio of carefully nurtured companies to make a difference. We celebrated the shift in sentiment with others who had made it through bad times: a small community, still resolute. People like Arne Morteani, who spent more than a decade helping build one of the few independent cleantech venture firms to make it through the climate doldrums. He became a friend and co-conspirator and had intense conversations with the IP Group team about how to combine the best of the IP Group model with the best from the mainstream venture world. Together, we knew that we could and should do more: going further, faster.
Arne joining the team was the catalyst for Kiko. Using the support and structure provided by IP Group and combining it with the clear climate commitment and decision-making independence of a dedicated cleantech partnership, we’ve set out to create a community that accelerates innovation and amplifies impact, to make a meaningful dent in the fight against climate change. Could we triple down and build even more transformative companies? Could we offer a real contribution to the greatest challenge of our generation? IP Group understood the opportunity and supported us to do just that.
Kiko is the result. A response to our collective frustration with insufficient action and a statement of belief in a different, better future, both for clean technology and for the world as a whole.
*A well-known quote, attributed to David Cameron in 2013.
VISION
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