Tech Nation welcomes Belfast-based climate tech company CATAGEN to its second Net Zero growth programme

Tech Nation, the UK’s leading growth platform for tech scaleups, has announced that Belfast-based climate tech company CATAGEN has been accepted into Net Zero 2.0 – the second cohort of the Net Zero growth programme.

Net Zero 2.0 is the first government-backed growth programme designed to support the most promising climate tech companies to accelerate the UK’s and the world’s path to net zero. This year’s successful companies were assessed by 40 specialists across key industries and sectors.

The companies were judged based on their scalability and potential to help the UK reach its high-priority net zero goal. Companies are actively decarbonising each key sector, with the most prominent including energy and electricity, transport, buildings and cities, and agriculture. Carbon removals and space-tech are two new focus areas this year.

Belfast-based clean air data company CATAGEN uses a proprietary toolset to help the world’s leading car and motorcycle brands meet or exceed global emissions standards. Using this knowledge and data, CATAGEN is developing PED, a new product which mines the unique data and uses models to create a software technology platform to inform individuals about their emissions footprint to create behaviour change.

Northern Irish tech is booming

Belfast-based climate tech company CATAGEN is part of a vibrant and fast-growing Northern Irish tech scene. According to data from The Tech Nation Report 2021, Northern Ireland is home to over 2,195 digital tech firms (and 2 tech ‘unicorns’ – companies valued at $1bn+), and its tech sector employs over 21,140 people, with an annual turnover of $3bn.

Belfast is Northern Ireland’s largest tech hub, and the city received £11mn in investment in 2020 despite the Covid-19 pandemic, making it the eighteenth largest tech hub in the UK overall.

Sammy Fry, Net Zero Lead at Tech Nation, said: “With Europe recording its highest ever temperature on record this Summer, and the latest IPCC report published last month, there isn’t a more urgent time to act on decarbonising our atmosphere. Every successful Net Zero scaleup is another leap closer to decarbonising the world.”

Andrew Woods and Roy Douglas, Founders of CATAGEN, said: “The CATAGEN team is delighted to have been selected to join the Tech Nation Net Zero 2.0 cohort. This is further endorsement of our commitment to ‘clean and decarbonise the air’.

“We can now scale the business further with new innovative products which could significantly disrupt the market and drive down global emissions. We look forward to working with the Tech Nation Net Zero 2.0 team and the other teams on the cohort to continue our pledge to Net Zero emissions.”

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