Blue Earth names 100 firms for BE100 investment cohort

Blue Earth has named 100 companies in its latest BE100 cohort, selected from 1,414 applicants.

The businesses are contenders for backing from BE100 Fund II, with at least one winner in each of ten industries set to receive a minimum investment of £100,000, subject to due diligence.

Just 7% of applicants made this year's list after assessment by 40 judges from venture capital and industry. The cohort includes companies working in energy infrastructure, textiles, food supply, healthcare, address verification and construction monitoring.

Among them is OkHi, which verifies residential addresses through mobile phones. It offers financial services providers an alternative to utility bills and home visits to confirm where customers live.

Converge Technologies, another company in the cohort, combines concrete sensors and software to track curing strength and temperature for construction teams. The approach is intended to give site teams a clearer view of how materials perform during building work.

Other finalists include AssetCool, which uses robots to apply coatings designed to increase the capacity of existing power lines, and Colourifix, which uses microorganisms to produce and apply colour to textiles. Farm to Feed, which creates a market for Kenyan farmers' surplus and imperfect produce, and Coral Vita, which grows corals in land-based farms for reef restoration, also made the list.

Healthcare business Upfront Diagnostics is also among the 100. Its LVOne blood test, designed to help ambulance crews identify severe strokes before patients reach hospital, is being piloted with London Ambulance Service.

Investment push

The latest BE100 marks an expansion in the number of businesses Blue Earth wants to support through its investment vehicle. Last year it invested in three winners; this year it is targeting at least ten.

The fund is managed in partnership with Haatch and backed by institutional investors, family offices, exited founders and angel investors. Fundraising is continuing, with an upper cap of £10 million.

Last year's investments in Segura, RAFT Energy and Low Carbon Materials averaged £200,000 per company. Blue Earth is building BE100 as an annual investment fund designed to work alongside venture capital firms and institutional investors as a co-investor.

The wider investment backdrop remains uneven. According to Crunchbase data cited by Blue Earth, global venture funding rose 53% year on year in the third quarter of 2026, but 64% of that total went to AI companies.

That concentration leaves less room for businesses in sectors such as materials, climate, food systems and industrial technology, even as investors continue to seek commercially viable responses to major environmental and social challenges.

Blue Earth said 60% of the selected companies are based in the UK, with the remainder drawn from international markets. The judging panel included Damian Routley, Chief Operating Officer at Founders Factory; Ed Phillips, Managing Director, Global at Future Planet Capital; and Amy Tsang, Head of Europe at The Mills Fabrica.

Guy Hayler, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Blue Earth, outlined the group's investment aim.

"Last year we invested in three winners. This year we're aiming to back at least ten. We want to help founders turn solutions to major challenges into businesses that can compete and grow. The Summit gives investors a chance to meet all 100 companies, examine what they've built and decide where they can help take it further," Hayler said.

He also described the broader thesis behind the fund.

"The bigger ambition is to change what customers expect from an entire industry. When cleaner materials or more efficient energy systems become the obvious commercial choice, established businesses have a reason to change too. That's how the impact can reach far beyond these companies' own customers. In our mind we are backing the inevitable leaders of the future and that's exciting," he said.