Neutreeno: The journey of a Cambridge cleantech startup on the rise

Two men stand infornt of the doors of a Cambridge University College, Jesus College is photographed from above and two women are photographed coming to and from CISL's Entopia building.

31 March 2025 - Zoe Loughlin, who leads the Canopy innovation community, gives her insights on the Cambridge innovation ecosystem and follows Neutreeno as the Cambridge-born cleantech startup grows from strength to strength.  

We all know the old proverb: it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it takes an ecosystem to scale a startup. This is the story of Neutreeno, a cleantech startup born in Cambridge, and an example of the difference a thriving innovation community can make in scaling new ventures. From its roots in the Department of Engineering to programme support at the Judge Business School (JBS), funding from Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, and now an active member located in CISL’s Canopy Innovation Hub, Neutreeno is moving quickly from campus innovation to a potential global decarbonisation leader. 

Born and based in Cambridge but scaling globally 

Neutreeno was conceived within the vibrant academic and research environment of Cambridge, where its team— a group of Cambridge scientists and engineers who inform international climate policy at the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA)—developed a rigorous, science-driven approach to tackling emissions. Today, the company remains deeply rooted in Cambridge, while ambitiously scaling its groundbreaking technology across the globe. 

Their intelligent deeptech system harnesses proprietary industrial production networks and advanced optimisation algorithms from their research to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions at the source. By addressing the lion’s share of corporate emissions in Scope 3, Neutreeno is accelerating decarbonisation and redefining how sustainability is managed within complex supply chains. By making decarbonisation simple, trustworthy and effective, Neutreeno has helped businesses cut costs by becoming more material and energy efficient—a recent case study with a major Asian manufacturer showed savings of more than €1.6 million a year with Neutreeno’s system, a leap forward for industries striving to meet ambitious climate goals and future-proof their business. 

A story of success from within the University of Cambridge ecosystem 

Having made the leap to spin out a business from their research, Neutreeno capitalised on the support available within Cambridge’s rich innovation ecosystem. In 2022, founder Spencer Brennan participated in the Cambridge Judge Entrepreneurship Centre’s Accelerate Cambridge programme, one of the most established startup programmes in Cambridge which provides early-stage entrepreneurs with the fundamental skills and knowledge to build a venture. As they approached market readiness, Neutreeno joined CISL's Sustainable Product Launch Programme run by our Canopy Accelerator team, which helped participants to fine-tune their product market fit, sales and marketing strategies and gain visibility with prospective buyers and investors.  

Cambridge Enterprise Ventures provided Neutreeno with early-stage financial backing, and the company has gone on to attract significant investment. As the first heavily oversubscribed investment of its second early-stage fund, Regeneration VC led a $5M seed financing round with a syndicate of strategic, mission-aligned investors, including Closed Loop Partners, Remarkable Ventures, Scania Group, Beacon Venture Capital, and Prequel Ventures. Given the challenging fundraising environment, this financial backing underscores the market’s confidence in Neutreeno’s revolutionary technology and its potential to reshape the decarbonisation landscape.

In 2024, Neutreeno joined CISL’s Canopy, and is now based in the central Cambridge workspace, providing them access to a unique ecosystem of corporates, investors and peers, fostering deep connections and collaborative opportunities to scale sustainability-targeted ventures. CISL further recognised Neutreeno’s technology for its potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions by nominating the startup for the prestigious 2025 Earthshot Awards.

Recent press coverage has highlighted the impact of their work with industry-leading publications having noted that Neutreeno is poised to capitalise on a decarbonisation market estimated at $130 trillion, underscoring the global demand for its solution. Furthermore, detailed insights into their engineering capabilities and the strategic rationale behind this investment can be found in features by Closed Loop Partners and ESG Today. 

Despite some policy headwinds, Neutreeno has already achieved global traction among ambitious corporations, including across North America, Europe and Asia, that are looking to decarbonise their supply chain, drive resource efficiency, and realise both emission and cost reductions. Neutreeno’s approach is set to become the standard for sustainable supply chain management, where action is king. 

Neutreeno join a host of impact ventures that have grown through the Cambridge Ecosystem, joining the likes of Xampla and Nyobolt, putting the Cambridge cleantech cluster on the map as a leader in sustainable innovation.  

Find out more about Neutreeno’s work here:  https://www.neutreeno.com/

Canopy was recently announced by the Financial Times as one of Europe’s Leading Startups in 2025, the second year we have received this prestigious award. We connect industry leaders and investors with groundbreaking sustainability startups, whom we support to scale and grow.  Find out more about our work and how you can get involved here: Innovation | Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)