UK clean-technology startup EcoNomad Solutions has secured £230,000 from the British Design Fund to expand its waste-to-energy technology for small livestock farms.

The investment forms part of a wider £400,000 funding round that includes an Innovate UK Investor Partnership grant and additional backing from existing investor Beeches Group. Based in Harpenden, EcoNomad will use the capital to advance product development and increase deployment of its BioNomad anaerobic digestion system in the UK, followed by expansion into European and emerging markets.

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Bringing Anaerobic Digestion to Smaller Farms

Commercial anaerobic digestion systems have traditionally remained out of reach for many small livestock farms because of their cost, size and operational complexity. EcoNomad is targeting that underserved segment with a system designed for smaller agricultural businesses, including those in rural or off-grid locations.

The company’s patented BioNomad technology captures methane produced by organic waste and converts it into biogas for heating, cooking or electricity generation. The digestion process also creates biofertilizer, giving farmers an alternative to some chemical fertilizer inputs while extracting additional value from agricultural waste.

EcoNomad estimates that a smallholding with approximately 50 cows could cut its annual energy and fertilizer costs by several thousand pounds. Actual savings would vary according to each farm’s operations and energy consumption.

The proposition comes as farmers contend with rising input costs, tighter slurry-management requirements and growing pressure to reduce methane emissions. By placing energy generation and waste treatment on-site, EcoNomad aims to reduce farms’ dependence on external energy and fertilizer supplies.

From International Research to Farm Deployment

Founder and CEO Dr Ilan Adler developed the BioNomad concept after observing decentralized waste-to-energy systems in Latin America. He later identified similar waste-management challenges in the UK and began adapting the model for colder weather, smaller farms and European regulatory requirements.

Adler moved to Britain more than 15 years ago to pursue a PhD at University College London. His experience spans over two decades in environmental engineering, covering wastewater treatment, anaerobic digestion, renewable energy and entrepreneurial projects across international markets.

A Royal Academy of Engineering fellowship supported the technology’s early development, helping EcoNomad move from research toward a patented commercial system. The company says BioNomad installations now operate on more than 10 UK farms, alongside deployments in Africa and trials involving insect farming, food waste and hybrid renewable-energy systems.

Its main commercial focus remains dairy, beef, pig and poultry operations.

Building a More Automated Platform

EcoNomad will use the latest financing to make BioNomad more automated and closer to a plug-and-play system, reducing the level of intervention required from farmers. The company will initially concentrate on expanding commercial deployment across the UK before moving further into Europe and selected emerging markets.

British Design Fund CEO Damon Bonser said the company is addressing both the environmental and financial pressures confronting smaller farms. He also pointed to the potential for decentralized anaerobic digestion systems to reach a wider agricultural market.

With backing from the British Design Fund, Innovate UK and Beeches Group, EcoNomad is now seeking to turn a technology already operating on farms into a more standardized commercial product. Its challenge will be proving that small-scale anaerobic digestion can deliver reliable savings without adding operational burdens for farmers.

UK carbon capture and utilisation startup HexSeed Technology has secured more than £600,000 in early-stage funding to advance a diamond-coating technology designed to reduce heat and energy waste in AI data centres.

Carbon13 led the round, with participation from the Net Zero Technology Centre and Vento Ventures. The financing also unlocks a previously awarded Innovate UK Partnership Grant.

HexSeed will use the capital to move its technology beyond laboratory demonstrations, validate it on working Gallium Nitride devices and prepare for pilot projects with potential industry customers.

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Tackling Heat Waste in AI Infrastructure

The growth of artificial intelligence is driving higher electricity consumption across data centres, while a share of that energy is lost as heat during power conversion.

The International Energy Agency expects global electricity demand from data centres to reach 945 TWh by 2030, increasing pressure on operators to improve the efficiency of their power infrastructure.

Data centres are increasingly adopting Gallium Nitride, or GaN, transistors because they convert power more efficiently than the silicon components they replace. However, GaN devices operate at high temperatures, creating a thermal constraint that limits performance and can reduce the reliability and lifespan of electronic components.

HexSeed is targeting that bottleneck by developing a coating capable of moving heat away from the active areas of GaN devices.

Converting Captured Carbon Into Diamond

HexSeed uses captured carbon dioxide to produce high-value diamond supermaterials. Diamond’s thermal conductivity makes it suitable for dissipating heat from electronics, but applying it to completed semiconductor devices without causing damage presents a technical challenge.

The company is developing a low-carbon microwave plasma process that grows diamond coatings directly onto finished GaN components at low temperatures.

The coating is intended to help devices operate at higher performance levels for longer periods by drawing heat away from their active regions. HexSeed developed the process in collaboration with specialists at the University of Bristol.

The company works closely with Professor Paul May and Professor Martin Kuball, combining academic semiconductor and materials research with its commercial development programme.

Preparing for Pilot Customer Projects

CEO Mark Tandy said the funding will allow HexSeed to validate its technology on functional GaN devices and move toward pilot engagements with industry participants.

Its initial commercial strategy focuses on power-conversion hardware used in data centres, where improved thermal management could raise efficiency and extend equipment life.

Founded in late 2025, HexSeed’s leadership team includes Tandy, Chief Technology Officer Dr Leonardo Santoni and Chief Operating Officer Dr Michael Glerum.

The new investment gives the company resources to test whether its laboratory results can translate into practical semiconductor applications. If successful, the technology could address two connected challenges: finding higher-value uses for captured CO₂ and reducing heat-related energy losses in expanding AI infrastructure.

Budapest-based EdTech company BOOKR Kids has raised €6.1 million in Series A funding to expand its literacy and language-learning platform while developing tools designed to prepare students for an AI-driven future.

TCEE Fund IV, advised by 3TS Capital Partners, led the round. Participants included Kids Read Now founder Leib Lurie; SchoolDay Chairman and CEO Robert Iskander; Finnish investment vehicle Infinit Capital Oy; and Billingo CEO Albert Sárospataki through the FusionWise angel syndicate.

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Building Literacy Skills for the AI Era

Founded in 2015, BOOKR Kids has evolved from a literacy startup into a learning ecosystem serving more than 600,000 paying students at over 3,000 schools across more than 30 countries.

Its BOOKR Class platform combines thousands of curriculum-based interactive books with more than 50,000 learning activities. It primarily supports English-language learning, reading comprehension and literacy, while also covering German-language education and Hungarian first-language literacy.

CEO and co-founder Dr. Dorka Horváth said children will not compete with AI on speed but through comprehension, curiosity, judgement and the ability to formulate better questions. The investment will allow BOOKR to develop the learning infrastructure behind those skills and reach millions more children, she added.

BOOKR Class delivers animated books featuring native-speaker narration and multisensory storytelling, developed with input from writers, artists, psychologists, educators and literacy specialists.

Its Teacher Support AI provides CEFR-aligned diagnostic pathways, curriculum mapping, learning-data analysis, content recommendations and teaching resources. Generative AI remains within the teacher environment under professional oversight, while children access only restricted, age-appropriate features built around privacy and child-safety principles reflected in the EU AI Act.

Expanding Products and International Distribution

BOOKR will use the funding to deepen institutional partnerships and strengthen distribution across priority markets in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.

The company plans to develop BOOKR Next for students aged 10 to 18, extending its learning model into secondary education and vocational pathways. It will also build BOOKR Phonics, an eight-stage programme using decodable texts to support early literacy.

Other priorities include expanding its newly launched Teacher Dashboard, developing Speaking Studio and adding more languages. The dashboard brings curriculum alignment, differentiated instruction, progress analytics and teacher-support tools into one environment.

BOOKR is separately developing an AI-powered adaptive language placement and proficiency assessment system with support from a €662,000 non-repayable European Union grant.

Research Supports International Growth

Research led by a Hungarian university found that students using BOOKR’s interactive format improved reading comprehension by 20% more than a control group.

During a 2026 pilot in Jordan, the treatment group improved by 1.08 points, while the comparison group declined by 0.47 points, with a statistically significant result of p<0.001. Higher platform usage was associated with stronger gains.

Barnabás Vincze, Investment Manager at 3TS Capital Partners, said BOOKR combines strong educational content and rigorous teaching methods with an international business model. Its partner networks across Turkey, the UAE, Jordan and China have created geographically diversified revenue rather than dependence on Hungary alone, he added.

BOOKR previously raised €2 million in 2020 alongside a further €2 million convertible note to support the international expansion of BOOKR Class.