Creating Furbnow

A case study

At a glance

UK homes are among the least energy-efficient in Europe, driving up bills and carbon emissions. Nesta’s venture builder, Mission Studio, seeded Furbnow, a market disruptor transforming the retrofit industry. Since then they have supported a thousand customers to retrofit their homes, and are backed by £3.6 million investment.

The challenge

In the UK alone, we need to retrofit two homes every minute to hit the UK’s target of net zero by 2050. Currently, 97% of homes are classed as inefficient and not ready to meet the net zero target – and the UK is off the pace of delivering on the target nationally and globally. Making our homes more energy efficient is an important step to reaching net zero.

But consumers face many barriers to retrofitting their homes. Research shows that a lack of available information, advice and easy access to trusted professionals can leave people feeling confused and unable to take action.

Cost is another barrier. Despite financial options such as green mortgages and grants for low-income housing, many people find it unaffordable to retrofit their homes.

What we did

To tackle this problem, Nesta’s in-house venture builder created the idea behind Furbnow, in partnership with the Founder’s Factory.

Furbnow is a managed marketplace that streamlines the end-to-end process of conducting a green retrofit of a property. Through their digital platform, Furbnow takes the pain out of the process and steers customers towards green retrofit solutions that reduce carbon emissions from their homes.

The goal was to enable and accelerate thousands of green retrofits, each of which could lead to around 3,000kg per year reduction in CO₂ emissions – aligning closely with Nesta’s sustainable future work.

Nesta’s Mission Studio provides start-ups with skills, expertise and support to get new businesses off the ground. Since its inception, Mission Studio has supported founders build ventures from the ground up, with access to:

a venture design and build programme to go from idea to scale
the possibility to secure a £275,000 investment to build the product and bring it to market
an expert team to offer support across every startup function
ability to leverage Nesta’s mission relevant networks.

"It's helpful to have that organisation that can support you and make it make sense. They've been professional and supportive all the way through, and it feels far more doable than it feels when you're trying to work it all out on your own."

Claire, Homeowner

The impact

Since its creation, Furbnow has been backed in £3.6 million in funding to date and scaled into one of the country’s leading providers of home retrofits.

The service has helped a thousand customers to make their homes more energy efficient.

For homeowners like Claire, Furbnow has been vital to getting her home retrofitted, taking the fear and the overwhelm out of it.

What we learnt

Tackle systemic barriers with simple, user-centred design

Turning a complex, fragmented process (like home retrofitting) into a guided, managed service can unlock action where confusion once stalled progress.

Empower consumers through trust and clarity

Many climate-positive choices fail because people feel overwhelmed. Providing clear information, reliable professionals, and a supportive experience helps turn intent into action.

Invest early in scalable solutions for long-term change

Early-stage backing, expert support, and structured venture-building enable startups like Furbnow to grow rapidly and deliver measurable environmental impact at scale.