Climb27 · 30 June & 1 July 2027 · The Festival for Business Growth

Put your cohort in front of the right people

Two days of investor, buyer and partner meetings for your founders, a showcase slot through partnership, and a record of meetings held to report to funders.

See partner and ticket options

30 June & 1 July 2027

Partner with ClimbUK

Packages on request

Stand, stage, workshop or showcase
Tickets for your team included
An impact report after the event

Partner with ClimbUK or book a call with our partner manager

Founder tickets at the current release price. Cohort and partner packages on request.

What Climb27 does for a programme

Meetings for every founder.

Each founder in your cohort gets two days in a room full of investors, buyers and partners, meetings booked before they arrive, and the drinks receptions to finish them.

A stage for the programme.

A cohort showcase or demo-day slot is a partnership perk: partner with ClimbUK and your founders pitch to the floor, on the main stage or at Busk Your Business.

Book a call about a cohort package →

The whole ecosystem in one place.

Councils, universities, investors, corporates, funders and the other programmes are all here. Compare notes, find the next partner, and bring your funders to see it.

Three things you need

Investors for your start-ups

Seed rounds are fewer and the gap between them is longer. Your founders need warm routes to investors.

Angels, funds and lenders attend Climb27 to meet companies. Your founders request meetings, the Investor Speed Networking round pairs them with investors from their industry, and the VIP drinks reception does the rest.

Investors at every step of the ladder
Investor Speed Networking for your founders
Busk Your Business: the floor as a demo day

Proof the programme works

Funders want outcomes, not 'total raised by alumni' charts.

Every meeting your founders have is logged, the showcase is on record, and the partnerships team sends an impact report you can hand to your funders.

Meetings held per founder
Showcase and partner activity on site
An impact report after the event

Steady funding and a bigger network

Programmes live on partnerships, and the ones that last are plugged into their ecosystem.

The ecosystem is in the room: councils with growth budgets, universities with spinouts, corporates with innovation briefs, and the affiliate programme that pays you for the founders you send our way.

Councils, universities and corporates in one place
An affiliate programme with your own page and discount
Programme-manager meet-ups across the two days

Who's in the room

ClimbUK is for businesses already moving. That is the room your founders walk into.

Investors

What they bring: an appetite for real deal flow and portfolio experience. They attend to meet companies, not to speak.
What they want: companies already trading, founders they can build a relationship with, and co-investors.

Buyers and corporate partners

What they bring: procurement budgets, supply-chain gaps and a brief to find suppliers who can deliver at scale.
What they want: growing companies they can work with this year, not a pitch deck.

Scaling companies

What they bring: the growing businesses of the North and beyond: trading, hiring, raising, selling, and buying help to do it.
What they want: advisers, suppliers, investors and buyers who can move them on this year.

University commercialisation teams

What they bring: research ready for market, spinout founders and knowledge exchange budgets.
What they want: industry partners, investors for spinouts and a place to put their work in front of business.

Councils and combined authorities

What they bring: the businesses they back, growth plans and the people who run business support.
What they want: investors and buyers for their companies, partners to deliver with, evidence to report.

Other programmes

What they bring: their own cohorts, playbooks and funders.
What they want: partners to run with, and what worked elsewhere.

How the two days work

30 June and 1 July 2027.
Doors open at 09:00; the evening runs as late as you do.

1 Before

Book a call with our partner manager to shape the cohort package. Your founders get their tickets, build their lists and request meetings.

2 Day one, 30 June

09:00: the grand opening performance and the headline partner announcements. Your founders' booked meetings and the sessions through the day, then the VIP drinks reception and the ClimbAwards, with your cohort in the room that backs them.

3 Day two, 1 July

Investor Speed Networking for your founders, Busk Your Business, the showcase slot if you partner, and the follow-up meetings. wrapped up in the after parties with an unmissable Climb27 experience in the evening. Details to be announced soon.

4 After

Three in four people who come leave with follow-ups that matter: a sale, a partnership, an investment or funding. Every meeting stays in each founder's account, the partnerships team sends the impact report for your funders, and your referral page keeps working all year.

Business with a party. Not a party for business.

The festival aspect came second. ClimbUK grew out of the Investor Ladder events that have run since 2016, where founders and investors met because they had business to do. We are one of the first business festivals in the UK, built around that: the deals, the introductions and the advice come first, and the opening performance, the ClimbAwards, the drinks receptions and the after parties exist because business gets done faster between people who have enjoyed each other's company.

Busk Your Business

Pitch your company to the floor with a microphone and a crowd. Loud, fast and memorable.

Investor Speed Networking

A timed round of short meetings with investors who opted in. No deck, no slides, a conversation.

After parties

Day two wraps up with the after parties, where the deals of the day get agreed, and an unmissable Climb27 experience in the evening. Details to be announced soon.

Still on the fence?

What do we report to funders?

Meetings held per founder, the showcase and partner activity on site, and the audience figures, in the impact report after the event.

How do we bring the cohort?

A partnership includes tickets and the showcase slot. For more, four or more standard two-day tickets bought together save 25%, or contact your partner manager for cohort terms.

Can we refer founders to Climb27?

Yes, and get the credit. Join the affiliate programme and you get your own page on climb-uk.com and a discount code for your founders, with every ticket tracked to you.

Can founders buy their own tickets?

Yes. Standard tickets are in the shop, and your referral code gets them a better price.

When is the programme published?

Climb27's programme is curated to what matters in the weeks before the event, and we publish each session once we are certain the room will benefit from it. Some events lock their agenda years out; by the time the doors open the world has moved. In fast-moving fields like AI, a session planned twelve months ahead teaches what every tool you use already does. We would rather hold the slot and fill it with what you need on the day. Tickets bought now cover the full programme, and the main stage moments are announced as they are confirmed.

Is this a start-up event?

There are start-up focused sessions and pitching time, but start-ups are not our bread and butter: ClimbUK is for businesses that are trading and growing. If you want a start-up focused festival we are happy to point you at partners who do it brilliantly, Ideas Fest and Helpbnk among them.

Still deciding?

Three in four people who come leave with follow-ups that matter: a sale, a partnership, an investment or funding.

Thirty minutes with the team answers the rest. Ask anything, from the programme to who else is coming.

Partner with ClimbUK Book a call with the team

30 June & 1 July 2027 · The Festival for Business Growth