Climb27 · 30 June & 1 July 2027 · The Festival for Business Growth
Meet the founders worth your time, ten minutes at a time
Investor Ladder places you at a table with founders from the sectors and stages you back. Ninety minutes, three rounds, two founders at a time, and the advice you give is what they came for.
Verified investors get a free Climb27 ticket through the investors page. Sign up for the round here.
Your seat at the table
Included with your investor ticket
Sign up as an investorNo ticket yet? Verified investor ticketsWhat the round gives an investor
Deal flow you did not have to chase.
Every founder at your table bought a place and completed a form: sector, stage, what they are raising and what they want advice on. You see the forms before the round starts.
Your criteria, up front.
You open with a two-minute reverse pitch: who you are, what you back and what you are looking for now. Every founder in the room hears it before they sit down.
The follow-up on your terms.
Founders request meetings in the app; you accept or decline. Nothing reaches you without your say.
Three things you need
What an investor needs from a room
01
Founders who fit your thesis
A room full of founders is only useful if they are the right founders.
You tell us what you back and at what stage when you sign up. Investor Ladder places founders in sessions by sector and stage from their own forms, and builds your session round both.
- Sessions grouped by sector and stage
- Founder forms shared with you before the round
- Your sectors and stages, from your own sign-up
02
Conversations, not pitches
You have seen the deck. You want to know how they think.
No decks, no slides. Two founders at your table for five to ten minutes each, three rounds, with your questions driving it. The advice you give is the value they came for.
- Two founders per table, three timed rounds, you rotate
- Reverse pitches first, so founders ask the right things
- Group questions and open networking to close
03
Two days of companies
The round is ninety minutes. The festival is two days.
Outside the session, the app lists every company attending and the investor-led sessions put you on the stage. Opt in to meeting requests, or do not: you decide how you are presented.
- Investor-led sessions on the stage
- Companies listed in the ClimbGroup Event App to request
- The round on both days; day two is the busier
Sign up as an investor
Tell Investor Ladder what you back and when you can sit in. Your sign-up goes to the team that builds the sessions.
Who's in the room
Who sits across the table.
Founders of scaling companies
- What they bring
- a year of lessons from the same problems you have, learned the expensive way.
- What they want
- peers to trade notes with, suppliers, hires and the odd co-founder.
Founders raising
- What they bring
- a product, early revenue and a round in sight, from pre-seed to Series A.
- What they want
- advice first, then the investors who could lead or follow.
Investor Ladder
- What they bring
- the team that runs the round: the matching, the format and the room.
- What they want
- investors who answer the questions founders came with.
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.
Incubators and accelerators
- What they bring
- a cohort of founders, demo-day energy and a funder to report to.
- What they want
- investors, buyers and partners for their founders, and other programmes to work with.
How the round works
1
Sign up
The form below: who you are, what you back, which day. Investor Ladder builds the sessions round the investors who sign up.
2
Get your ticket
Verified investors get a free Climb27 ticket through the investors page. If you have one already, skip this.
3
The session
Ninety minutes. Investors open with a two-minute reverse pitch on what they look for, then rotate through three timed rounds, five to ten minutes with each founder. Group questions and open networking close it. You are the one who moves between tables.
4
After
Founders request the follow-up in the ClimbGroup Event App. You accept or decline, and nothing reaches you without your say.
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.
The grand opening
Day one opens on the main stage with a live performance and the headline partner announcements. Nobody is late for this one.
ClimbAwards at the VIP drinks reception
One room, the businesses of the year and the people who back them. The ClimbAwards are handed out inside the VIP drinks reception, and that is the night everyone talks about.
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?
No. The round is included with your Climb27 investor ticket, and verified investors get that ticket free through the investors page.
Six in the three timed rounds, two per table, plus whoever finds you in the open networking at the end.
Yes. Tell us what you back and at what stage when you sign up; Investor Ladder builds your session round it.
No. The founders came for advice. Investment, if it follows, follows later and on your terms.
Yes. Say which days you can do on the form. The round runs on both, and day two is the busier of the two.
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.
The founders are already in the room.
30 June and 1 July 2027. Sign up for the round and get your investor ticket.