OCTD began as a project-focused initiative to understand how emerging technologies could serve development and the challenges that stood in the way. We found structural problems in the system: innovations in climate technology were failing not because of the science but because of the support behind them. Prevalent models were leaving the most consequential ventures behind. We began designing and implementing alternatives, cooperatives, steward ownership, multi-stakeholder governance, that allow founders to secure the finance and support they need without compromising the mission that drove them in the first place.

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We built a practice-driven organisation that immerses itself in the commercialisation process alongside the ventures it supports. We work directly with our partner ventures on the hardest problems: making first sales, navigating regulatory complexity, opening access to markets that are challenging to enter. Leveraging over 30 years of experience and extensive human networks, we have built operational reach across the United Kingdom, Türkiye, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Cuba, the United Arab Emirates, India, Brazil. 

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Today, OCTD operates on two levels simultaneously. We are a venture developer, providing intensive bespoke support to a curated portfolio of high-impact companies. And we are an ecosystem coordinator, building tools and platforms for the entire sector. These two roles are not separate: Hands-on work with startups generates real-world insight that informs our ecosystem projects, which in turn create a more favourable environment for our portfolio companies to succeed. 

We continue working for the same question we started with: What does it actually take to get the right technologies to people and places that need them most?