praxis

“The convergence of knowledge and action.”

Embedded strategy & execution partner for frontier industrial technologies.

The science is rarely what stops a deep tech company. We work with founders and investors at TRL 2–7 on the problems that do.

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services

What we do

Tailored services

01

any tlr

FundRaise Readiness CHECK

Two week turnaround. Fixed fee.
Scale up and commercialisation plan gap analysis. Steering recommendations, ecosystem contacts and direct investor/founder introductions where suitable.

For founders who want an independent audit of their fundraise readiness or investors / corporates / grants / funds who want not only technical DD but a read on the plan forward and the likelihood of success.

Diagnostic

02

any tlr

Entry Sprint

One month embedded inside the problems. Fixed fee.
Scale up gap analysis, 24-36 month roadmap, initial process & operational safety audit, urgent priorities handled in real time.

We define the gap between where the company is and where it needs to be. Then start you on the plan to get there.

Rapid response

03

any tlr

Baseline

12 weeks to set direction, build the safety and engineering foundation and secure the funds and resources to accelerate the programme.

Continuing from the Entry Sprint we develop a Basis of Design, safety baseline and scope and cost the next engineering steps. Technical content for any active fundraise or grant delivered as needed alongside investor/ EPC engagement and/or GTM development.

Set the foundation

04

any tlr

Execute

Ongoing project engineering and delivery, tailored to client needs. Leadership and resource gaps filled for as long as it takes, then handing over as the internal team takes over.

Scale up engineering design, HAZOP, Pre-FEED/ FEED/ FEL readiness, procurement, commissioning, supply chain setup, hiring support, pilot plant development and troubleshooting.

Deliver the plan

05

any tlr

Deliver

The documents that unlock the next decision. Financial models built from pilot data, FID packages, EPC handovers, investor-grade technical submissions. Defined scope, fixed fee, to the standard the next step requires.

Outputs that move the needle

06

any tlr

project development

Building the project alongside you, from first pilot to FID. We cover technical development, commercial and regulatory groundwork, capital stack, and more.

Pathway to scale

For founders.

The technology works. Turning it into something fundable, buildable, and scalable is where most companies stall, not because the science is wrong, but because the engineering, safety, and commercial infrastructure need to catch up. We embed early, start where the pressure is highest, and produce the work the next commercial or funding conversation requires: EPC-ready packages, process safety studies, financial models, grant applications. When the engagement ends, the capability stays. Eventually taking your technology through to pilot delivery and beyond.

Hand holding a pen pointing to a section of an architectural blueprint showing room labels and measurements.
Close-up of industrial facility with large metal pipes, cylindrical tanks, and scaffolding structures.

For investors.

Your portfolio companies have the capital, the technology, and the team. What's missing is an owner's engineer inside the work, compressing the ambiguity into an engineering record that investors, EPCs, and lenders can act on. The founder gets execution support. You get ground-level visibility that board cycles don't provide, from someone who knows what the data means and what it doesn't. When the technology, capital and route to market are ready, that embedded position becomes the basis for co-developing the asset to financial close with aligned incentives rather than advisory fees.

Our Focus

Project Development

Frontier technologies can't scale in isolation.
We build the projects that make them real.

Some of the most consequential work in these sectors happens at the boundaries between companies. Where a startup's technology meets an industrial partner's reach. Where complementary capabilities combine into something neither could build alone. Where the right capital connects to the right project at the right moment. We identify those intersections, align the stakeholders, and build the structure that gets the project to financial close.

sectors

Chemicals

·

Energy

·

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS

·

Metals

·

Agriculture

·

Decarbonisation

·

Circular economy

·

Air quality

·

Water

proof

VERIFIED

[TRACTION & VALIDATION]

"TS Applications stepped in and immediately understood the structural bottlenecks we were facing. Their support in building out our commercial and engineering roadmaps saved us months of iteration and misallocated capital."

Dr. Sarah Jenkins
CEO & Founder, Horizon Materials

"As an investor, having an independent, technically rigorous execution partner inside the portfolio gives us immense confidence. They see the problems before they show up in quarterly reports."

Marcus Thorne
Partner, Frontier Ventures

WE SUPPORTED

BIOBEAN

MISSION ZERO

HORIZON

NUCLEUS

proof

VERIFIED

Testimonials

"Praxis started working with Phase at a pivotal time when the company was facing several engineering challenges. Having engineers with prior startup experience embed themselves in the company was extremely effective for helping Phase get through various roadblocks and accelerate its technology development. The Praxis team helped build strong foundations for the next stages of Phase's journey delivering key documents and infrastructure on our critical path. We had struggled to find the right engineers who had experience and adaptability that we needed but were also willing to come in on a short term project. Praxis was the perfect partner to filling that short term skills gap while leveraging their scale up experience to identify and map our future skills needs."

David Ortega
Founder & CEO Phase Biolabs

“Building and scaling engineering systems often feels like navigating a series of increasingly taller brick walls. I've never met someone as good at finding ways over/ around/ through brick walls as Trishan.
Mission Zero wouldn't exist without him.”

Nicholas Chadwick
Co-founder & CEO Mission Zero Technologies

"When Praxis first came on board, nonlinear CDR had a clear idea of what we were attempting to achieve and had identified a gap in our understanding of chemical process engineering. The Praxis team were able to dig into the chemistry with us and help us build PFDs and other process engineering documentation in support of our objective. They were also instructive in guiding us on grant and accelerator applications and helping us create credibility as we have moved through the various phases. The Praxis team’s work is of a consistently high quality, and I can count on them to deliver on schedule. They are easy to work with, and I look forward to a long and productive relationship."

Angus Shaw
Founder & CEO Nonlinear CDR

"Trishan provided valuable support in helping us refine our business model and shape a clearer five-year plan for FORAGER. His perspective on our market was particularly helpful, especially in thinking through where we can position ourselves and how we can build a credible scale strategy over time. He brought both strategic clarity and practical insight, and I would definitely recommend him to other founders looking for support with business model development, market positioning, and growth planning"

Yuki Abe
Co-Founder & COO, FORAGER

WE SUPPORTED

about

CREDENTIALS

Everyone assumes that the science is the hard part.

I spent a decade as one of the first engineering hires inside frontier industrial companies, building the technology, the teams and everything required to scale it at the same time. I have seen where scale up programmes stall, and what it costs when they do.
The barriers are rarely technical. The ecosystem around deep tech companies is still catching up to what crossing the “valley of death” actually demands. In a market shaped by geopolitical uncertainty and a growing premium on proven execution, the margin for error is shrinking. The need for an integrator, bridging the gap from lab to bankable infrastructure, has never been greater.
Praxis was built to serve that role, embedded directly in the execution layer where the decisions that determine whether a technology reaches the market are actually made.

Trishan Sharma standing in a large industrial room with equipment wrapped in bubble wrap and illuminated overhead lights.

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FAQs

parameters

Frequently Asked Questions

What kinds of companies and funds does Praxis work with?

We work with deep tech founders scaling from TRL 2-7, navigating the valley of death and the widening funding gaps along the pre-seed to Series B journey; OEMs adopting frontier technologies onto existing assets and offering startups a route to market; VC, Angel, Philanthropic and Grant funds needing technical due diligence and ground-level visibility; and corporate bodies/project developers requiring independent assessment of what they fund.
We focus on emerging industrial hardware and software technologies that have positive climate impacts and real potential to scale.

How does an engagement work and how quickly can you start?

Engagements are embedded and hands-on: we work inside the company, maintain daily contact when needed, and address the most urgent problems in real time while the wider scale-up and go-to-market plan develops in parallel. We can usually start within days. For one client, we delivered a complete and ultimately successful UKRI grant application eight working days from start, alongside a readiness assessment, hazard analysis, and investor introductions in the same four-week sprint.
From day one the wider network is in play: process safety, EPC and vendor contacts, finance, procurement & operations support, recruitment partners, and grant and investor relationships are mobilised as soon as they become relevant.

What does an engagement typically cost?

Fees scale with depth and stage, and we share detailed pricing once we understand the programme. Entry Sprint and Baseline are fixed-fee, so you know the cost of getting a clean engineering and safety baseline upfront. Execute and Retainer are monthly and sized to what the programme actually needs, then reviewed and adjusted as the team and plant mature.Deliver is fixed-fee per agreed package of documents, and Project Development is success-based against predefined funding and FEL gates, with a success fee on capital secured.

How is this different from a traditional consultancy?

Traditional consultancies are built for structured analysis and board-level communication, usually delivered by mixed-grade teams working at a distance. That model is valuable, but it is not optimised for TRL 2–7 hardware where most of the real learning happens inside the plant.
Praxis is built for embedded execution. You get 100% senior delivery and a curated specialist network deployed from day one, staying inside the programme and producing the critical outputs itself: the grant, the HAZID, the financial model, the signed LOI. Because we stay close to day-to-day decisions for months rather than weeks, we accumulate a depth of operational knowledge that standard due diligence or a single deck cannot replicate.

Why not just hire someone in-house?

Hiring the equivalent capability in-house usually means £200k+ fully loaded, months of search and ramp, and real hiring risk on top of the technical and runway risk you already carry. One mis-hire at this level can burn as much runway as a failed experimental campaign.
The skills to move from TRL 2–4 are different from those needed at TRL 5–9, and many teams struggle to get the first senior hire right for the whole journey. Praxis gives you senior scale-up capability and a full network at a fraction of the cost, and can flex up or down as your runway and team evolve.
Phase Biolabs is an example: an intensive Entry Sprint, a Baseline that produced the engineering and safety record, a lighter Retainer phase while the team executed, and now project development support as the next scale step approaches.

Why does the timing of engineering intervention matter?

In frontier industrial programmes, timing is the one variable founders and investors can really control. The decisions that determine whether the FOAK works are made at TRL 4–6, when reactor geometry, control philosophy, materials, and integration boundaries are set and become expensive or impossible to change.
Every pilot experiment should answer a question the commercial plant needs answered. If the pilot is not designed with the FOAK in view, you risk needing an additional scale step, another funding round, and years of delay to regenerate the data you should have collected the first time.
In parallel, site control, grid connection, consenting, feedstock, and offtake all have lead times measured in years. Started late, each becomes a new critical path item. Started early, the technology and project development advance together and you reach FID faster, with less capital burned on avoidable rework.

What is your approach to process safety?

Process safety is the root cause of the risk the entire scale-up journey is trying to mitigate. The financial risk lenders and capital providers underwrite is that the technology will not go wrong at scale, and that risk begins and ends with the safety culture, ethos, and practices inside the company. Serious investors always look at safety. It is one of the clearest signals of how a company operates, thinks about risk, and whether it is building something that will survive contact with the real world.
Novel chemistry and process conditions demand safety thinking earlier than most teams expect. Every engagement carries a safety baseline as standard, run to recognised guidelines and matured alongside the design, with studies calibrated to the right depth for each stage.
Every safety deliverable includes an explicit scope statement and design-stage caveat, so it can stand on its own in a data room. Built correctly from the start, the safety record accelerates EPC engagement and lender diligence; rebuilt under pressure, it can stall or kill a project.

How does Project Development work?

Project Development at Praxis is true co-development, with skin in the game and a long-term financial interest in the asset, not just an advisory fee.
Two streams feed it: projects that emerge from the consulting pipeline with clear commercial merit, and opportunities originated by Praxis where we bring in the right technology and partners. Entry can happen at any TRL; what matters is whether the technology is real, the team can execute, and the commercial case stands up.
From that point, we run three workstreams in parallel: technical development through FEL to a locked FEED basis, commercial and regulatory groundwork, and capital stack engineering across grants, venture, strategic capital, and project finance. The destination is FOAK to financial close and the bridge from high-cost venture equity to lower-cost project finance, achieved with less dilution and fewer dead ends.

Where do you work?

Praxis is based in London and works globally, with clients across the UK, Europe, and the US, and active project development interests in India and Africa.
Equitable industrialisation is a core part of the mission. The same technologies solving climate and industrial problems in developed markets are often well suited to emerging economies, frequently at better economics and with richer real-world operating data.
The engineering fundamentals travel; what changes is capital, regulation, and stakeholders. We can help you navigate all three.

How does an engagement end?

From day one, a clean exit is a design goal. The aim is to build internal capacity and hand over to a mission-aligned team, not to create dependency.
For many clients, we work toward a pilot project development milestone where engineering, safety record, and commercial groundwork have compounded into something investable. Phase Biolabs is a model: an intensive Entry Sprint, a Baseline that produced the record, a lighter Retainer phase, and then project development support as the next scale step approaches.
When the team can execute independently, we step back, remaining available to re-engage at the next critical scale step. Where commercial merit and alignment are strong, an Execute or Deliver engagement may instead convert into a co-development relationship.