Nesta Impact Investments backs tech ventures working in areas aligned with Nesta’s 2030 impact goals. Nesta’s sustainable future mission aims to reduce UK household carbon emissions by 28% by 2030. We invest in businesses that support the green transition and Nesta’s goal. Nesta Impact Investments is delighted to have invested in Resi. 

Resi provides homeowners with a digital-first, end-to-end service for home renovations, such as loft or kitchen extensions. Resi’s platform enables homeowners thinking about an extension to explore, design and plan, and to put their build in place. The website allows customers to get an instant quote on the design of their home renovation, which can include retrofit measures to reduce carbon emissions such as solar panels or a heat pump. It provides a streamlined one-stop shop from design to tender and build for renovations and retrofit.

The design process includes creation of a digital twin of the home, with which customers can try out different configurations of their extension designs online. The homeowners’ process of discovery before they embark on a renovation inspires with different design options and informs with corresponding cost estimates, drawing from Resi’s databank of 60,000 costed projects.  

Resi’s tech-enabled design platform collates and submits planning applications more quickly and cheaply than alternatives, with a 92% success rate. The platform can efficiently process other regulatory requirements, such as building regulations approvals, and provides a marketplace for related services, such as structural engineers, drain surveys, build materials, heat pumps, solar panels and building contractors.  

Resi is the largest architectural practice in the UK, measured by planning applications. The company has brought together and digitised a fragmented and manual sector, making it more affordable and quicker for consumers, delivering almost 8,000 home extension projects over the past seven years.

Resi takes the hassle out of renovations for homeowners, and 80% of customers are expressing interest in how they can incorporate energy efficiency and retrofit measures as part of this. It makes sense to combine retrofit of lower carbon heating into home renovation, so Resi is building decarbonisation into their core home renovation product. 

15 million homes need to upgrade to EPC C or above by 2035. A typical project on a leaky home can save up to five tonnes of carbon per annum and also meaningfully improve EPC ratings. By offering their customers retrofit options while they undertake renovation work, Resi helps enable a lower cost and easier pathway to embark on decarbonisation.

Resi is building a more automated design tool, ResiReady, which will expand their reach and offer. Drawing on Resi’s historic data set, it can further reduce the cost and increase the speed of the upfront design and cost estimates for home renovations. Both ResiReady and the Connect marketplace are being designed to offer:

• retrofit advice, which is free of charge, and integration of survey to support retrofit specification and an assessment of your home’s performance
• green optionality in specification and building materials, such as insulation, glazing, timber frames, solar, batteries and green heating systems 
• green build, focussed on greening the construction process through standardised designs, bulk low-carbon material purchasing, and high standards of thermal efficiency.