The cofinitive #21toWatch campaign launched in 2018 to showcase the homegrown innovation across the Cambridge and East of England region. The list is made up of the people, companies and ‘things’ that are shaping the future in their industries locally, nationally and globally. The list in not industry specific and represents a broad spectrum of what the region has to offer. With such a diverse list, the attributes each submission is assessed on are Innovation, Challenge, Influence, Viability and Memorability.

Many of 2022’s Top21 have gone on to enjoy great success – securing new rounds of funding, making new mentoring and business connections and securing new clients. What is evident is that this is a campaign that businesses wants to be a part of – either to be on the list themselves or to be supporting those businesses on it.

Find out more, and view the current people, companies, and ‘things’ lists on our microsite.

At a glance: Top21.2022

Christopher Cleaver, Jeroen Verheyen, Kanta Dihal, Marcel Gehrung, Mohammed Alawami, Sasha Haco, Stephanie Martlew, AgriGrub, Cambridge GaN Devices, CorrosionRADAR, Porotech, Psyomics, R4DAR Technologies, Sano Genetics, Antobot, bio-bean, DIOSynVax, Flusso, Forefront RF, HexagonFab and Sparxell.

 

People Company 'Thing' Longlist Shortlist Top.21 Name Synopsis
Company Accelerated Materials
People Adrian Rodriguez-Bazaga
Thing AgriGrub AgriGrub is fighting the climate crisis by providing a net-zero-carbon to process our food waste. They do this using a special insect, the Black Soldier fly larvae. The AgriGrub team was the first in the UK to grow these grubs and is currently setting up a grub farm to process 10 tonnes of waste a day
Company Alchemie Technology
People Alex Justin
People Ali Clabburn
People Ana Bernando-Gancedo
People Anna Sturrock Anna Sturrock is a fish ecologist and lecturer at the University of Essex. Her international research programme focuses on tracking fish movements and health to inform conservation and resource management
People Anthony Smith
Company Arete Medical Technologies
Company Asynt Ltd
Company BIOS Health
Company BioSure BioSure develops and manufactures rapid tests with the highest levels of accuracy - UK's first CE marked BioSURE HIV Self Test and BioSURE COVID-19 IgG Antibody Self Test – providing immediate results
Thing Biotech Bootcamp
Company Biotech Bootcamp
Thing Bolt HexagonFab’s Bolt is a benchtop device for simple on-site protein, antibody, and small molecule affinity and kinetic analysis using only electrical detection
Company Boutros Bear
Thing CamAPS FX
Company Carbon Re Carbon Re combines world-class deep reinforcement learning - a field of artificial intelligence best suited to managing complex decision-making - and industrial sustainability expertise from the University of Cambridge and University College London
Company CC Bio
Company Cellexcel
Thing ChickenGuard
Company Chronomics
Thing CircuitBuilder
Thing Climate Code Shirt The Climate Code shirt features two main datasets – the warming stripes of the shirt fabric represent the last 70 years of temperature records from the Arctic, with details providing the backdrop of 800,000 years of Antarctic temperature and CO2 data. The innovative design brings together the dynamic story of the past and the worrying trends of the present in a novel visualisation that aims to inspire climate action
Company CorrosionRADAR CorrosionRADAR has unique solutions for Predictive Corrosion Monitoring (PCM) and is an important enabler for safer and more sustainable operations in the Oil & Gas and Energy sectors
Company Creasallis
Company CropLens AI
People Darendra Appanah Finalist in the Outstanding Young Engineer of the Year category at CW Technology & Innovation Awards
Thing Device Materials Group
Company Digital Daylight Ltd
People Dilrini De Silva
Thing Disc Pump
People Dr Alisa Molotova Alisa is a Business Development Executive at Marshall ADG Futureworx, a technology accelerator which aims to spot strategic technology gaps based on relevant mega-trends such as net zero carbon
People Dr Ananay Aguilar
People Dr Carina Tyrrell
People Dr Christopher Cleaver Christopher developed DeepForm Technology, an innovative sheet metal forming process that can reduce trimming and thinning. His aim is to produce better car body parts with half the metal, helping automakers reach zero manufacturing emissions
People Dr Franck Courbon
People Dr Frank Tietze
People Dr Gita Khalili Moghaddam
People Dr Nikita Sinha
People Dr Pahini Pandya
People Dr Robert Edwards
Thing Education Platform By Cambridge Spark
Company electronRx electronRx is a deep tech company of world-class scientists and engineers leading the development of novel chronic disease management solutions that pave the way for personalised digital medicine
Thing eScent eScent is a wearable technology system, enabling the delivery of a personalised "Scent Bubble" (and other liquids) as a sensory-controlled solution for the Wellness, Healthcare, Perfumery, Fashion, Gaming/Metaverse, and Psychedelic Medicine sectors, and is protected by several awarded/pending patents
Company ET-Traps
Company Fintellity
Thing FLS110 The FLS110 is the world’s smallest flow sensor with a unique integration concept. It’s been designed to make it easy to add new flow measurement features into virtually any product. Even the most tightly packed or cost-sensitive designs
Company FocalSun
Thing Forefront RF’s Adaptive Passive Cancellation (APC) Technology The unique APC chip cancels out the transceiver’s self-interference, enabling a smartphone’s receiver to “hear” the weakest signals while transmitting at full power
Thing Gallium Nitride power modules CGD leads the European funded GaNext project under the PENTA Programme, targeting the design and development on highly efficient, highly compact prototypes of next-generation Gallium Nitride power modules, for low and high power applications
Company GlycoVue
Thing Happyr App Having chronic pain can feel like living with a beast. The Happyr App helps you to tame this pain dragon. Track your daily mood and log your migraine symptoms for increased resilience and wellbeing
Company Helio Display Materials
Company iKVA
Thing Inficaf Inficaf is a sustainable raw material for product developers, made from upcycled spent coffee grounds. It is a consistent, yet versatile material that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and displaces virgin and petrochemical materials in plastics, automotive friction, cosmetics, and more
Company Intellegens
People Jack Davis
People Jeroen Verheyen Jeroen is Co-Founder and CEO at Semarion, a Cambridge spin-out which brings together material science and cell biology to solve key bottlenecks in drug discovery
People Kanta Dihal
People Kevin McDonnell
Company Lamina POP
People Louise Chapman
Company Lucida Medical
Company Macomics Macomics has closed a follow-on financing round of £4.24M to propel its precision cancer medicine work
People Manuel Corpas
People Marcel Gehrung Marcel is co-founder and CEO of Cyted, a medical diagnostic company that is committed to building a world where disease is prevented rather than treated utilising their pioneering digital pathology infrastructure
People Mark Thomas
People Michelle Law
Company Milner Therapeutics Institute
Company MIP Diagnostics
Thing Mobilityways Platform The Mobilityways Platform is a suite of software tools that enables employers to evidence, track, plan and change their commuter emissions
People Mohammed Alawami PhD student at Cambridge University developing cutting-edge cancer early detection technology, and managing operation and R&D at Cambridge Nucleomics where we count native RNA molecules, more quickly and accurately
Company Monavate Monavate is a payment solutions provider, aiming to demystify finance, making it accessible to all; simplifying and improving how people pay the world over
Company Monument Therapeutics
Company Mursla
Company Myricx Pharma
Company Natural Building Systems
Thing Needle free vaccines A next generation Coronavirus vaccine administered through a needle-free 'injection' - a blast of air that delivers it into the skin
Company Neutreeno
People Nicola Filzmoser
Company Novo Farina
Company NRG Therapeutics
Company Nu Quantum
People Ola Woldek
Company Oomph EV oomph is designing and developing a customer centric ecosystem to deliver rapid, mobile EV charge where people need it…we’re not constrained by a fixed infrastructure, and we don’t believe EV vehicles should be either
Company Outfield Technologies Outfield leverage revolutionary drone technology and AI to enable fruit farmers to make data driven decisions for their orchards. We deliver accurate yield results which enable them to plan, forecast and sell their harvest
Company Pavegen
Company Peek Vision
Company PervasID
Company PetaGene
Company PharmEnable
Thing PolyNaut® Technology
Company Porotech In the week before the Top21 were announced, Porotech announced a $20 million Series A investment to accelerate global expansion and mass production of its unique micro-LED products. The funding will meet the growing demand from its customers and partners in the global display market.
Company Psyomics Psyomics’ comprehensive digital assessment helps everyone access the best support for their mental health needs, quickly and accurately whilst also reducing the pressure on the stretched mental health system
Company Qkine
Company Qureight Has partnered with Greenlight Guru in Indianapolis to leverage the US company's strength on Quality Management Software. The move will enable Qureight to take its groundbreaking cloud-based platform through ISO13485 accreditation towards a formal CE mark award
Company R4DAR Technologies R4DAR Technologies is on a mission to improve the safety and effectiveness of autonomous systems whether that be on the road or in the air. It is one of 20 global companies recently selected by international corporates to participate the US PlugandPlay Mobility Accelerator programme
Company Risilience Risilience provides a deeptech analytics platform to enable companies to manage enterprise risk and to transform their businesses to meet the strategic challenges of climate change
Thing Rnwl Rnwl is an Insurtech startup developing a helpful app to help you achieve insurance peace of mind by automatically organising and managing policies and the things which keep them valid
Thing Robot Control Units (uRCU®) Antobot develops highly integrated automotive-grade universal Robot Control Units (uRCU®) – the robot “brain”, combining hardware and software, to power the next generation of intelligent mobile robots in agriculture and beyond
Company ROOTS Medtech CIC
Company Sano Genetics Sano connects people with opportunities to support personalised medicine research. We provide free at-home DNA testing with many of our studies and the chance to learn more about your health and genetics. You own your data and have full control over how and where it is used
Company Sanome
People Sasha Haco Developing a tool to identify harmful or abusive online content through her business Unitary. Unitary is working to make the internet safer, by using computer vision technology to identify harmful content, in context, instead of relying on vast numbers of human moderators
Thing Shaping Horizons
People Sherden Timmins
Company Skinlync
Thing Solaris Photonics Multiplier (SPM)
Company Solidi
Company Sorex Sensors
Company Spark EV Technology
Thing Sparxell Sparxell produces the most sustainable coloured pigments and glitters using cellulose extracted from plants. Applications range from cosmetic to fashion, paint and food. Winner of the 2021 Trinity Bradfield Prize
Thing Stamp Free Limited
Company Stemnovate
People Stephanie Martlew Steph’s passionate about using technology to help improve and prevent mental illness and is now using her experience in scaling global digital mental health companies to lead Psyomics as CEO
Company Superdielectrics
Company Tenoke
Thing Tenyks
Thing The Mini CPC
Company Tiger Eye
People Tracy Lawson
Thing UbisonOne System
Company Unicorn Biotechnologies
Thing Vagus ECG App and Smartwatch
Thing WATR - The Smart Water Quality Monitor WATR has been designed to improve water quality around the world by providing an easy, accurate and reliable way of monitoring conditions
Thing ZETA

If you think you should have been on this list, the nominations for #21toWatch 2023 open until 13th January 2023. Complete the form, tell us via 21toWatch@cofinitive.com, or follow @cofinitive on Twitter and use the #21toWatch.