Winners 

2019

The total amount raised to date by #21toWatch alumni has reached more than £710 million

In 2024, we highlighted that the Top 21 had collectively raised £110 million in a single year. In 2025, that number surged by 42%, with alumni raising over £183 million – bringing the total amount raised to date to more than £710 million (excluding CMR Surgical private equity, and undisclosed deals).

 Full #21toWatch List


Name Synopisis People, Company, Thing Longlist Shortlist Top.21

10to8

Company

1Spatial

Company

8power

A remote condition monitoring solution for industrial assets such as motors, pumps and generators, providing early warning of equipment failure

Company

Inotec AMD ltd

A portable device that heals chronic wounds

Thing

Overstream Clean

A unique social enterprise by Wintercomfort Thing

Above Surveying

Company

Acacia Pharma

Company

Activinsights

A wearables business that delivers lifestyle insight to the global professional healthcare market Thing

Adelina Chalmers

Adelina is a geek who loves enabling tech founders decode how to gain engagement and support for and inside their business People

Agrimetics

Agrimetrics has the data and data capabilities to inspire game-changing solutions to drive sustainable productivity for the agrifood sector Company

AI:MMO

By Ocado Technology (Code for Life) Thing

Alan Cowley

Co-Founder Invested Investor People

Alexander Patto

CEO Waterscope. AlexÔÇÖs research focusses on developing low-cost methods of identifying bacterial contamination for use in low resource settings People

Alexis Mather

Founder and Chief Bottlewashing Officer at Nolojy People

Algorithm to detect arthritis

Developed by University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering Thing

Alviol

Company

Atelerix

An alginate gel that 'hibernates' cells Thing

ANB Sensors

Developing cost effective, self-calibrating, low maintenance pH sensors, cutting operating costs by 70% compared to today's systems Company

Andrew Sandham

Chairman at PredictImmune People

Aqdot

Company

Arcus Global

Company

Arecor

Company

ARIC Platform

By Featurespace Thing

Artios Pharma

Company

Audio Analytic

Company

Aveillant

Company

Avvinity

Company

Axol Bioscience

Company

Azuri Technologies

Company

Bean IoT

BeanIoT(TM) uniquely provides a powerful "Out-of-the-Box", "Internet of Things" solution fit for use by many businesses, across many sectors and applications Thing

Ultrasoc

Behavioural analytics to inform semiconductors Thing

Berenice Smith

Founder of Walk In Our Shoes People

bio-bean

Company

BIOS

A leading neural engineering startup, creating the open standard hardware and software interface between the human nervous system and AI Company

Biosceptre

Company

Blighter Surveillance Systems

Company

Cambioscience

Company

Cambridge Epigenetix

Company

Cambridge Glyoscience

Cambridge Glycoscience specialises in the manufacture of novel functional food ingredients to improve the aesthetic and nutritional quality of manufactured foods Company

Cambridge Graphene Ltd

Company

Cambridge InnoVision

Company

Cambridge Launchpad

By Form the Future Thing

Cambridge Nanotherm

Company

Cambridge Nexus

Company

Cambridge Picture Company

Company

Cambridge Touch Technologies

Company

Check4Cancer

Cancer screening as an employee benefit Thing

Undo

Capture and replay program execution Thing

Charlotte Steggall

Higher Education Champion People

Chronomics

Chronomics offers personalised epigenetic testing direct to consumers for tracking changing health and wellbeing Company

Ciaron Dunne

CEO Genie Ventures People

CMR Surgical

Aiming to make minimal access surgery available to all in order to improve patient outcomes and deliver value for healthcare providers Company

Weightless SIG

Collaborating on an open standard IoT technology Thing

Community Sparx

Company

Computer assisted dreaming

By Futurizon Ltd Thing

Congenica

Company

CorrosionRADAR

CorrosionRADAR strives to be a global leader in remote sensing technologies and advanced analytic systems for smart infrastructures Company

Cydar

Using data, cloud computing and AI to improve patient outcomes in image-guided surgery using a ground-breaking surgical guidance system Company

Darktrace

Company

Darrin Disley

Entrepreneur and Angel Investor People

DefiniGEN

Company

Dilrini De Silva

Research Associate at Bioinformatics at CRUK Cambridge Institute People

DNA gene delivery

By Avacta Group Thing

Dogtooth Technologies

Company

Dr Chiraz Ennaceur

Chiraz is CEO and co-founder of CorrosionRADAR ÔÇô an entrepreneur passionate about innovation, driving new technologies and managing multimillion-pound projects People

Dr Ghina M Halabi

People

Dr Karolina Zapadka

A highly experienced biotech business developer, biophysical science consultant and physical chemist, Karolina has been appointed to Babraham Research Campus' bio-incubator and life science accelerator, Accelerate@Babraham People

Dr Ruchi Sharma

CEO at Stemnovate Company

Dr Tom Stubbs

Company

Drone surveillance

By University of Cambridge Company

Edmund Kay

Member of the Accelerate Program at Judge Business School collaborating with Cardiologists in his project Biophonics People

Eight19

Company

Elektron Eye Technology

Thing

Elektron RX

Company

Elpis Biomed

Company

Emily Mackay

Emily flourishes when simplifying the complex, and bridging communication challenges between technical and commercial teams. She is currently Head of AI & Data Strategy, Congenica People

Emily Orton

Emily has been at the helm of marketing for Darktrace since the companyÔÇÖs start in 2013, taking it all the way to unicorn status People

Entomics

Entomics is developing enabling technology solutions for the growing of insects for the food and feed sector Company

Entopy

Company

Enval

Company

Environmental DNA or eDNA

By NatureMetrics Thing

Equivital

Company

Exonate

Using VEGF alternative splicing, Exonate is developing eyedrop treatment for Age Related Macular Degeneration Company

Fetch.AI

Fetch.ai is looking to combine AI, Machine Learning and Distributed Ledger Technology as a framework for new and emerging types of business interactions Company

FGV Cambridge Nanosystems

Company

Fingerprint drug testing

By Intelligent Fingerprinting Thing

Five.ai

Company

FlexEnable

Company

Flex-grid networking

By ROADMap Thing

Fluidic Analytics

Company

Focal Point Positioning

Company

Food sharing

By OLIO Thing

Frontier

Company

Fstar

Company

FutureNova

Company

Gearset

Company

Sixfold

Gene-editing drugs exclusively for cancer cells Thing

Geospock

Company

'Giving Points'

For Cambridge Street Aid - Cambridge.gov Thing

Glyconics

Company

GO! Water bottle

By Water-to-Go Thing

Granta Innovation

Vision to use #AI and #medicalimaging to revolutionise cancer diagnosis, Granta Innovation were only founded in 2018 but immediately were named as one of the three winners of CW Company

Hannah Stern

Entrepreneurial Postdocs of Cambridge People

Healthera

A digital healthcare company that builds pioneering software solutions to solve medical non-adherence, streamline and modernise pharmacy, and relieve pressure on public health Company

Healx

Company

Heather Richards

CEO at Transversal People

Helena Blair

Schools Liaison Officer at University of Cambridge, Trinity Hall People

Herdsy

Company

Hummingbird

Company

Hybrid ventilation systems

By Breathing Buildings Thing

Invested Investor

Increasing success of early stage start-ups by sharing entrepreneurial and investment war stories Thing

Inivata

Company

Inkle Studio

Company

Inky Gibbens

Chief Storyteller at Tribalingual Company

IntelliSense.io

Company

Investor-led equity platform

By Syndicate Room Thing

ip.access

Company

Isomerase Therapeutics

Company

Jack Lomas

COO at SenSat People

Jelena Aleksic

Healthcare Entrepreneur People

Jeroen Verheyen

Co-Founder of Semarion and Majico. Entrepreneurial Postdocs of Cambridge People

Joe Glover

Joe is founder of The Marketing MeetUp. He has created his marketing events, grown through communities on Meetup.com, Facebook and LinkedIn that are inclusive, helpful and most importantly - nice People

Kallium Health

Company

Kam Pooni

CEO at Glyconics People

Kath Austin

Founder of BeeBee Wraps People

KisanHub

Company

Kymab

Company

Lateral Design

Company

Telensa

Leading the global market in connected street lighting and Smart City applications Thing

Levin Sources

Company

LIFNanoRX

Company

Lily Cheng

Founder of The Rising Network People

Majico

Company

Matt Davey

Senior Research Associate at University of Cambridge People

Maxxpal

Company

Metrion Biosciences

Company

MetroBank

Company

Michaela Eschbach and Anne Bailey

Form The Future People

Microbiotica

Company

Mireia Crispin

Mireia is a particle physicist interested in interdisciplinary research and the diplomatic dimension of science; currently working on predictive models of cancer treatment at CRUK People

Mission Therapeutics

Company

Morphogen-ix

Company

Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group

MR for remote maintenance and repair of aircrafts Thing

Mursla

A cancer liquid biopsy startup aiming to detect tumours non-invasively during consultation via its quantum biology diagnostics platform and device Company

Musical AI

Jukedeck Thing

Naily Makangu

Project Manager at Featurespace People

Impact Women's Network

Network united in raising the public visibility of impactful women Thing

Ninja Theory

Company

Nolojy

New startup wanting to help companies 'Picture Your Business'. They intend to offer a web application to let people build meaningful pictures of their organisations and the environments they operate in Company

Nova Extraction

Company

OKRA

OKRA is an artificial intelligence data analytics company for healthcare. Their consumer-facing machine learning technology won a global start-up challenge at prestigious technology show VivaTech 2018 Company

Ooho the edible water bottle

By Skipping Rocks Lab Thing

Origami Energy

Company

Pahini Pandya

Founder at Emparity and Research Associate at University of Cambridge People

Paragraf

A novel approach to delivering graphene technologies to the point of use overcoming prior difficulties and with true commercial viability Company

PBD Biotech

Company

Pebal

The technology-based intervention that reduces problems during menopause - Cambridge Consultants Thing

PervasID

Company

PetaGene

Developed by an award-winning team from the University of Cambridge, PetaGene software addresses challenges caused by growing volumes of genomics data Company

PharmEnable

Company

PhoreMost

Company

Plastic semiconductor nanostructures

Developed by Scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge Thing

PneumaCare

Company

Poly-ai

Company

Posttag

Company

Prof John Daugman

Professor at University of Cambridge People

PROWLER.io

PROWLER.io is developing a new kind of decision-making platform that will see AI make decisions as well as a human Company

Pyrolysis Process

The only method of recycling aluminium laminates - Enval Thing

Qkine

Company

Quantum communications

Quantum Communications Hub Thing

Raoul-Gabriel Urm

CEO at Cambridge Spark People

Ravi Solanki

Co-Founder Primera Impact People

Repositive.io

Accelerating personalised cancer treatments to the clinic by connecting biopharma with the right preclinical models to advance their research Company

Reusable beeswax food wraps

BeeBee beeswax wraps came to life because of a real need for a plastic free alternative to cling film and other single-use plastic which use of is unacceptable...and growing Thing

Rhodri Thomas

CEO at Spectral Edge People

RoboK

Company

Samsung AI Centre

Thing

Satavia

A decision intelligence company making aircraft maintenance and flight operations smarter and more profitable, reducing aviation impact on the climate Company

Sensors as thin as hair

By Sorex Sensors Thing

Shima Barakat

Co-founder and Director of Impact Women's Network People

Simprints

Company

Pavegen

Slabs that convert footsteps into electrical power Thing

Solar Windows

By Polysolar Thing

Spark EV Technology

Preventing range anxiety and providing completed journeys, Spark EV Technology develops cloud-based software for electric vehicle fleets Company

Speechmatics

Company

Speedo On

By Cambridge Design Partnership Thing

Sphere Fluidics

Company

Stemnovate

Company

Storm Therapeutics

Company

Strawberry-picking robot

With the increasing difficulty of hiring people to do it, Dogtooth Technologies has developed state-of-the-art intelligent robots for soft fruit picking Thing

Sue Keogh

Director at Sookio People

Sutrue

Company

Synthetic biology for dyeing fabric

Colorifix are developing a revolutionary dyeing process to help dramatically reduce the textile industryÔÇÖs environmental impact using a synthetic biology based approach Thing

TAB UK LTD

Company

Tevva Motors

Company

The FAIMS microchip

By Owlstone Medical Thing

Tian Carey

Enterprise Fellow at Royal Academy of Engineering People

Toby Norman

Toby is co-founder and CEO of Simprints. He is passionate about bringing cutting edge technology to solve challenges in global health People

Transforming the White Board

By Kaptivo Thing

Tribalingual

Tribalingual is on a mission to save rare & endangered languages by teaching them online Company

Tripism

Company

Trustonic

Company

TTP Ventus

Company

TwistDX

Company

Unique self-injectors

By Ovalmedical Thing

Vaiopak

Company

Vaiva Kalnikaite

CEO at Dovetailed People

Veena Adityan

CEO at Smartbell People

Velislava Petrova

Postdoctoral Fellow at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute People

Venture support programme

Helps tech-for-good startups and entrepreneurs innovate and grow by Allia Thing

Virtualarts

Working on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality software, Virtual Arts were selected in 2018 as one of Apple's rising stars and want to make immersive experiences available to all Company

Visual agriculture data management

By AGRIinsight Thing

VNC Automotive

Company

Waterscope

Company

Weightless SIG

Looking to develop open standard IoT technology, Weightless SIG is a global non-profit organisation dedicated to connectivity Thing

WorldLabs

Company

Yagro

Company

Zfactor

Company

ZifiSense

Company

Zuzanna Brzosko

CEO at Sixfold Bioscience People