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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| A remote condition monitoring solution for industrial assets such as motors, pumps and generators, providing early warning of equipment failure |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| A portable device that heals chronic wounds |
Thing | ✓ | |||
| Overstream Clean |
A unique social enterprise by Wintercomfort | Thing | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| A wearables business that delivers lifestyle insight to the global professional healthcare market | Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 | ✓ | ||
| Co-Founder Invested Investor | People | ✓ | |||
| CEO Waterscope. AlexÔÇÖs research focusses on developing low-cost methods of identifying bacterial contamination for use in low resource settings | People | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Founder and Chief Bottlewashing Officer at Nolojy | People | ✓ | |||
| Developed by University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| An alginate gel that 'hibernates' cells | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Developing cost effective, self-calibrating, low maintenance pH sensors, cutting operating costs by 70% compared to today's systems | Company | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Chairman at PredictImmune | People | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| By Featurespace | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Artios Pharma |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Audio Analytic |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Aveillant |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Avvinity |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ||
| Founder of Walk In Our Shoes | People | ✓ | |||
| bio-bean |
Company | ✓ | |||
| A leading neural engineering startup, creating the open standard hardware and software interface between the human nervous system and AI | Company | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Cambioscience |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Cambridge Glycoscience specialises in the manufacture of novel functional food ingredients to improve the aesthetic and nutritional quality of manufactured foods | Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| By Form the Future | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Cambridge Nanotherm |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Cancer screening as an employee benefit | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Capture and replay program execution | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Higher Education Champion | People | ✓ | |||
| Chronomics offers personalised epigenetic testing direct to consumers for tracking changing health and wellbeing | Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| CEO Genie Ventures | People | ✓ | |||
| Aiming to make minimal access surgery available to all in order to improve patient outcomes and deliver value for healthcare providers | Company | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Collaborating on an open standard IoT technology | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| By Futurizon Ltd | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| CorrosionRADAR strives to be a global leader in remote sensing technologies and advanced analytic systems for smart infrastructures | Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Using data, cloud computing and AI to improve patient outcomes in image-guided surgery using a ground-breaking surgical guidance system | Company | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Darktrace |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Entrepreneur and Angel Investor | People | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Research Associate at Bioinformatics at CRUK Cambridge Institute | People | ✓ | |||
| By Avacta Group | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Chiraz is CEO and co-founder of CorrosionRADAR ÔÇô an entrepreneur passionate about innovation, driving new technologies and managing multimillion-pound projects | People | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| People | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| CEO at Stemnovate | Company | ✓ | |||
| Dr Tom Stubbs |
Company | ✓ | |||
| By University of Cambridge | Company | ✓ | |||
| Member of the Accelerate Program at Judge Business School collaborating with Cardiologists in his project Biophonics | People | ✓ | |||
| Eight19 |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Elektron Eye Technology |
Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 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 | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| By NatureMetrics | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Using VEGF alternative splicing, Exonate is developing eyedrop treatment for Age Related Macular Degeneration | Company | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| By Intelligent Fingerprinting | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Flex-grid networking |
By ROADMap | Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Food sharing |
By OLIO | Thing | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Fstar |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Gene-editing drugs exclusively for cancer cells | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Geospock |
Company | ✓ | |||
| 'Giving Points' |
For Cambridge Street Aid - Cambridge.gov | Thing | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| By Water-to-Go | Thing | ✓ | |||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Entrepreneurial Postdocs of Cambridge | People | ✓ | |||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| CEO at Transversal | People | ✓ | |||
| Schools Liaison Officer at University of Cambridge, Trinity Hall | People | ✓ | |||
| Herdsy |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Hummingbird |
Company | ✓ | |||
| By Breathing Buildings | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Invested Investor |
Increasing success of early stage start-ups by sharing entrepreneurial and investment war stories | Thing | ✓ | ||
| Inivata |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Chief Storyteller at Tribalingual | Company | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| By Syndicate Room | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| COO at SenSat | People | ✓ | |||
| Healthcare Entrepreneur | People | ✓ | |||
| Co-Founder of Semarion and Majico. Entrepreneurial Postdocs of Cambridge | People | ✓ | |||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| CEO at Glyconics | People | ✓ | |||
| Founder of BeeBee Wraps | People | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Kymab |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Leading the global market in connected street lighting and Smart City applications | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| LIFNanoRX |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Founder of The Rising Network | People | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Senior Research Associate at University of Cambridge | People | ✓ | |||
| Maxxpal |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Form The Future | People | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Morphogen-ix |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group |
MR for remote maintenance and repair of aircrafts | Thing | ✓ | ||
| 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 | ✓ | ||
| Project Manager at Featurespace | People | ✓ | |||
| Network united in raising the public visibility of impactful women | Thing | ✓ | |||
| 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 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| By Skipping Rocks Lab | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Origami Energy |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Pahini Pandya |
Founder at Emparity and Research Associate at University of Cambridge | People | ✓ | ||
| A novel approach to delivering graphene technologies to the point of use overcoming prior difficulties and with true commercial viability | Company | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| The technology-based intervention that reduces problems during menopause - Cambridge Consultants | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Developed by an award-winning team from the University of Cambridge, PetaGene software addresses challenges caused by growing volumes of genomics data | Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Developed by Scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Professor at University of Cambridge | People | ✓ | |||
| PROWLER.io is developing a new kind of decision-making platform that will see AI make decisions as well as a human | Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| The only method of recycling aluminium laminates - Enval | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Quantum Communications Hub | Thing | ✓ | |||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| CEO at Spectral Edge | People | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Co-founder and Director of Impact Women's Network | People | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| By Cambridge Design Partnership | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Director at Sookio | People | ✓ | |||
| Sutrue |
Company | ✓ | |||
| 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 | ✓ | |||
| By Owlstone Medical | Thing | ✓ | |||
| Enterprise Fellow at Royal Academy of Engineering | People | ✓ | |||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| TTP Ventus |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Unique self-injectors |
By Ovalmedical | Thing | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| CEO at Dovetailed | People | ✓ | |||
| CEO at Smartbell | People | ✓ | |||
| Postdoctoral Fellow at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute | People | ✓ | |||
| Helps tech-for-good startups and entrepreneurs innovate and grow by Allia | Thing | ✓ | |||
| 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 | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Looking to develop open standard IoT technology, Weightless SIG is a global non-profit organisation dedicated to connectivity | Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Zfactor |
Company | ✓ | |||
| ZifiSense |
Company | ✓ | |||
| CEO at Sixfold Bioscience | People | ✓ |


