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 Description 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 ✓