Winners 

2020

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

5280 Holdings

Company

8power

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

Thing

9Barista

Thing

Ablatus Therapeutics

A medical device company developing Bimodal Electric Tissue Ablation (BETA) a novel ground-breaking ablation platform technology that has the potential to offer treatment options where existing technologies cannot

Company

AC Biode

The world's first-ever AC (Alternating Current) battery by "Biode"ÔÇï, which has both the characteristics of Anode/Cathode

Company

Academy of Magic and Science

Thing

Achilles Therapeutics

Company

Actiphage by PBD Biotech

Actiphage, the worldÔÇÖs first rapid, sensitive blood test for tuberculosis. By detecting live mycobacteria, at an early stage of infection, it enables effective disease control of human and bovine TB

Thing

Agile Analog

Founded to accelerate the pace of chip innovation by providing smaller, cheaper, more reliable, and lower power analog chip designs. AgileÔÇÖs AI-driven platform replaces the existing manual design process, which has not fundamentally changed in 60 years

Company

AI VIVO

Company

Aitrak

Company

AlphaBio Control

Company

Anthony Smith

People

Antiverse

Antiverse is building a world-first computational antibody drug discovery platform

Company

Anvil

Enables anyone who can write some Python to build a full-stack web app and publish it

Thing

AptaCam

AptaCam is a University of Cambridge spin-off company dedicated to being a leading supplier of high quality oligonucleotides

Company

aqdot

 Supramolecular chemistry company that has made its patented technology AqTMFresh Professional available for the first time

Company

Arcus Answer

Thing

Arecor

Company

Arete Medical Technologies

Drastically lowering the cost of specialist-grade diagnostics for chronic lung conditions like asthma and COPD, enabling access for early diagnosis, improved drug targeting, and preventing flare-ups

Company

Atelerix

Atelerix has a transformative technology for the storage and transport of viable cells at room temperature, overcoming the barriers and limitations presented by the current need for cryo-shipping

Company

Audacious SIM technology

Thing

Audio Analytic

Company

AudioTelligence

Leading the world in blind audio signal separation from multi-microphone audio

Thing

Azuri TV

Thing

Bamboo Systems

Provides a new-generation of ARM based server-class platform that natively converges compute, storage and networking with support for web-scale application deployment in a high-density, low-power and scalable manner

Company

Barocal Ltd

Commercialising barocaloric cooling technology to satisfy low carbon refridgeration requirements

Company

Beth Singler

Junior Research Fellow in AI. Beth thinks about what you think about machines that might think! As an anthropologist, she researches our fears about killer robots as well as the genuine social impact of AI.

People

Biofidelity Ltd

Provides high performing novel molecular assays for the sensitive detection of low-frequency genetic mutations

Company

BiologIC Technologies

BiologIC's pioneering architecture enables a radically advanced generation of automation. Our ÔÇ£factory-in-a-boxÔÇØ will provide patient access to high quality therapies.┬á Our ambition is to┬ácreate an empowering ÔÇÿdesktop PCÔÇÖ that drives the next wave of biological innovation

Thing

BIOS

Creating the open standard hardware and software interface between the human nervous system and AI

Company

Biosceptre

Biosceptre takes a new approach to precision targeting of P2X7 in cancer, by exploiting a novel variant - "non functional" P2X7 - which has been shown to have a critical role in the survival of many cancer cell types

Company

Bit Bio

Our breakthrough technology combines synthetic and stem cell biology, offering limitless possibilities. Enabling a new generation of cell therapies, providing the best human cells for research and drug discovery, and allowing the control of advanced synthetic biology circuits for biomanufacturing

Company

Blighter Surveillance Systems

Blighter Surveillance Systems is a world leading designer and manufacturer of electronic-scanning radars and surveillance solutions

Company

Blue Tap

Thing

Blueshift Memory

Company

Blutick

Thing

Brigette Bard

Developed an HIV self-testing kit with her start-up, BioSure. Based in Nazeing, Essex, the products are approved for use in Britain and South Africa and are dispensed in vending machines at some hospitals

People

Callum Coombes

CEO at Safepoint, Non-Executive Director at Menta and an active member of the East Anglian business community. He aims to save lives with his current business and works to make entrepreneurialism more accessible regionally

People

Camb.ai

Thing

Cambod

Thing

Cambridge Cancer Genomics

Builds the software to enable data-driven precision oncology. The precision AI platform analyses and interprets tumour DNA, enabling oncologists to provide more effective, personalised treatment for cancer patients

Company

Cambridge Carbon Capture

Developed a potentially game-changing solution to climate change

Company

Cambridge DataLab 

Company

Cambridge Energy Data Lab

Company

Cambridge Energy Partners

Thing

Cambridge Gan Devices

CGD develops highly efficient power electronics targeting energy savings in applications ranging from power supplies for consumer electronics to LED drives, data centers and wireless chargers

Company

Cambridge LaunchPad

Thing

Cambridge Mask Company

Respirators that use military grade filtration technology

Thing

Cambridge Picture Company

Company

Cambridge Spark

Cambridge Spark provides Data Science training and recruitment solutions for professionals

Thing

Cambridge Touch Technologies

Transforming how smart devices are used, making them more convenient and useful in everyday life

Company

Camena Bioscience 

Company

Camnexus

We develop world-class real-time monitoring systems that integrate low-power sensors and long-range connectivity with predictive analytics for key assets management, particularly water resources, saving operational costs and reducing the impact on the environment

Company

Cascade50- Sage Dashboards

Thing

Catherine Breslin

Catherine Breslin is a machine learning scientist and consultant based in Cambridge. After completing her PhD at the University of Cambridge, Catherine went on to work on automatic speech recognition, natural language understanding and human-computer dialogue systems for the likes of Toshiba Research and the Amazon Alexa team

People

Cheddar Creative

Company

Circuit Builder

Circuit Builder is a brand new way to create professionally designed circuit boards. Upload your requirements, see a detailed breakdown of costs and watch in real-time as your project progresses to completion

Thing

Citispotter Limited

Citispotter is a Cranfield and Cambridge (UK) based Startup, working towards developing cutting edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions to offer insightful and actionable content analysis to optimize business decisions, eliminating misinformation, hate speech and fake news from the content.

Company

Claire Thompson

People

  Closed Loop Medicine 

Company

Cognidox

Thing

COGZ

Marketplace for farmers, growers and growers to sell surplus produce directly to trade buyers before it becomes food waste

Company

Conundrum

An AI powered software for industrial companies. It oversees a whole production process and assists factory engineers in decision making, helping to reduce waste and downtime

Company

Coral Eyewear

Coral Eyewear is on a mission to bring the eyewear market into a realm of sustainability. Industry-leading spectacles and sunglasses are produced using ghost fishing nets and recycled plastic

Thing

CorrosionRADAR

Remote sensing technologies and advanced analytic systems for smart infrastructures

Company

CropVax

CropVax is a company focussed on improving global agricultural crop productivity while minimising environmental impact

Company

Curvy Balance Board 

Thing

Dataswift.io

A revolutionary platform for building apps and websites on user-owned personal data, Dataswift is a new kind of fundamental technology infrastructure that promises to change how the Internet is built

Company

DevelopingExperts

We bridge the gap between education and industry enabling sectors to fulfill their future needs with the experts of tomorrow by supporting teachers to deliver careers through the curriculum

Company

Doc2

Doc2 speeds up the creation, sending and signing of contracts for SME businesses

Thing

Dr Catherine Elton

People

Dr Catherine Ramsdale

People

Dr Kam Pooni

A highly accomplished senior business leader with 20+ yearsÔÇÖ experience in driving entrepreneurship and commercial success┬áin the Lifesciences industry. KamÔÇÖs passion is mentoring young entrepreneurs to achieve success

People

Dr Kate Hilyard 

People

Dr Meritxell Huch

People

Dyslexia Box

Company

Eagle Genomics 

Award-winning AI augmented knowledge discovery platform, the e[automateddatascientist], is revolutionising how scientists conduct life sciences research and is bridging the gap between data and new insights in a rapid, systematic and traceable way

Company

EBCam

Company

Echion Technologies

Building next generation Li-ion batteries to power the future of e-mobility

Company

Emersive

Company

Emily MacKay

People

Emma Sceats

People

ET-traps

Company

Fafaza Precision Crop Spraying

Thing

Federica Freddi

People

FlexEnable

Developed and industrialised the lowest cost organic electronics platform for flexible, ultrathin and ultralight displays and optical modules that can be applied to almost any surface

Thing

Flit

Thing

Focal Point Positioning

Creating innovative advances in the fields of positioning, navigation and timing, both indoors and outside

Company

Fotis Fotiadis

Each year over 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted globally. Fotis, cofounder of Better Origin, is one to watch for his work pioneering the transformation of organic waste into high-quality functional animal feed

People

Foundries.io

Foundries.io is addressing security and device management for IoT and Edge devices

Thing

Fran Baker

People

FutureYou

Thing

Gaia Fancellu

People

Genomics PLC 

Company

Giorgia Longobardi

Co-founder of Cambridge Gan Devices

People

Glyconics

Glyconics exploits the ability of using light electromagnetic (EM) radiation within a specified IR range to produce a distinctive IR molecular ÔÇÿfingerprintÔÇÖ for a healthy vs a non-healthy sample

Company

Goncalo de Vasconcelos

People

Gordon Wishart 

People

Granta Innovation

Company

Healthera

Using the Healthera app, which is listed on the NHS Digital apps library, patients can order and track their prescriptions, access clinical services, and monitor their medication intake in one digital end-to-end solution

Thing

Healx

Company

Heartfelt Technologies

Exists to help patients, their families, carers and doctors, to reduce hospital re-admission rates from congestive heart failure de-compensation

Thing

Herdsy

Herdsy is an award-winning international technology company, that has developed a technology that helps to solve the biggest issue in the Beef Industry, namely sustainability

Thing

HexCam

Thing

Iceni Diagnostics

Transformational approach to diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics using carbohydrates rather than proteins or nucleic acids

Company

Inawisdom

Inawisdom's focus is on differentiation through data exploitation, using the latest enterprise-ready techniques in predictive analytics, machine learning, natural language processing and artificial intelligence to exploit latent value in organisationÔÇÖs data assets

Company

Intellegens

Our mission is to revolutionise industrial formulations through deep learning, optimising new formulation and process design to deliver better materials, chemicals and drugs, faster and cheaper

Company

Intellisense.io

IntelliSense.io is an Industrial AI company making mining operations efficient, sustainable and safe through trusted and open Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions. Deployments across Chile, Australia, Kazakhstan, Brazil and South Africa

Company

iSeer

Thing

Isogenica

Company

Isomerase

Helping companies discover and develop the next generation of microbial products

Company

James Dean

James is the CEO and co-founder of Plastometrex, a company that is leveraging advanced numerical modelling and machine learning algorithms to transform the mechanical materials testing industry

People

Jason Mellad

Jason is a scientist entrepreneur passionate about translating innovative technologies into more effective therapies and better patient outcomes. Before founding Start Codon in 2019, he was CEO of Cambridge Epigenetix

People

Joe Glover

People

John Cassidy

John is Co-Founder and CEO at CCG.ai, a startup transforming cancer care through its AI platform for DNA analysis: enabling oncologists to provide more effective, personalised treatment for cancer patients

People

Kalium Health

Empowering millions worldwide with kidney disease to manage their health and reduce their cost of care by enabling blood electrolyte monitoring by anyone, anywhere

Company

Kane Halsey

Founder & CEO at Pickr. As CEO Secured £1m investment-biggest institutional investment to Norfolk business in several years. Internal headcount 3x larger than it was a year ago. The team were named Computing's 'Team of the Year'

People

 Karmacoin Referral Platform

Thing

Katja Hofmann

Dr Katja Hofmann is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, where she leads the Game Intelligence theme. She and her team develop new AI approaches with applications in video games, and other real-world applications

People

KisanHub

Platform which connects farmers, agronomists and procurement managers to manage their supply chains effciently

Company

Krittika D'Silva

People

Kubos

Developing low energy consuming LEDs using proprietary cubic-GaN technology

Thing

KuduSmart

Crossbridge Scientific offers a simple, minimal effort fitness test delivered via a wearable device (KuduSmart) to measure human thermoregulation

Thing

Legal Sphere

Thing

Light Blue Fibre 

Thing

Lightcast Discovery

Cell manipulation platform that uses tiny spots of light to control thousands of cells and reagents simultaneously, allowing us to radically alter drug discovery workflows for the pharmaceutical industry

Company

Limpet

Limpet is the cutting-edge smart alarm for your bike, motorbike, or high value property which deters, detects and delays theft. Controlled via a simple app, you stay connected

Thing

Linn Clabburn

People

Loubna Bouarfa

Founder and CEO of Okra Technologies - 15 years researching the field of artificial intelligence (AI), Loubna's goal is to move the healthcare industry towards a future of personalised medicine powered by explainable AI

People

Louise Birritteri

People

lowRISC

Company

Meteor Inkjet Ltd 

Company

Mogrify

Mogrify has developed a proprietary cellular conversion technology, which makes it possible to transform (transmogrify) any mature cell type into any other, while bypassing the stem cell- stage, addressing challenges associated with efficacy, safety and scalability in the development and manufacture of new cell therapies

Company

Mursla

Mursla is Cambridge-based startup developing a novel platform to trace tumour early in the blood via the discovery and quantification of cancer-specific exosome subpopulations

Company

Myriofoam

Developing high capillarity micron-scale metal foams for heat transfer, energy storage and lightweight structures

Company

NeoPhore

Creating novel small molecule immuno-oncology therapeutics

Company

Nu Quantum

Developing ground-breaking quantum hardware components and end-to-end quantum cryptography systems

Company

Obrizum

An enterprise cloud platform by OBRIZUM group Ltd which allows companies to automatically create, deliver and monitor adaptive digital learning programmes on a global scale

Thing

Okra Technologies 

OKRA delivers suggestions, predictions and explanations to empower life sciences executives and operational teams to drive the right drug, to the right patient with humanised and understandable AI outputs

Company

Optibrium

Elegant software solutions for small molecule design, optimisation and data analysis

Company

Orca Scan

Thing

Outfield Technologies 

Platform for gathering, analysing and viewing the data you need to manage your orchard effectively

Company

Padlock

Company

Pavegen

Company

PenTail Enzymes

Company

Peter Knight

People

Phoremost

Focuses on bringing more effective and affordable targeted medicines to patients

Company

Photovoltaic Glazing

By Polysolar a developer, manufacturer and installer of transparent photovoltaic glazing ÔÇô windows that produce renewable electricity ÔÇô thereby turning buildings into power stations

Thing

Pickr

We enable businesses to deliver major infrastructure projects, by changing the way they build their delivery teams

Thing

POCKiT diagnostics

New blood test to diagnose potentially fatal strokes

Company

PodGroup

Thing

PragmatIC

Thing

PredictImmune

Company

Qbio

Company

Qureight

Qureight was founded in 2018 by 2 Cambridge doctors. Their platform enables analysis of images and data from multiple sources to better model diseases and assist with clinical trial endpoints

Company

Rachael Andrews

People

Rachel Briant

People

Rainbird AI

Rainbird is an AI-powered automated decision-making platform that allows businesses to replicate and scale their best workers

Thing

Ravi Solanki

People

Reflection Therapeutics

Reflection Therapeutics is a startup developing cell therapies for the treatment of ALS and other devastating neurodegenerative diseases. Their technology guides anti-inflammatory cell therapies directly to tissue sites of need

Company

Rend Platings

CEO at Sugarwise. Sugarwise is the international certification authority for sugar claims on food and drink. It assesses foods and beverages on the basis of their sugar claims

People

Repeat XP

Thing

Rita Cristina Leitao

People

Riverlane

Quantum computing software technology which is transofirming the discovery of new materials and drugs

Company

RoboK

Cost-effective 3D sensing technologies for automotive safety

Thing

Ruchi Sharma

Ruchi is Founder and CEO of Stemnovate Limited. She led a million pound project co-funded by Innovate UK (2017-2019) to successfully deliver cutting edge liver on chip technology

People

Safepoint

Thing

Safety Rocks

Company

Samer Kurdi

People

Sano Genetics

Connects people with research in personalised medicine. We provide access to free genome sequencing and analysis for research participants. You own your data and have full control over how it used

Thing

Sarah Howell

People

Satavia

At SATAVIA our vision is to make aviation smarter and more sustainable: We simplify decision-making for cleaner, greener, next-generation aviation

Company

Savoursmiths

Company

Sense Biodetection

Company

Serena Belluschi

Serena is co-founder and operations lead at Majico and scientist a Mogrify. She combines her interest and work in cell therapy with her other goal: providing affordable and off-grid water purification technologies to the developing world

People

Shift Bioscience Ltd 

Pre-clinical biotech company targeting the root cause of aging to extend healthy lifespan

Company

Smartmask

Unlimitech is developing the SmartmaskÔäó, a state-of-the-art wearable fitness tracker that analyzes breath flow and composition in real-time to assist sportspeople in the difficult process of optimizing performance

Thing

Sook

Developed a rent-by-the-hour business model which allows retailers to pay only for the time they are in the shop

Thing

Sorex Sensors

Company

Spark EV Technology 

AI-based range prediction software for electric vehicles that overcomes range anxiety and builds driver trust

Company

Start Codon

Thing

Stemnovate

Company

Supapass

Thing

Sutherland Partners Ltd

Company

Sutrue

Sutrue has created an automated suturing device to make medical stitching safer, quicker and more accurate. Our patented mechanism can take all industry-standard needles/sutures, and rotate them at the touch of a button

Thing

Tactful AI

Tactful uses AI and real-time analytics to provide 360-view of the customer and empower customer care agents to deliver personalized and rewarding experience across digital platforms

Thing

techspert.io

techspert.io, developers of the worldÔÇÖs first AI-driven solution to knowledge exchange, uses AI technology powered by machine learning to connect businesses with experts to help them make more informed decisions

Thing

TechVelocity 

Company

Tevva

Thing

The CashCuff┬« 

Designers of the World's First Payment Shirt. DressCode is taking contactless payment to new levels - no wallet or phone required. Secure payments and more direct from your shirt

Thing

Thyngs

We connect any physical object to a digital experience using a smartphone, without the need for an app

Thing

Tripism

Thing

Turation

Company

Veena Adityan

Founder & CEO @ Smartbell

People

Velocity Commerce

Company

VeriTherm

Thing

VividQ

VividQ is a deep tech company with world-leading expertise in 3D holography. Their patented software powers holographic display in smart-glasses, automotive Head-Up Displays and more

Company

VNC Automotive

Company

WAi2Go

The WAi2Go platform by Smart Networked Environments is the defining framework for all SmartNE projects: a sophisticated, powerful platform for a wide variety of smart city, campus and building solutions

Thing

Wavelength.law

Company

Wavye

Pioneering artificial intelligence software for self-driving cars

Company

Xampla

Plastic pollution is choking our planet.┬á Xampla has the highly innovative solution ÔÇö a natural plastic alternative entirely made from peas

Thing

Yagro

Web based platform helping farm input supply chain

Company