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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| A remote condition monitoring solution for industrial assets such as motors, pumps and generators, providing early warning of equipment failure |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| The world's first-ever AC (Alternating Current) battery by "Biode"ÔÇï, which has both the characteristics of Anode/Cathode |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| Antiverse is building a world-first computational antibody drug discovery platform |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Enables anyone who can write some Python to build a full-stack web app and publish it |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| AptaCam is a University of Cambridge spin-off company dedicated to being a leading supplier of high quality oligonucleotides |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Supramolecular chemistry company that has made its patented technology AqTMFresh Professional available for the first time |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Leading the world in blind audio signal separation from multi-microphone audio |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Commercialising barocaloric cooling technology to satisfy low carbon refridgeration requirements |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Provides high performing novel molecular assays for the sensitive detection of low-frequency genetic mutations |
Company | ✓ | |||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Creating the open standard hardware and software interface between the human nervous system and AI |
Company | ✓ | |||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 is a world leading designer and manufacturer of electronic-scanning radars and surveillance solutions |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Cambridge Energy Data Lab |
Company | ✓ | |||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Respirators that use military grade filtration technology |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Cambridge Spark provides Data Science training and recruitment solutions for professionals |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Transforming how smart devices are used, making them more convenient and useful in everyday life |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 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 | ✓ | |||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Marketplace for farmers, growers and growers to sell surplus produce directly to trade buyers before it becomes food waste |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Remote sensing technologies and advanced analytic systems for smart infrastructures |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | |
| 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 speeds up the creation, sending and signing of contracts for SME businesses |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| Dr Catherine Ramsdale |
People | ✓ | |||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| Dyslexia Box |
Company | ✓ | |||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Building next generation Li-ion batteries to power the future of e-mobility |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Creating innovative advances in the fields of positioning, navigation and timing, both indoors and outside |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 is addressing security and device management for IoT and Edge devices |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| People | ✓ | ||||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Co-founder of Cambridge Gan Devices |
People | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Exists to help patients, their families, carers and doctors, to reduce hospital re-admission rates from congestive heart failure de-compensation |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Transformational approach to diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics using carbohydrates rather than proteins or nucleic acids |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 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 | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Helping companies discover and develop the next generation of microbial products |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Platform which connects farmers, agronomists and procurement managers to manage their supply chains effciently |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| People | ✓ | ||||
| Developing low energy consuming LEDs using proprietary cubic-GaN technology |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Crossbridge Scientific offers a simple, minimal effort fitness test delivered via a wearable device (KuduSmart) to measure human thermoregulation |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| 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 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Developing high capillarity micron-scale metal foams for heat transfer, energy storage and lightweight structures |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Creating novel small molecule immuno-oncology therapeutics |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Developing ground-breaking quantum hardware components and end-to-end quantum cryptography systems |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| 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 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Elegant software solutions for small molecule design, optimisation and data analysis |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Platform for gathering, analysing and viewing the data you need to manage your orchard effectively |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| PenTail Enzymes |
Company | ✓ | |||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| Focuses on bringing more effective and affordable targeted medicines to patients |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| We enable businesses to deliver major infrastructure projects, by changing the way they build their delivery teams |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| New blood test to diagnose potentially fatal strokes |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| PodGroup |
Thing | ✓ | |||
| PragmatIC |
Thing | ✓ | |||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| Rachel Briant |
People | ✓ | |||
| 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 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 | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| Riverlane |
Quantum computing software technology which is transofirming the discovery of new materials and drugs |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cost-effective 3D sensing technologies for automotive safety |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| People | ✓ | ||||
| At SATAVIA our vision is to make aviation smarter and more sustainable: We simplify decision-making for cleaner, greener, next-generation aviation |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | |
| 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 | ✓ | |||
| AI-based range prediction software for electric vehicles that overcomes range anxiety and builds driver trust |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Sutherland Partners Ltd |
Company | ✓ | |||
| 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 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, 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 | ✓ | |||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| We connect any physical object to a digital experience using a smartphone, without the need for an app |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Founder & CEO @ Smartbell |
People | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Thing | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| 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 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Company | ✓ | ||||
| Pioneering artificial intelligence software for self-driving cars |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Plastic pollution is choking our planet.┬á Xampla has the highly innovative solution ÔÇö a natural plastic alternative entirely made from peas |
Thing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Web based platform helping farm input supply chain |
Company | ✓ | ✓ | ||

