Winners 

2021

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

3D perception software

Efficient AI-based 3D sensing software solution for resource-constrained platforms to deliver safety for the automotive and transport industries

Thing

AC Biode

Company

Actiphage

Thing

Agile Analog

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

Company

Agxio

Company

AI VIVO

Company

Alchemab Therapeutics

Company

Alchemie Technology

Company

Aleksandra Pedraszewska

Co-founder and COO at VividQ - a deep tech company with world-leading expertise in computer-generated holography. VividQ software and IP powers the next-generation of augmented reality (AR) wearables, head-up displays (HUD) and consumer electronics

People

Alex Hughes

People

Ambify

Company

Ansible Motion

Company

Antobot

Company

Anvil

Thing

Axon Vibe

Thing

Ayaka Shinozaki

Ayaka is a backend engineer at techspert.io. She has been named AI Professional of the Year for the Computing AI & Machine Learning Awards 2020

People

BeadReady

Atelerix provides scalable methods of cell preservation, transport and re-presentation for patient administration to offer cell therapy developers and manufacturers flexibility in workflows, and remove the need for expedited shipments of frozen packages

Thing

Better Origin X1

Fully automated insect mini-farm that uses AI to manage the process on farmers' behalf. Our science-driven solution adds value, improves productivity, yield and animal welfare, while delivering 130% ROI

Thing

Bimodal Electric Tissue Ablation (BETA)

Ablatus has been awarded over £1M by the UK government to develop their novel minimally invasive treatment for soft tissue tumours. The award will fund a 2-year project to develop the prototype device into a final version for use in patients for the first time

Thing

BIOS Health

Company

Blue Tap

Blue Tap is an award-winning social enterprise that aims to change the way the world consumes water. Using 3D printing, we are developing low-cost water purification technology for communities in low-income and emerging economies

Company

C2-AI

Company

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 Future Tech

Company

Cambridge Raman Imaging Ltd

Company

  Camena Bioscience 

Company

Camnexus

Company

  Carmen Palacios-Berraquero

People

Carol Cheung

Carol is a DeepTech Venture Capital investor, her current investment focus is on autonomous systems, AI and machine learning, cloud computing, and fintech. Carol currently manages CIC’s investment in Cytora and GeoSpock

People

Carryr

Thing

Catherine Elton

Catherine leads Qkine, where we are driving innovation in the growth factor protein supply chain. These proteins are essential for culturing stem cells used to develop technologies with potential to transform lives, such as precision medicine, cell therapy and the emerging cultured meat industry

People

CC Bio

Company

Censeo

Thing

Chorus Intelligence 

Company

Chronomics

Company

Citispotter Limited 

Company

Colorifix

Thing

ConcR

Company

Connect4

Thing

Conundrum

Company

Cornelius Palm

People

Cydar Medical

Cydar’s AI powered imaging software means safer, shorter, less invasive operations, a lighter cognitive load for surgeons, and better outcomes for patients

Company

Cyted

Company

Dataswift.io

Company

DefiniGEN

Company

  DNA Transform Kit 

Thing

Dr Andrea De Luca 

A researcher turned entrepreneur and CEO. Co-founded Flusso, and now enjoying fully the journey in building something remarkable

People

Dr Catherine Ramsdale

People

Dr Christopher Proctor

People

Dr Gareth Conduit 

People

Dr Keith Tsui

People

Dr Niall Gallen 

People

  Dr Ramsey Faragher

People

Dr Raoul-Gabriel Urma

People

Dr Saif Ahmad

People

Dr Thuria Wenbar

Thuria is a practicing A&E doctor, programmer and CEO of e-Surgery, a paperless prescription service and pharmacy. Alongside advocating for patient safety, accessibility and efficiency, Thuria heads the technology division of DAUK, campaigning and lobbying on behalf of front-line doctors

People

Dr Tom Stubbs

Tom is CEO and founder of UK-based biotechnology Chronomics, founded on the use of epigenetics to give people the knowledge of how their environment and lifestyle is imprinting itself on their DNA and affecting their health. He is a specialist in Epigenetics, Machine Learning, and Computational Biology

People

DressCode

Thing

  Drishti Discoveries 

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

Echion Technologies

Echion's promise to reduce the charging time for electric cars to six minutes moved closer with the demonstration of a six-minute charge, 3Ah Li-ion battery cell with 35% improvement in anode volumetric capacity over commercial competitors. This is only the beginning of what we can achieve

Company

 Education Platform 

Thing

 Ellie Galanis 

People

  Engage Health Systems

Company

 Enhanc3D Genomics 

Company

eqWave

Thing

Faradair

Company

Feedback

Company

Fiona Rust

People

Flit

Flit develops lightweight folding electric bikes for busy urban commuters

Thing

Flusso

 Flusso, a fabless semiconductor company originally spun-out from Cambridge University, developed the world’s smallest flow sensor as part of a flow sensing solution easy to incorporate in low-cost, high-volume applications

Company

Focal Point Positioning

Company

Francesca O'Hanlon

Francesca founded Blue Tap after working as a water and sanitation engineer in Mexico, India, and with Médecins sans frontières in South Sudan and The Central African Republic. She is currently completing her PhD at the University of Cambridge in Water Security and Climate Resilience

People

FXhome

Thing

Gallium Nitride power modules

CGD leads the European funded GANEXT project under the PENTA Programme, targeting the design and development on highly efficient, highly compact prototypes of next-generation Gallium Nitride power modules, for low and high power applications

Thing

George Bailey

George Bailey, a student at UEA in Norwich, had a vision to create a range of renewable glasses and sunglasses from a material called Econyl

People

Ghina Halabi

 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

People

Giorgia Longobardi 

Giorgia has a PhD in power devices from Cambridge University. Since 2009 she has been working on GaN power devices design and characterisation gaining extensive and in-dept knowledge of GaN reliability

People

Gita Khalili Moghaddam

Gita is a UKRI Innovation Scholar at the University of Cambridge leading the use of AI in medical technologies and therapeutics. In her entrepreneurial role, she established TumourVue and GlycoVue

People

Goodery

Company

Hakim Yadi

People

Happyr Health 

Thing

HexagonFab 

Company

Iceni Diagnostics

Iceni Diagnostics develops carbohydrate-based point-of-care diagnostics and vaccines for infectious diseases, using its unique, proprietary HPGR(Trademarked) technology. Iceni has a strong pipeline of products currently lead by a Covid-19 diagnostic

Company

iLevel

Company

In2Med

Thing

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 organisation’s data assets

Company

Intellegens

Company

Intelligent Clothing 

Thing

 Intellisense.io

Intellisense.io has created a real-time decision-making platform and AI powered applications that are enabling major mining corporations to improve productivity, save energy and reduce their water usage around the world

Company

 INZIC (Industrial Net Zero Innovation Centre)

Thing

IOTA Pharmaceuticals

Company

IR Spectroscopy for point-of-care testing

Glyconics® is developing a range of Miniaturized InfraRed (IR) products for Point of Care exploiting the ability of IR to produce distinctive molecular ‘fingerprints’ in samples. Our 1st application is Screening for Type 2 diabetes - a major global challenge

Company

Jane Osbourn 

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

Jean De La Verpilliere

People

Jenny Tillotson

Dr Jenny Tillotson is the Founder of "eScent", a patented wearable liquid delivery technology offering "personalised scent" for self-controlled activation to enhance mood and wellbeing in PPE, FashionTech, BeautyTech, gaming etc

People

Jeroen Verheyen

People

Jiao Li

People

Kalium Health

 Kalium Health is working to help millions of people living with kidney disease to manage their health at home. Their digital blood electrolyte monitoring platform is based on sensing technology developed at the University of Cambridge

Company

Kanta Dihal

People

  Katie Underwood

People

Leaf Expression Systems

Leaf Expression Systems is an innovative contract development and manufacturing organisation specialising in plant-based production of proteins, vaccines and complex natural products for research and commercial applications using Hypertrans®, Leaf’s proprietary high yielding transient expression technology

Company

 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

Thing

lone worker safety platform

Safepoint helps businesses protect and organise their staff whilst they are working alone or in high-risk situations via an app, panic buttons, a control centre, and 24/7 emergency responders

Thing

Loubna Bouarfa 

People

Map of Ag Platform

Map of Ag’s vision is to be the most trusted global data platform connecting farms and industry. They can control how and where data is used, allowing us and third parties to develop innovative solutions that drive efficiency, transparency and Net Zero

Thing

Mario de Miguel Ramos

People

Medwyse

Thing

 Metrion Biosciences 

Company

Microbiotica 

Company

Microfluid X

Company

Muhdo Health

Company

Mursla

Mursla, a liquid biopsy company, has raised £410K from the UK Government’s Future Fund and existing investors and secured a £40K COVID-19 grant from the Cambridgeshire Capital Grant Scheme. The funding will enable Mursla to finalise its work on its novel exosome-based liquid biopsy platform, ExoPheno™, with the aim of demonstrating how the platform can detect cancer signatures in plasma from solid tumours via exosomes

Company

 Nanna Therapeutics 

Company

NeoPhore

Company

 NeutroCheck

Company

Nicola Filzmoser 

People

Nu Quantum 

Company

Okra Technologies

Company

Online Science Lessons

Developing Experts offers a science curriculum for schools and a careers and recruitment platform for the whole family designed to connect the world of work to learning. We empower employers to recruit responsibly by supporting our users to make informed choices about their future careers to build the diverse workforce the industry needs

Thing

Oppilotech

Company

Orca Scan

Thing

Outfield

Company

 Owen Thompson

People

Pallav Sethiya

People

PetMedix

Company

PharmEnable

Company

PitPat

Thing

Plant-based resin technology

A startup company designed to develop and commercialise technology using readily available biopolymer and biomass to manufacture a next generation adhesive platform to cover wood panel industry, packaging, medical devices, cosmetics and other niche applications

Thing

Plastometrex

Plastometrex combine cutting edge materials science and numerical methods to create advanced materials testing technologies. These reduce testing times from hours (or days) to just 3 minutes while producing uniquely rich & actionable data sets

People

PlayFusion

Company

 POCKiT diagnostics

Company

Porotech

Company

 Premier Econergy

Company

Professor Julian Gough

People

Professor Justin O'Grady

Prof O’Grady is an expert on the diagnosis of infectious diseases. During the pandemic, his group have sequenced >10,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes from the region (as part of COG-UK - www.cogconsortium.uk) which identifies new variants and helps with strategies to reduce transmission in the community, hospitals and care homes

People

Qkine

Company

Rainbird AI

Rainbird's truly intelligent automation lets you build visual models of your smartest employees’ thought processes, then uses these models to automate decision making at rates typically 100x faster and 25% more accurate, with full explainability

Company

ReCoVa-19

Thing

Reflection Therapeutics

Harnessing anti-inflammatory cell therapies to treat neurodegeneration. Shared the inaugural LifeArc 'Accelerate@Babraham Award'

Company

Rehook

Company

Riverlane

Company

Rosanna Kierney

Rosanna Kierney is the founder and CEO of RecruitmentJunky, a tech-specialist recruitment firm supporting fast-growth businesses. Learning from first-hand industry experience, RecruitmentJunky is challenging the way traditional recruitment is done

People

Ruizhi Wang

People

Satavia

SATAVIA's vision is to eliminate 2% of human climate impact by making aviation smarter and greener

Company

 Self Distancing Assistant

Thing

Semarion

Company

Simpleas

Thing

Skinlync

Company

Smartmask 

Thing

  Solar Polar Limited

Company

Sook Spaces

Sook's modular fit out allows occupiers to rapidly create a bespoke environment using digital content, audio, lighting and furniture in empty spaces. Renting by the hour allows users to target specific times priced appropriately for external footfall

Thing

Sorex Sensors

Company

Speechmatics

Company

Spirea

Company

Spotta Bed Pod

Spotta aims to be the world leader in smart pest detection. Their core technology is ultra-low-power insect monitoring that detects infestations early

Thing

StarDrop

Thing

Steve Brierley 

People

 Stroma Biosciences 

Company

Tailor Bio

Company

techspert.io

Thing v

Thyngs platform

 Thyngs is a physical-digital marketing and payments platform for charities and brands. Using smartphone technology, businesses can take touch-free payments, reward customer loyalty, and fundraise despite the pandemic

Thing

Tony Murdock 

People

TrainAsONE«

Thing

Turation

Thing

Veena Adityan

People

ViewRanger

Thing

Virtual Nick

Thing

VisusNano

Company

VividQ

Company

 Wyld Networks 

Company

XGenomes

Company

Yupar Myint

People

Zedify

 Cambridge-based Zedify has been shaking up the UK delivery sector since 2018 when its network of UK zero emission hubs launched, with operations now in 10 UK cities. Their ethical and responsible service is about making cities better for everyone who uses them; helping to bring about cleaner air, less congestion and more liveable streets

Company