Cambridge life science & technology company deals hit $22.5bn in 12 months

Companies in the two sectors have been sold for a combined $14.481bn+ with a staggering 87 per cent of the acquisition funding coming from the US. There could be more American-sourced finance involved in deals where the figures were undisclosed.

The largest acquisitions of Cambridge companies involved Abcam ($5.7bn by Danaher), Darktrace ($5.3bn by Thoma Bravo), Jagex (sold for $1.1bn by Carlyle to CVC Capital Partners), Featurespace (c.$929m by Visa), IQGeo ($442m by KKR) and Endomag ($310m by Hologic).

Acquisitions by Cambridge companies totalled more than $5.75bn, with the only disclosed values from AstraZeneca. The company made four acquisitions in the 12 months, all valued above $1bn. AstraZeneca acquired Fusion in Canada for $2.4bn, Gracell in China for $1.2bn, Icosavax in the US for $1.1bn and Amolyt in France for $1.05bn.

Acquisitions: US billions secures ownership of Cambridge life science and technology companies

Fundraising: Cambridge technology companies harvest mega rounds

Fundraising: Cambridge life science cluster a honeypot for global backers

Cambridge life science and technology companies raised $2.335bn in the same period with organisations based on Cambridge Science Park ($578.49m), Babraham Research Campus ($117.68m), Chesterford Research Park ($93.58m) and Granta Park ($618.8m) accounting for 60 per cent of the income.

Of that figure, the lion’ share was raised by local life sciences companies –$1.341bn – with the $994.5m balance hauled in by the Cluster’s technology companies.

The largest Life Science fundraisings were by Bicycle Therapeutics ($555m Post-IPO Equity), 4basebio ($52.2m Equity Issuance and $38.4m Secondary Sale), Nuclera ($75m Series C), T-Therapeutics ($59m Series A) and Constructive Bio ($58m Series A).

Two life science companies secured seed funding topping $10m – Shift Bioscience ($16m) and ExpressionEdits ($13m), while Harness Therapeutics added an extra $5.2m to its seed funding total of $23m.

The biggest technology fundraisings were by Quantinuum ($300m), Raspberry Pi ($225m via IPO) and Pragmatic ($206m Series D).

A breakdown of the figures revealed that funding came from over 170 VC/investors from 24 countries – 71 investors were UK organisations, 58 were US-based, six were from each of Germany and Switzerland, and four apiece from France and Singapore. London had the highest concentration of investors, followed by California, Cambridge, New York and Massachusetts.

The funding rounds attracted investors from 15 of the 50 US States – California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington.

Brain power played a major part in dealflow: Academic and research bodies in Cambridge continue producing record billions for the UK economy and in the last 12 months, fundraising by Cambridge companies with academic/institutional roots (including the University of Cambridge, MRC LMB and the Wellcome Sanger Institute) totalled $1.65bn. That accounts for more than 70 per cent of the $2.327bn total raised by Cambridge life science and technology companies in the year.

BRAIN GAIN
Fundraising by Cambridge companies with academic/institutional roots (November 1 2023-October 16, 2024) – $1.65bn:

Bicycle Therapeutics
$555m (May 2024)
Bicycle is pioneering a new and differentiated class of therapeutics based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®) technology. It is a transatlantic company, headquartered in the life science clusters within Cambridge, UK and Boston, Mass. The Bicycle technology arose from research at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge by co-founders Sir Greg Winter and Professor Christian Heinis. This technology has led to major therapeutic advances in antibody based therapeutics; and bicyclic peptide (Bicycle) drug discovery and development.

In May 2024, Bicycle unveiled a $555m investment haul on NASDAQ The money from new and existing backers was through a private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing. The financing was led by a US-based healthcare-focused investor with participation from Deep Track Capital, EcoR1 Capital, Fairmount, Forbion, Perceptive Advisors and RA Capital Management.

Quantinuum
$300m (January 2024)
Quantinuum unites best-in-class software with high-fidelity hardware to accelerate quantum computing. With integrated full-stack technology, its world-class scientists are rapidly scaling quantum computing. The $300 million raise in January 2024 was revealed by Quantinuum major shareholder Honeywell, which invested as co-anchor alongside JPMorgan Chase, Mitsui & Co., Ltd and Amgen.

Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) was founded in 2014 as an independent quantum computing company through the University of Cambridge Judge Business School’s ‘Accelerate Cambridge’ programme. Quantinuum is the combination of the quantum hardware team from Honeywell Quantum Solutions (HQS) and the quantum software team at CQC. By coming together as Quantinuum, the company offers an integrated, end-to-end quantum platform.

Raspberry Pi
$225m IPO (June 2024)
Raspberry Pi took the London stock market by storm in June via a $225m IPO with a valuation on launch of £541.6m – ahead of expectations.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation and its commercial subsidiary, Raspberry Pi Ltd, were founded in 2009 to promote the study of computer science, addressing a skills shortage in the computer industry. The Raspberry Pi Foundation was founded by Rob Mullins, Jack Lang and Alan Mycroft from the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory, along with Eben Upton of Broadcom, Pete Lomas of Norcott Technologies and Frontier Developments founder and CEO, David Braben.

Raspberry Pi’s mission is to put high-performance, low-cost, general-purpose computing platforms in the hands of enthusiasts and engineers all over the world. In August, the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 and the RP2350 micocontroller platform were launched and CEO Dr Eben Upton revealed there would be “other exciting product releases” in the months ahead.

Riverlane
$75m Series C (August 2024)
Riverlane was founded in 2016 by Steve Brierley, a senior research fellow in computational mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Steve’s own research identified a quantum ‘Moore’s law’ whereby small-scale quantum computers were doubling in power every two years, meaning useful quantum computing at scale could be achievable within a decade. Armed with this evidence, the support of Cambridge University and intensive guidance from Arm co-founder Jamie Urquhart among many others, he founded Riverlane from his kitchen table and has never looked back.

Riverlane’s $75m Series C in August 2024 was led by Planet First Partners, a European growth equity sustainable investment platform, with participation from sustainability venture capital investors ETF Partners and Singapore-based global investor, EDBI. Existing backers Cambridge Innovation Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, the UK’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund and HPC leader Altair also participated.

Industry partners include Rigetti Computing, Alice & Bob, QuEra Computing, Infleqtion, Atlantic Quantum and national labs such as Oakridge National Lab in the US and the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC). Riverlane has a team of around 100 staff with offices in Cambridge, UK, and Boston, US.

T-Therapeutics
$59m (£48m) Series A (November 2023)
T-Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing next-generation TCR therapeutics designed to reshape the clinical landscape for cancer patients. The company has developed a proprietary transgenic mouse platform, OpTiMus®, which creates an almost unlimited repertoire of ‘optimal’ TCRs as building blocks for pioneering therapies.

Spun off from the University of Cambridge and led by Founder and CEO Professor Allan Bradley, T-Therapeutics was created to harness the power of T cell biology, evolved over millions of years, to create safe and effective treatments for many cancers and autoimmune diseases. The team at T-Therapeutics includes highly experienced antibody engineers and drug developers who were responsible for the creation of the Kymab and PetMedix antibody discovery platforms and pipelines.

In November 2023, T-Therapeutics raised $59m (£48m) in a Series A financing led by Sofinnova Partners, F-Prime Capital, Digitalis Ventures and Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) with participation from Sanofi Ventures and the University of Cambridge Venture Fund.

Constructive Bio
$58m Series A (October 2024)
Constructive Bio, a Cambridge based synthetic genomics company, raised $58 million in the first close of a Series A financing earlier this month, bringing the total amount secured by the company to date to $75m. The round was led by Ahren, OMX Ventures and Paladin Capital Group with participation from Fine Structure Ventures, +ND Capital and Abcam-founder Jonathan Milner.

Constructive Bio’s proprietary technology is built on research carried out at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge by company founder Professor Jason Chin, who in 2019 synthesised the entire genome of the bacterium E. coli – the first synthetic strain created for industrial use.

The Series A investment will be used to further develop Constructive Bio’s groundbreaking technology that writes genomes from scratch and creates entirely new biomolecules.

Quotient Therapeutics
$50m (November 2023)
Founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2022, Quotient Therapeutics heralds itself as the first company to systematically study the genetic variation and evolution of the trillions of cells inside the human body. The company’s Somatic Genomics platform reveals novel links between genes and disease across a broad range of therapeutic areas, enabling the discovery of transformative medicines intended to cure, prevent, or reverse disease.

Quotient Therapeutics is co-located in Cambridge, MA and Cambridge, UK with research facilities in both cities. Academic co-founders of Quotient include Professor Sir Mike Stratton (Senior Group Leader, Wellcome Sanger Institute), Inigo Martincorena (Group Leader, Wellcome Sanger Institute), Peter Campbell (Head of Cancer, Aging and Somatic Mutation, Wellcome Sanger Institute), and Hao Zhu (Professor, University of Texas Southwestern).

Flagship made an initial commitment of $50 million to advance development of the company’s platform. Created by Flagship scientists in partnership with leading geneticists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the University of Texas Southwestern, this platform is able to study natural selection at the cellular level through four steps: phenotyping of cells from clinical tissue samples, isolation, single cell genotyping, and computation.

Healx
$47m Series C (August 2024)
Founded in 2014, Healx is an AI-enabled clinical-stage biotech company specialising in rare diseases. Prior to co-founding Healx, Dr Tim Guilliams obtained his PhD at the University of Cambridge in the field of Biophysics and Neuroscience, developing nanobody technology for Parkinson’s disease.

Healx’ $47m Series C takes the company’s funding haul since inception to $110m. The new financing was co-led by Silicon Valley-based R42 Group and Atomico, with participation from new and existing investors including Balderton, Jonathan Milner, Global Brain, b2venture, Ayana Capital, o2h and VU Venture Partners. The latest funding will be used to advance Healx’ pipeline of medicines in rare oncology, renal and neurodevelopmental disorders, including advancing its lead program HLX-1502 through a Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1).

Cambridge Mechatronics Ltd (CML)
$40m (February 2024)
Cambridge Mechatronics Ltd (CML), which has over 700 patents pending and granted, is the world’s leader in the design and control of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuators. Its $40m funding round in February was led by Atlantic Bridge – with Intel Capital and Supernova as co-leads and further participation from Sony Innovation Fund. CML has previously been funded by high-net-worth individuals, family offices and trade partners.

CML has designed, developed and licensed actuators to provide Autofocus (AF) and Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) to a range of top-tier smartphone manufacturers. The company’s roots stem back to when Dr Tony Hooley, a University of Cambridge, Cavendish Laboratory, astrophysics PhD founded 1… Ltd, where he designed and patented the Digital Sound Projector, which first Pioneer (Japan), and then Yamaha (Japan) licenced. 1… Ltd then worked on cellphone-camera autofocus and OIS devices using novel SMA technology and under its newer name of Cambridge Mechatronics Ltd the technology has been used in millions of products including the Huawei flagship smartphone ‘P40’.

Echion Technologies
$37m (£29m) Series B (June 2024)
Echion Technologies was born in the labs of the University of Cambridge Engineering Department in 2017. The company’s product, the Echion XNO® anode material, enables some of the world’s largest transportation companies to access sustainable batteries with outstanding safety, longevity and fast-charging capability.

A £29m Series B investment round in June was led by specialist battery and energy storage technology investor Volta Energy Technologies (Volta), with participation from existing investors CBMM, BGF, and Cambridge Enterprise Ventures. The Series B investment will enable Echion to execute its go-to-market strategy to see its innovative niobium-based XNO® anode material utilised in real world applications, at volume.

CellCentric
$35m (July 2024)
Chesterford Research Park based CellCentric’s mission is to transform outcomes for people living with specific cancers, notably relapsed refractory multiple myeloma, as quickly and effectively as possible. The company has operations in Cambridge and Manchester.

CellCentric was spun out from the University of Cambridge’s Gurdon Institute by pioneering developmental biologist Professor Azim Surani, who wanted to further explore the potential of chromatin-related cell fate control mechanisms to deliver new treatments. From its origins, CellCentric built a network of research and evaluation relationships with over 25 leading academic research groups worldwide.

RA Capital Management made a $35m investment in July, which took its funding round to over $60m, as a previous $25m loan note from Pfizer converts to equity. American Cancer Society’s impact investment and innovation arm BrightEdge also backed the round. CellCentric is privately held; its lead investor is Boston-based Morningside Ventures. The latest investment will be used to further develop CellCentric’s oral p300/CBP inhibitor inobrodib ahead of Phase III trials.

Apollo Therapeutics
$33.5m added to Series C (January 2024)
Apollo Therapeutics is a portfolio biopharma company headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with US operations in Boston. Apollo translates breakthroughs in biology and basic medical research into innovative new medicines. With over 20 active therapeutic programs, five of which are in development, it is building a large, diversified portfolio of novel therapeutics with uncorrelated risk.

The company was founded in 2016 as a joint venture partnership between three of the world’s leading research universities (University of Cambridge, UCL, and Imperial College) and three of the world’s top pharma companies (Johnson & Johnson, GSK and AstraZeneca).

In January 2024, Apollo announced it had completed a second close of its Series C financing, raising another $33.5m to bring the total raised in the round in 2023 to $260m. It has raised more than $450m since inception in 2016. The Series C was led by Patient Square Capital in California and included participation by multiple new investors including M&G plc and two of the largest US public pension plans, along with existing investors including Rock Springs Capital.

Apollo’s mission is to create innovative new medicines by matching breakthroughs in basic medical research made at the universities with industrial drug discovery experts hired into Apollo Therapeutics. In July 2024, Apollo and the University of Oxford announced the signing of a drug discovery and development collaboration aimed at translating breakthroughs made by biomedical researchers at Oxford.

Mission Therapeutics
$32.18m (£25.2m) (March 2024)
Professor Sir Steve Jackson’s research and discoveries in protein ubiquitylation and deubiquitylation led to the founding of Mission Therapeutics in 2011. He is the University of Cambridge Frederick James Quick Professor of Biology and Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and Associate Group Leader at the Gurdon Institute. As a pioneer in the field of DNA repair and DNA-damage signalling, Prof Jackson’s research has shaped our understanding of cellular responses to DNA damage and of how defects in these responses contribute to disease.

Mission is developing first-in-class therapeutics that enhance mitophagy to promote cell/organ health. The latest financing round was jointly led by existing investors Pfizer Venture Investments, Sofinnova Partners, Roche Venture Fund, SR One, IP Group, and Rosetta Capital. To date the company has received £117m/ $149m in venture capital from this blue chip syndicate.

The company has a collaborative, science-driven culture and has strong collaborations with key academic and research centres. These include the Michael J Fox Foundation, the Gurdon Institute Cancer Research UK Laboratories at the University of Cambridge, the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre at the University of Oxford, and the Wellcome Trust Mitochondrial Research Centre at Newcastle University.

Mission is currently accelerating development of its lead drug candidates, MTX325 and MTX652, through clinical trials. MTX325, a CNS penetrant which is a potential disease-modifying treatment for Parkinson’s Disease, is about to enter Phase I trials; while peripherally-restricted MTX652 is currently in Phase II investigating acute kidney injury (AKI) associated with cardiac surgery.

ViaNautis
$25m (£20m) Series A (November 2023)
ViaNautis was established in 2018 as SomaServe, a spin-off from UCL by founders Dr Francesca Crawford, Professor Guiseppe Battaglia and Dr Denis Cecchin.

It is a globally focused biotechnology company advancing its mission to create value through the development of genetic nanomedicines. Its polyNaut® platform applies advanced polymer materials and in silico screening to precisely guide genetic molecules such as pDNA, mRNA, siRNA and ASOs to their intended targets. Unlike conventional drug delivery methods, polyNaut® tackles the challenge of transporting genetic materials across biological barriers, advancing medicines for conditions with pressing unmet clinical needs, such as Cystic Fibrosis – a multisystemic disease affecting the lungs, pancreas, and other organs – and central nervous system (CNS) diseases.

ViaNautis’ $25m Series A fundraise was led by 4BIO Capital, BGF and UCB Ventures with the additional participation of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Eli Lilly and Company and existing investors including Origin Capital, Meltwind and O2H. In May 2024, ViaNautis signed a 10-year lease for 10,825 sq ft of first floor laboratory, write up and office space within the Cadence building at Unity Campus in Cambridge.

ExpressionEdits
$13m Seed funding (May 2024)
ExpressionEdits was founded in 2021 by Dr Kärt Tomberg, Professor Allan Bradley, and Dr Liliana Antunes based on research from the University of Cambridge. Co-founder Professor Bradley is a serial entrepreneur, founding a number of successful biotechs in the UK and US. He was Director of the world-renowned Wellcome Sanger Institute from 2000 to 2010 when he founded Kymab which was sold to Sanofi in 2021 for $1.45 billion.

ExpressionEdits’ proprietary intronisation technology revolutionises gene design by mimicking the natural genetic landscape. By strategically incorporating multiple short noncoding DNA sequences known as introns into artificial genes, ExpressionEdits has achieved significant enhancements in gene expression which leads to better protein production. The company’s AI-powered platform integrates millions of biological data points with machine learning algorithms, enabling automated optimisation of gene design. This transformative technology empowers ExpressionEdits to predict and prioritise key properties of genes, unlocking the production of previously elusive therapeutic proteins.

European VC firms Octopus Ventures and redalpine co-led a $13m seed round in ExpressionEdits in May. BlueYard Capital, Wilbe Capital, Acequia Capital, Amino Collective, and Hawktail also participated. The funding will accelerate candidate selection for preclinical studies and develop a pipeline of protein-based therapeutics. The primary focus for the pipeline will be recombinant proteins that have historically faced production and manufacturing challenges based on current technology.

PhoreMost
$12m additional Series B funding (October 2024)
Cambridge University spin-out PhoreMost added $12m to its Series B financing this month, bringing the total raised to over $50m. The additional investment was led by Parkwalk Advisors with participation from existing investors BGF, Dr Jonathan Milner, Amadeus Capital and Astellas Venture Management.

PhoreMost is focused on leveraging its SITESEEKER® target ID platform which it says can identify the best new therapeutic targets for any chosen disease setting and rapidly identify how to develop novel drugs to them. The company was founded in 2015 by a core team of leading scientists, including Dr Chris Torrance, with early proof-of-concept data from a drug discovery platform developed by the lab of Ashok Venkitaraman at the University of Cambridge.

Sano Genetics
$11.4m growth funding (January 2024)
Sano Genetics is developing software to enable the precision medicine revolution. The company combines genetic testing, recruitment, and long-term engagement in one platform, accelerating enrolment and simplifying operations for precision medicine teams driving breakthroughs for patients. Sano’s co-founders Patrick Short (CEO), Charlotte Guzzo (COO) and William Jones (CTO) met while working on their PhDs at the University of Cambridge.

The $11.4m funding round in January was led by Plural with participation from existing investors including MMC Ventures, Episode 1 and Seedcamp. The new funding brings the total raised by the company to $22m.

In 2023, Sano Genetics experienced 5x ARR growth year-on-year, doubled its headcount to 62 and expanded into the large pharmaceutical market. The new funding will be used to meet the growing demand for its products, leverage AI further and expand its reach to more countries, becoming the ultimate precision trial platform.

Nu Quantum
$9.24m (£7m) pre Series A (November 2023)
University of Cambridge spin-out Nu Quantum is pioneering the development of scalable quantum networking, essential to delivering useful quantum computing and unlocking the full spectrum of applications that will have a transformative impact on society.

In November 2023, Nu Quantum raised £7m in a pre-series A round to accelerate its mission to build the entanglement fabric essential to scale quantum computers. The round was led by Amadeus Capital Partners, Expeditions Fund, and IQ Capital, with increased commitment from Seed investors Ahren Capital; Seraphim Capital; University of Cambridge and Martlet. New investors joining the round include Presidio Ventures backed by Sumitomo Corporation, the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), and Deeptech Labs.

Nu Quantum was founded in 2018 to commercialise research generated over the last decade at the Cavendish Laboratory. Nu Quantum’s product is a Quantum Networking Unit (QNU) capable of efficiently scaling discrete Quantum Processing Units (QPUs) to form a larger and more useful quantum computer. The company has key partnerships with academia and corporations, including Airbus, NPL, BT and The University of Cambridge.

VividQ
$7.5m additional Series A (August 2024)
VividQ, a leader in computational holography, recently revealed images of real holograms projected through high-performance 4K display hardware. The ability to deliver ‘retina resolution’ computer-generated holograms means that next-generation VR headsets will be able to offer unparalleled levels of immersion and realism to users. The company’s founding team includes physicists, mathematicians and computer scientists from the University of Cambridge, University of St Andrews and University of Oxford.

In August, VividQ raised an extra $7.5 million Series A funding in a round led by Foresight Group, bringing its total haul to more than $30m. The round included new investors such as GameTech Ventures, and Florida-based Ruttenberg Gordon Investments (RGI), as well as existing backers. VividQ is expanding in the United States on the wings of the fresh funding success.

VividQ has already secured multi-year partnerships with JVCKenwood and US-based leaders in display and automotive technology in addition to Fortune Global 500 brands developing consumer electronics displays and VR/AR headsets.

Xampla
$7m scaleup funding (January 2024)
Founded in 2018, Xampla is on a mission to be a world-leading provider of natural polymers with its world-first next-generation Morro™ materials, which offer a high-performance replacement for plastic. Its patented technology was developed over 15 years by Professor Tuomas Knowles, a global leader in protein biophysics and Professor of Physical Chemistry and Biophysics at the University of Cambridge.

In its latest funding round, Xampla raised $7m from existing backers Amadeus Capital Partners, Horizon Ventures, Cambridge Angels, Cambridge Enterprise, Martlet Capital and new investor CIECH Ventures, taking its haul to date to $17.6m. Industry partners include the 2M Group of Companies, Britvic, ELEMIS, Yili and Gousto.

Psyomics
$5.1m (£4m) growth capital (June 2024)
Psyomics was spun-out from Cambridge University through the Cambridge Centre for Neuropsychiatric Research (CCNR). Founded by Professor Sabine Bahn, Laboratory Director, Professor of Neurotechnology and practising NHS consultant psychiatrist, CCNR’s internationally recognised team carries out fundamental and applied research into the causes and treatment of major neuropsychiatric disorders.

By utilising smart algorithms to perform detailed and personalised analysis, Psyomics’ AI-informed medical device Censeo creates a biopsychosocial ‘profile’ of an individual’s mental health needs. Censeo’s in-depth insights allow for a greater understanding of a patient’s personalised needs and treatment pathways, helping achieve their best possible clinical outcome.

In its latest funding round, Psyomics raised £4m growth capital with Parkwalk Advisors contributing £3.5m as lead investor. Psyomics said the fresh funding would help accelerate the extension of the company’s AI-informed medical device Censeo, to include specialist children and young people’s mental health assessment.

Neutreeno
$5m Seed funding (October 2024)
Neutreeno, a pioneering DeepTech startup spinning out of the University of Cambridge, has secured $5m seed cash from a global syndicate of mission-aligned investors to target a $130 trillion decarbonisation market. Regeneration.VC led the round alongside Remarkable Ventures Climate Fund (RVC), Closed Loop Partners, Prequel Ventures, Scania Invest and Beacon Venture Capital.

Neutreeno aims to revolutionise industrial Scope 3 decarbonisation with its digital self-learning material, energy, and emissions analysis software system. Neutreeno says its proprietary process networks, based on mass and energy flow research, significantly minimise the primary data burden on suppliers and allows enterprises to map product lines faster and with greater precision than existing tools.

Evoralis
$3.26m (£2.5m) Seed funding (September 2024)
A spin-out from the University of Cambridge’s Hollfelder Lab, Evoralis specialises in the discovery and development of plastic-depolymerizing enzymes. It harnesses a unique ultrahigh-throughput screening platform based on microfluidics to discover and refine enzymes capable of breaking down complex plastics into their constituent building blocks. This platform, which accelerates enzyme screening by up to 1,000 times compared to traditional methods, is regarded as a game-changer in the pursuit of an economically viable circular economy for textiles and plastics.

The company raised £2.5m in the recent seed round led by LIFTT S.p.A with co-investment from Backbone Ventures and circular economy-focused investors Circular Plastics Accelerator and Archipelago Ventures, and Parkwalk Advisors, the University of Cambridge, as well as angel backers.

Sparxell
$3.2m early-stage funding (April 2024)
Sparxell is commercialising products designed to eliminate synthetic chemicals from colourants in multibillion dollar markets such as cosmetics, fashion, paint and packaging. It was founded in 2022 by Cambridge scientists, led by CEO Dr Benjamin Droguet and Professor Silvia Vignolini, who discovered ways to replicate vibrant colours in nature using fully plant-based cellulose, a renewable, biodegradable resource that can be extracted from waste streams.

It spun out from the University of Cambridge after years of research on photonics and structural colours obtained from plant-based cellulose, with a mission is to eliminate toxic chemicals from colouration and provide businesses with sustainable, low-carbon and performant alternatives to traditional coloured materials.

In April, Sparxell announced it had raised $3.2m in early stage capital. The Circular Innovation Fund, a global venture capital fund jointly managed by Demeter and Cycle Capital with L’Oréal as an anchor investor, participated alongside others including SpaceX-backer Future Communities Capital, PDS Ventures, Katapult, Joyance Partners and SNØCAP VC.

Sparxell is targeting specific markets including beauty (colour cosmetics, personal care, creams, sunscreens, glitter make-up), fashion (textile colouring, embellishments, sequins), packaging (bulk colouring, films, foils), and paint (automotive, building). It is planning to launch a Series A in the near future to upscale production capacity and accelerate commercialisation.

Deepform
$2.61m (£2m) Seed funding (June 2024)
DeepForm has developed an innovative sheet metal forming process said to reduce trimming, thinning and springback, maximising material value for customers. Christopher Cleaver developed the DeepForm technology as senior research associate at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering and now spearheads the company as CEO. He founded the company with Julian Allwood, Leader of Use Less Group at the Department of Engineering, who came up with the original concept for DeepForm in his garden shed.

Parkwalk Advisors led the company’s seed funding round, announced in June, alongside Cambridge Enterprise.

Zetta Genomics
$2.37m second seed round (February 2024)
Zetta Genomics is a fast-scaling, global genomics data technology company. As genomic databases move from hundreds of thousands to millions of sequences, Zetta Genomics’ XetaBase tool brings simplicity to increasing complexity with a genomic data management solution developed by and for researchers and clinicians.

Zetta Genomics is a 2018 spin out from two genomic data pioneers, the University of Cambridge and Genomics England. XetaBase was inspired by the realisation early in Genomics England’s 100,000 Genomes Project that existing technologies couldn’t cope with genomic data’s volume, complexity and reinterpretation demands. It drove the development of OpenCB, led by co-founder Ignacio Medina, and the creation of Zetta Genomics.

In February, Zetta Genomics expanded its second seed round, attracting new investment of £1.8m. It saw commitments from second-round global investors Nina Capital, Apex Ventures and Cambridge Enterprise. The expansion also attracted fresh investment from diagnostics startup specialist We Venture Capital. The company is working towards a significant Series A round.

Cambridge Electric Cement (CEC)
$2.94m (£2.25m) Seed funding (July 2024)
University of Cambridge spin-out Cambridge Electric Cement (CEC) has developed what it describes as the world’s first process for making low carbon, recycled cement, by processing it through the same electric arc furnaces (EAFs) as those used in steel recycling. It closed a £2.25m seed funding round, led by decarbonisation-focused Zero Carbon Capital, investing alongside existing investor Legal & General, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Parkwalk Advisors, Delph25, and Almanac Ventures.

CEC was founded in 2022 to commercialise low carbon cement research by academic co-founders Professor Julian Allwood, Dr Cyrille Dunant, and Dr Pippa Horton. It is working with its established industry partner network – AtkinsRéalis, Balfour Beatty, CELSA UK, Day Group, Materials Processing Institute, and Tarmac – on the ‘Cement 2 Zero’ industrial demonstrator project to certify and commercialise the product initially in low-risk, non-structural construction applications.

xWatts
$1.8m Pre-seed funding (June 2024)
xWatts is a smart energy management software that is said to reduce costs and emissions by more than 20 per cent in commercial buildings via predictive control and automation. It raised $1.8m pre-seed funding from Antler, Cambridge Enterprise, Parkwalk Advisors, R42 Group, Cambridge Angels as well as several other angel investors who have backed the company since it was founded by University of Cambridge MBA Yigit Akar and Postgraduate Researcher Alexander Allen.

GraphEnergyTech
$1.31m (August 2024)
GraphEnergyTech was co-founded by Professor Michael Grätzel of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), inventor of the dye-sensitised solar cell; Professor Andrea Ferrari, founder and director of the University of Cambridge Graphene Centre, and Frontier IP.

GraphEnergyTech has developed and patented a novel process to integrate graphene electrodes into solar cells, replacing the silver and other precious metals whilst retaining or improving power conversion efficiencies and reliability. Other applications for the technology include batteries, super capacitors, LED lighting and displays. The company’s £1 million ($1.31m) equity raise was led by Aramco Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of integrated energy and chemicals company Aramco. It is now working with partners to scale its technology.

Prospectral
$1.2m pre-seed (August 2024)
Prospectral has designed a new approach to spectral imaging and is building a technology to empower companies with dramatically lower-cost, more compact and less complex cameras for gathering the data required to detect and analyse materials.

In August 2024, Prospectral raised a $1.2 million pre-seed round from Creator Fund, Unruly Capital and Cambridge Enterprise Ventures. The pre-seed funding will fuel development of the company’s cutting-edge image sensor technology – enabling ultra-compact cameras for materials detection and analysis.

Prospectral was founded by four University of Cambridge researchers in optical physics and semiconductor engineering. The quartet leading the business are Dr Gwen Wyatt-Moon, who is CEO; Dr Tom Albrow-Owen (CTO); Dr Oliver Burton (CSO) and Dr Peter Christopher (CIO).