Six of the best kick off 2023 Awards competition
Entry for the 2023 Business Weekly Awards has only recently opened and already a clutch of exciting companies have thrown their hats into the ring.
Disruptive Technology and Life Science Innovation have attracted a number of the candidates.
NRG Therapeutics is tilting at three categories – Life Science Innovation, Investment of the Year and Young Company of the Year. Based at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, NRG is pioneering a novel approach to neurological diseases with a high unmet need eg MND/ALS and Parkinson’s. It raised a significant Series A from leading investors, as well as funding via BioMedical Catalyst and charities, and is led by a passionate and visionary team.
Neural engineering business BIOS Health, based in Hills Road in Cambridge, has entered both the Disruptive Technology and Life Science Innovation categories. BIOS is unlocking the potential of the nervous system. Taking place in eight clinics across the globe over three years, the new NIH REVEAL programme will be the largest ever single clinical study of human neural data.
As core partner, BIOS is providing the software infrastructure for the project and will be instrumental to its success. This is a major validation of BIOS’ platform and allows its technology to become the foundation for the next wave of precision neural medicines to treat chronic disease, through the development of a new class of treatments – neural digital therapies.
VividQ is gunning for the Disruptive Technology title. As we reported recently, VividQ and Finnish company Dispelix Oy – regarded as the world’s top waveguide designer and manufacturer – have revealed a major breakthrough that will revolutionise augmented reality gaming.
The duo have released the world’s first commercially available 3D waveguide combiner – a critical component of an AR optical system – which can display simultaneous variable-depth 3D holographic images in the real world. They have also struck a commercial partnership to manufacture 3D waveguides for AR wearables running VividQ’s software.
Decorte Future Industries, Zetta Genomics and Advanced Infrastructure are also among the early entries.
Decorte, which extracts health data from sound, recently raised funding and was handed a massive vote of confidence with a Microsoft innovation chief joining its board. Trupen Modi, the Pennsylvania-based director of Digital Health Innovation Strategy at Microsoft, takes his seat as a Non Executive Director with the companies exploring collaboration possibilities.
Zetta Genomics, whose new HQ is in Cambridge, is unleashing the power of precision medicine via genomics R & D. As growing understanding of the human genome unlocks personalised healthcare, Zetta’s XetaBase technology brings genomic data interpretation into the lab and clinic.
Spun out from a University of Cambridge and Genomics England collaboration, 2022 saw the business scale via securing £2.5 million in global investor seed funding; attracting new talent including a new chair, CEO, CTO and CFO; and driving partnerships with health innovators, including Fujitsu, Microsoft and NHS.
Founded in 2020, Advanced Infrastructure has developed an innovative Local Area Energy Planning Tool (LAEP+) which has been deployed across 5 local authorities and a Distribution System Operator.
Through its GIS tools, datasets and APIs the company claims to make it easier for local authorities, distribution network operators and consultants to plan local energy transitions and operate using low carbon power. It says, currently there are no other competitors on the UK market that are able to combine whole systems optimisation, GIS tools and data in one platform.
The winners of this year’s Awards will be announced at a gala dinner at Homerton College on September 14.
This award categories have been refined to cover companies of all sizes and at different stages of evolution from raw startups to established world leaders. The range of categories reflect the diversity of research and innovation in the East of England – embracing a geographical footprint covering Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Herts and Beds.
The sponsors bring huge experience to bear on the process. In alphabetical order they are: Arm, AstraZeneca, Barclays, Bruntwood SciTech, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Cambridge Judge Business School, Cambridge Network, Cambridge Science Park, Marshall of Cambridge, Mills & Reeve, PwC, TTP plc and Unity Campus.
Reflecting the way the region has evolved, we this year introduce a DeepTech Innovation Award. This initiative will embrace startup enterprises across the entire field of research, Science & Technology providing technology solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges. Raw research and AI making a difference will feature in this category.
Another new category this year is The Pathfinder Award – ‘For a company whose science or technology is influencing nextgen life sciences innovation.’ It is being backed by Bruntwood SciTech.
‘Pathfinder’ builds an extra layer into our support for the burgeoning Life Sciences cluster locally: world-leading Big Biotech AstraZeneca sponsors a Life Science Scale-up category for rising stars and a Life Science Innovation Award for established players making a difference on a world stage.
Also new this year is an Investment of the Year Award sponsored by the transformational team at Cambridge Innovation Capital, which has helped the region gain unprecedented kudos globally.
And we are delighted to welcome to the sparkling sponsors cohort, Howard Group’s Unity Campus – spearheaded by Jeanette Walker – which is already home to some exciting businesses.
Companies that enter the Business Weekly awards – launched in 1990 – have raised their profile, gained new customers and collaborators, hauled in fresh capital and in many instances gone on to take world leads in their chosen sector. The very best have collectively been sold for billions.
Lead forensic sponsor Mills & Reeve, a UK leading law firm, will set up an interview with entrants’ chosen spokesperson to prepare a confidential report for the judges.
The award categories are:
Young Company of the Year
Cambridge Judge Graduate Business of the Year
The Sir Michael Marshall Engineering Excellence Award
Disruptive Technology
The Pathfinder Award
Technology Scale-up
Life Science Scale-up
Life Science Innovation
International Trade Champion
Quoted Company of the Year.
Cambridge Judge Business School Woman Entrepreneur of the Year
Sustainability Champion
DeepTech Innovation
Investment of the Year
From all of the entrants a Business of the Year will be selected to join a Hall of Fame that includes Abcam, Acambis, Arm, Autonomy, AVEVA, Bicycle Therapeutics, British Sugar, Cambridge Antibody Technology, Cambridge Quantum, CSR, Darktrace, Domino, Frontier Developments, Horizon Discovery, Ieso Digital Health, Perkins Engines, Pi Group, Ryanair, Sepura, TTP, Treatt plc, Virata and Xaar plc.
• Companies can enter by filling in the online form – https://www.businessweekly.co.uk/business-awards/enter-awards or by emailing chair of judges, Tony Quested – tquested@businessweekly.co.uk.
