Business Weekly newspaper

Cambridge scientists have won three major awards from The Royal Society – the UK’s national academy of sciences. The Wellcome Sanger Institute has toasted its associations with two prominent winners – Professors Sir Michael Stratton and Sam Behjati. Sir Greg Winter, who first put the gears on Bicycle Therapeutics was awarded this year’s Copley Medal. The Copley Medal 2024 was awarded to Nobel Laureate Sir Greg Winter for pioneering protein engineering – especially antibody engineering for the successful production of therapeutic antibodies. The Copley Medal is thought to be the world's oldest scientific prize and it was awarded 170 years before the first Nobel Prize. Notable winners include Benjamin Franklin, Dorothy Hodgkin, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin. Sir Greg is credited with having invented techniques to both humanise (1986) and, later, to fully humanise using phage display, antibodies for therapeutic uses. He was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with George Smith and Frances Arnold. Sir Greg is a co-founder and board member of Nasdaq-quoted Bicycle Therapeutics which is growing fast on both sides of the Atlantic. Professors Stratton and Behjati were recognised for their outstanding contributions to cancer research. Sir Mike received the Royal Medal (Biological) for his foundational work in cancer genomics while Professor Behjati won the Francis Crick Medal and Lecture for his discoveries on the developmental origins of childhood cancers. Sir Mike Stratton said: “I am extremely honoured and humbled to be considered amongst the amazing scientists who have previously been awarded the Royal Medal by the Royal Society, and wish to voice my gratitude to those who nominated me and decided on the award. “The news of the Award immediately brought into my head the assembly of faces and voices of colleagues I’ve had in over 40 years in scientific research; PhD students, Postdoctoral Fellows, Staff Scientists, team members in or out of the laboratory supporting the whole enterprise, senior colleagues with whom big ideas have been shared, chewed over and acted on, and those who have advised, mentored and supported me.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/eGT_AWG9

Leading law firm Mills & Reeve has advised a regulatory and compliance services provider on the recommended £8.6 million cash offer from a newly formed company owned by investment funds advised by Bloom Equity Partners (Bloom Equity), headquartered in New York. The public-to-private takeover of AIM-listed GRC International Group plc was implemented by a scheme of arrangement under Part 26 of the Companies Act 2006. Ely-based GRC is a well-established player in the governance, risk management and compliance market, servicing more than 7,500 SME clients across the globe. GRC was identified by Bloom Equity as a business with a solid offering in the cybersecurity space and Bloom Equity believes that, with its operating resources, GRC can realise more growth opportunities within the market. Mills & Reeve corporate partner, Jonathan GREENWOOD, who led the team with principal associate Emma Plaxton, advising GRC, said: “It has been a pleasure to support GRC over the years and we are thrilled to assist the group as it enters its next stage of growth. With Bloom Equity behind it we have no doubt that the business is well positioned to capitalise on its existing platform and deliver an exciting future.” Alan Calder, CEO of GRC International Group, said: “The team at Mills & Reeve proved invaluable in getting the deal over the line. As always, their calm and considered approach combined with excellent legal skills and commercial acumen ensured our needs and ambitions were best served as the business moves to its next stage of development.” GLC was also advised by Wyvern Partners and Singers Capital Markets. Bloom Equity was advised by Fladgate LLP and Cavendish. Full article – https://lnkd.in/ejZrBh85

Cambridge biopharma company Microbiotica has received backing for breakthrough trials and has raised cash to cover the process. The company is developing a pipeline of oral precision microbiome medicines called live biotherapeutic products (LBPs). It has received regulatory approvals to initiate clinical studies for its first two programmes in advanced melanoma (MELODY-1) and ulcerative colitis (COMPOSER-1) in selected EU countries and the UK. Both studies are due to start shortly, with initial data readouts expected by the end of 2025. As it transitions to a clinic-stage company, Microbiotica is also pleased to have secured additional funding from existing investors, giving it the financial runway to complete the clinical trials. Tim Sharpington, Microbiotica’s CEO, said: “Starting our first clinical trials is a major milestone for the company. We are delighted to have been given two regulatory approvals in quick succession and to have completed the manufacture of our clinical trial supplies batches. “Working closely with our collaborators and clinical sites we will initiate both trials in the coming weeks and look forward to treating patients with these promising new medicines.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/eReBFrjt

Latin American companies packed to the rafters with innovation are visiting Cambridge Tech Week in September to engage with businesses at the cutting edge. A 43-strong delegation is being led by Guillermo Ramírez Sneberger, President of the Cambridge Business Association, which inspires collaborations between companies in Latin America and the UK. Cambridge and Oxford are both important components of the initiative. Key facets of the visit, including to CTW, will be captured for posterity by TV company CNN, whose Latin American team is accompanying the delegation. Ukraine will also be on the radar via one key visitor to Cambridge Tech Week. One of Guillermo’s fellow alumni colleagues from Cambridge, Zekeriya Polat, is coming to CTW and has shared his vision for further global business progress with his company, Vision IT, which started life in now war-torn Ukraine. In just three years, VISION IT has expanded into several projects that have become a multinational and multilingual asset for railcar maintainers and operators for monitoring the health of rolling stock, data processing and engineering using IOT. The company swiftly became an official solution partner with Intel globally. VISION IT is currently in active use on intercity high-speed rail vehicles in Ukraine and on three major metro lines in Egypt. Two projects are under development in South Korea and a pilot program is underway in Turkey. Polat said: “Choosing to study at Cambridge was a pivotal moment in my life. It motivated me to share my journey with others, leading me to become involved with organisations like Oxbridge Angels | Oxbridge Ventures and the Cambridge Business Association in Latin America, founded by my Cambridge classmates. As a managing partner at CBA, I’ve played a key role in connecting Latin America with opportunities in the UK’s Silicon Fen.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/evDeBgMC

Swiss VC firm redalpine, which co-led a $13 million seed funding round in Cambridge startup ExpressionEdits in May, is expanding its footprint with an office in London. This week it also announced the final close of its largest-ever fund, redalpine capital VII (RAC VII), at $200M. Operating out of offices in Zurich, Berlin, and soon London, and with a presence in Silicon Valley, RAC VII will back 15-20 early-stage companies from across Europe. The fund has already invested in nine companies, including Proxima Fusion (Germany), a Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics spin-off focused on the future of clean energy production through fusion technology, LegalFly (Belgium), the AI copilot that is transforming legal workflows, and Cambridge-based ExpressionEdits – a gene-editing company that is streamlining and accelerating the development of life-saving therapies. Sebastian Becker, General Partner at redalpine and head of the London office, said: “After expanding to Berlin, establishing a presence in London is the next logical step in our growth journey. “London and the UK have shown very impressive advancements in the past few years, particularly in deeptech and AI - areas that align perfectly with our investment strategy at the continuum of software and science. I look forward to building our on-the-ground team and being on hand to further support our local portfolio companies.” Michael Sidler, Founding Partner of redalpine, said: “We are at a pivotal inflection point in technological development, with transformative change happening across all industries. “Huge forces such as AI, energy transition, health and food security, and more are creating significant investment opportunities. We are seeking startups that are working on incredible solutions and are proud to be empowering the next generation of game-changing companies. With RAC VII, our largest fund to date, we can’t wait to co-create the future together with visionary entrepreneurs, while continuing our legacy of delivering outstanding returns for our investors.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/eteEHT5h

Cambridge DeepTech innovator VividQ is expanding in the United States on the wings of fresh funding success. VividQ, a leader in computational holography, has secured an extra $7.5 million Series A funding, bringing its total haul to more than $30m. The round was led by Foresight Group and included new investors such as GameTech Ventures, and Florida-based Ruttenberg Gordon Investments (RGI), as well as existing backers. Following the company's success in serving original equipment manufacturers across gaming and automotive clients in Japan and the US, it intends to hire a US lead and open an office there in the coming year. The new round of funding will also expedite VividQ’s product development roadmap, making its proprietary technology available to existing and new global business partners. VividQ founder and CEO Darran Milne said: “Spatial computing is rapidly growing as a consumer category, driven in part by the release of the Apple Vision Pro headset and advancements in generative AI from organisations such as Meta, which are pushing the extended reality (XR) industry beyond gaming to deliver immersive experiences across sports, entertainment, and everyday activities such as driving. “While some of the biggest brands are navigating significant technical challenges to achieve mass consumer adoption, VividQ's technology provides the solutions they need to deliver consumer-grade immersive experiences. “Not only are we defining human-machine interaction beyond the headset, making science fiction a reality, but we are also setting the standard for the future of holographic display technology.” Chris Wiles, Investment Director at Foresight Group, said: “VividQ has accelerated the commercialisation of their breakthrough computer-generated holography technology and is well placed to capitalise on the next generation of AR/VR hardware. We are thrilled to lead VividQ's Series A funding round and look forward to supporting them with their US expansion plans." 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. Full article – https://lnkd.in/e7WVUxvh

Cambridge Kinetics has won a competitive award for Innovate UK grant funding – amount unspecified – to develop artificial intelligence and improve productivity in creative industries. Focused on its flagship product, Kinabase, the company says the grant will boost productivity by reducing barriers to entry for data-driven decision making for creative professionals through the development of AI-powered data capture and data analysis tools. Kinabase is a next-generation business management platform, combining the power of traditional CRM/ERP systems with the flexibility of spreadsheets – enabling businesses to boost productivity through streamlined workflows and improved efficiency.  Cambridge Kinetics Managing Director, Jason Mashinchi, said: “We’re thrilled to be a part of Innovate UK’s BridgeAI programme. Our mission is to provide systems that enable organisations to focus on what matters – and this grant enables us to reduce barriers to entry to getting bespoke software systems, helping our clients to achieve more in less time.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/eDwwQweu

Turbine – a ‘techbio’ company with a cell simulation platform that can understand the biology of diseases including cancer and predict the effectiveness of treatments – has strengthened its board with three appointments. The additions will help the company, which has an office in Cambridge, to accelerate business development following strong results generated by its Simulated Cell platform in the past 18 months. Anna Marie Wagner, who joins as an independent director, was previously responsible for AI strategy and external innovation at US biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc. She led the company’s IPO in 2021, which was the largest of its type in the biotech sector, raising $1.6 billion. She is also a former investor at Bain Capital Private Equity. Dr Greg Hersch, Senior Vice-President of Enterprise Strategy and Venture at MSD (the trading name of Merck & Co Inc, NJ USA) joins as Observer while Alex Gwyther of Mercia Ventures becomes an Investor Director. MSD Global Health Innovation Fund and Mercia co-led Turbine’s €20 million Series A financing round in November 2022. Dr Hersch has extensive experience in biopharma strategy while Alex Gwyther previously worked at IBM and for the UK government. Turbine’s Simulated Cell platform uses AI to build a computer model of human cells and tissue. The company has been working with customers such as AstraZeneca, Bayer, and Ono Pharmaceutical to help them target disease more effectively and develop new drugs. Turbine has offices in Cambridge, London and Budapest. Turbine co-founder and CEO, Szabolcs Nagy, said: “Our new Board members bring deep biopharma business experience, and we’re excited to make even more progress with them as we bring the benefits of Turbine’s technology to every corner of the industry.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/e5N-BcP8

Prospectral, founded by four University of Cambridge researchers in optical physics and semiconductor engineering, has raised a $1.2 million pre-seed round from Creator Fund, Unruly Capital and Cambridge Enterprise Ventures. The funding will fuel development of the company’s cutting-edge image sensor technology – enabling ultra-compact cameras for materials detection and analysis. From industrial monitoring, to autonomous vehicles, to medical diagnostics, computer vision is already revolutionising a range of industries. Materials-aware vision, however, requires data that conventional (RGB) cameras cannot provide – spectral data. But the expense, size and fragility of current spectral camera systems is prohibitive for many spaces. 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. It says its on-chip integration is compatible with semiconductor manufacturing processes, is ultra-compact and lightweight and is compatible with smartphone-module scale, drone/satellite-based systems. The quartet taking the business forward are Dr Gwenhivir Wyatt-Moon Wyatt-Moon (CEO), Dr Tom Albrow-Owen (CTO), Dr Oliver J Burton (CSO) and Dr Peter J. Christopher (CIO). Article – https://lnkd.in/ezWtDGcs

Cambridge University college Hughes Hall has honoured alumna Dr Oriane Chausiaux PhD (Cantab) for being awarded the Women in Innovation Award by Innovate UK. Her company, Heartfelt Technologies Ltd, has just started a 200+ patient trial in the UK and hopes to have positive news in the US in the near future. Its novel treatment approach certainly bodes well for global expansion and is said to have the potential to help millions of heart failure sufferers worldwide. The Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge celebration included the unveiling of a purple plaque in her honour on the college site. Purple plaques recognise the achievements of ‘Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award’ winners. Dr Chausiaux and her team at Heartfelt Technologies in Cambridge aim to enhance the heart failure care of millions of patients globally. She said: “This is an exciting time for the company as we commence a clinical trial in the NHS, exploring how best to integrate our solution with the NHS system. We are collaborating with cardiology teams in West Suffolk and Croydon, as well as GPs and pharmacies in Hull and Cambridge. “And we will shortly start the preparations for a US-based trial, which will be the start of our international expansion strategy.” Dr Chausiaux has benefited from the mentorship of several inspiring women, including Hanadi Jabado DL, former Director of Enterprise at Cambridge Judge Business School and now Deputy Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, and Dr Catherine Beech MB,ChB,OBE (CEO of EXONATE LIMITED), who provided valuable advice as Dr Chausiaux transitioned from a PhD student to a start-up founder. As part of the Innovate UK award, Sarah Bruce-White, IUK Business Growth, mentored the team to scale up their business and bring their pioneering innovations to market. Hanadi Jabado said: “Oriane is a model of resilience, strength and resolve. I am a great believer that ‘If you can see it, you can be it.’ We need more women like Oriane to be seen in order to inspire the next wave and the next generation of women scientists and entrepreneurs. She is an impressive serial entrepreneur and I am delighted her work has been recognised this way for generations to come to follow in her steps.” Dr Chausiaux’s journey has been supported by notable investors, including Cambridge Angels, Cambridge Capital and o2h Ventures. Dr Jonathan Milner, former CEO of Abcam and chairperson of Dr Chausiaux’s first company, provided crucial advice to her and co-founders in the early years. Pam Garside, Chair of Cambridge Angels added: “We are extremely proud at Cambridge Angels that Oriane Chausiaux is the founder of one of our portfolio companies. It is always great to see women founders doing so well and she is a deserving recipient of the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/e2RaSafE