As nominations open for the #21toWatch 2023 awards, cofinitive has announced that £258,145,819.00 has been raised by Top21 winners since the awards inception in 2018.
The awards, which recognise the world-class science and technology entrepreneurs, startups and ground-breaking innovation from across Cambridge and the East of England, provide year-round exposure for all those who make the list. Feedback received after the 2022 Top21 announcement event recognised that #21toWatch is a “fantastic forum supporting the regional entrepreneurship ecosystem”.
Now in its fifth year, the #21toWatch initiative has showcased over 1,000 people and companies and, of those that made the Top21, 47 percent received funding since appearing on the list. According to Forbes, who featured an article on the #21toWatch programme earlier this year: “Correlation isn’t causation, of course, but the figure suggests that a fair percentage of [#21toWatch] winners have commercial legs.”
Flusso is a great example. Having been selected as one of the Top21 winners in the Company category in 2021 and ‘Thing’ category in 2022, the University of Cambridge spin-out, developers of the world’s smallest flow sensor, FLS110, has gone from strength to strength, announcing only last month that it had been bought for £28million.
cofinitive and #21toWatch has indeed earned a reputation for seeking out the ones to watch. The week before the Top21.2022 were announced in March, Top21.2022 winner, Porotech announced a $20 million Series A investment to accelerate global expansion and mass production of its unique micro-LED products. Two days after the awards event DIOSynVax, another Top21.2022 winner, announced a partnership with CEPI (The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation) worth £42million to work on new coronavirus vaccines.
Faye Holland, Director of cofinitive and instigator of #21toWatch, said: “We have already received over 100 submissions for the 2023 cohort even before nominations window has officially opened. We are delighted that the majority of these are new to the campaign and have not been featured on previous lists. cofinitive is all about fostering connections, and we look forward to showcasing these entrepreneurial innovators within our local ecosystem and beyond, contributing to their exciting onward journeys.”
Unlike other awards programmes, it is free to make a submission and to be part of #21toWatch, which is in keeping with cofinitive’s consistent pay-it-forward approach. Faye adds: “What I love most about #21toWatch is the genuine camaraderie that exists between startups and entrepreneurs within our famed ecosystem. Previous Top21 winners introduce their connections to the #21toWatch initiative and even those who are not eligible to be listed know about the campaign and spread the word.”
We are delighted to reveal the first three entrants to qualify and accept the nominations for their respective #21toWatch lists.
These are as follows:
People: Colleen Sheridan
Colleen is the founder and CEO of luucid, which is protecting individuals against their drinks being spiked. The company is currently developing its first product: luucid sip, a drug-detecting straw that alerts you if your drink is spiked with ketamine or GHB (currently the two most prominent spiking drugs). Colleen is one of the 2022 Cambridge Judge Business School EnterpriseTech star cohort, a programme for entrepreneurial individuals focused on becoming founders of new ventures.
Company: Tailor Bio
This is a very exciting time for Tailor Bio with their vision to make precision medicine a reality for some of the deadliest cancers. Tailor Bio has recently been bolstered by the award of a second Innovate UK grant and, on publishing their research, the co-founders featured on the cover of global science research magazine, Nature. The research forms the basis of the company’s approach to understanding chromosomal instability in cancer, which it is using to develop a pan-cancer precision medicine platform.
Thing: Infersens
Earlier this year InferSens raised $1million to accelerate the core capability development of its next generation tinyML technology. The game changing InferSens technology enables deep learning (a performance-improving subset of machine learning) to be executed “on board” a device in the field using only battery power. Eco-efficient and cost-saving, it is projected to deliver immediate results and has multiple use cases across the built environment and beyond.
Gemma Dorling who manages the programme at cofinitive said: “I have no doubts this is going to another big year. We are very fortunate to have candidates submitted by the sponsors and partners, and the funders and entrepreneurial programmes. So, if you get an email, get on board quickly – the long listing is just the start!”
CLOSING DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS
Closing date for submissions is 13th January 2023 and the shortlist will be announced in February. A panel of independent judges will determine the Top21.2023 who will be unveiled in a unique event on 2nd March 2023.
You can make your nomination or submission for #21toWatch and find out more about the programme at www.cofinitive.com/21toWatch and by following #21toWatch on social media.
