Cambridge Enterprise

We are thrilled to announce that Declan Weldon has joined Cambridge Enterprise as Head of Technology Development & Licensing!   With a proven track record of leading business and technology terms across a wide range of areas, Declan Weldon brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge in research and innovation having successfully developed, executed and led on many university innovation strategies.   We are delighted to welcome Declan to the Cambridge Enterprise team.

Attention, all students, innovators, and entrepreneurs with ties to both Cambridge and Manchester. Share your inspiring Cambridge x Manchester stories in the link below!💡🚀

Get to know Amanda Wooding, our Deputy Head of Ventures! 🔍 Q. How long have you worked for Cambridge Enterprise Ventures? A. Since October 2021 full time, but for many years aligned alongside Ventures in my previous capacity as Deputy Head of Life Sciences Technology Transfer where I supported life sciences investment more broadly, for example with 52 North Health and T-Therapeutics. In fact, I have been involved in supporting our portfolio of spin-outs and start-ups since 2008, when I first joined the board of Sphere Fluidics Limited.      Q. What did you do before Cambridge Enterprise? A. Life before Cambridge Enterprise involves a career spent at the interface between academic research, industry and translational / early-stage venture funding - sitting at different points in each of these camps. My research activity (PhD, University of Cambridge) focused on intracellular signaling pathways in disease and normal states both here in Cambridge and in industry with Ferring Pharmaceuticals. From Ferring I joined Catalyst Biomedica, part of the Wellcome Trust, and from Wellcome I jumped back into industry in a senior business development role with Acambis, leading on the out license of a Phase III asset to Sanofi Pasteur amongst many other things.      Q. Favourite industry to work with?  A. I am a life sciences specialist so have to shoot with that! For me, those businesses that are driven both by fantastic science and a desire to make a real difference to the lives of their target patient populations are the best.       Q. One innovation that still blows your mind and why? A. Still blows my mind… so something that’s been around a while and still making a massive impact has to be antibody therapeutics. Over 35 years after the initial discovery of monoclonal antibodies last year (2023) 21% of FDA approved drugs were antibody based – 8 single antibodies and 4 bispecifics. The antibody innovation is one that has been and continues to be truly impactful.      Q. What makes you lean forward and take note in a pitch? A. I lean in for an engaging speaker who both tells a compelling story and who is humble enough to understand that they can’t do this alone. When we put cash into a business we are investing in an impactful opportunity that can only be delivered by a team of dedicated, passionate people. Q. One company you wish you'd got to invest in and why? A. Womens’ health remains a very under-researched topic, especially common conditions such as endometriosis. Companies such as Gynica are aiming to improve the lives of women with the condition, but I’m excited for someone to develop enough mechanistic understanding of the disease to be able to consider developing a fully-fledged treatment.  To find out more about Cambridge Enterprise Ventures visit: https://lnkd.in/eqDDPqxq #Ventures #CambridgeInnovation #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #InvestmentOpportunities

From a degree in the Netherlands to the first satellite launch in Costa Rica in 2018, to the UK to launch a space company, we talk to Marco Gomez-Jenkins, Co-Founder and CEO of SuperSharp. Marco talks about his background, going to MBA at Imperial College to learn ‘business’, which led him to Professor Ian Parry at the University of Cambridge who together with George Hawker became co-founders of SuperSharp. SuperSharp is an Earth-imaging company developing unfolding space telescopes to capture high-resolution thermal infrared (TIR) images of the Earth. These images can be used for applications such as tackling climate change, crop monitoring, and maintaining global security, allowing high-quality affordable Earth-imaging solutions to empower the world in responding to global change. With a space launch mid-2026, SuperSharp will have had just over 15 years of R&D funded by the UK Space Agency, Innovate UK, the European Space Agency - ESA, the UK Ministry of Defence Accelerator, plus equity investment from Cambridge Enterprise, and some individual angel investors. Tune in to find out more about the SuperSharp journey and how the Cambridge ecosystem has helped at all stages of its growth: Apple podcast: https://apple.co/3P9RegV Google podcast: https://bit.ly/CTPgoogle Spotify: https://lnkd.in/enP_4QVr Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/3VHqGGs YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eAg5Wv42 Acast: https://lnkd.in/esg7xgq2 CamTechPod: https://lnkd.in/eB5Aznm6 Delft University of Technology, Planet Labs, SATLANTIS, Cambridge Judge Business School, #AccelerateCambridge, Cambridge Innovation Parks Ltd #Engineering #SuperSharpTeam #ThermalImaging #Technology #SpaceSustainability #GreenTransformation #Innovation #SmallSats #NewSpace #CamTechPod In this week’s news and updates: Michelle Lambrecht, Cambridge Innovation Capital, impulse, Maxwell Centre, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, #deeptech, ideaSpace, Chris Cleaver, DeepForm, Ismail Sami, Molyon, Molly Haugen, AetoSense, Bill Yost, Cambridge Electric Cement, Jean de La Verpilliere, Echion Technologies, Teja Potocnik, Charlotte Esler, Nanomation, Marc Rodríguez Garcia, Xampla, Christine Martin, Chris Gibbs, #InnovationAlley, Cambridge Tech Week, The Trinity Bradfield Prize, Simon Thorpe, Uber, Bango, Parkwalk Advisors, HutanBio, Paul Beastall 

Another exciting announcement as Cambridge Electric Cement (CEC), a University of Cambridge spin-out, has raised £2.25m in a seed funding round to industrialise their world-leading low carbon cement! 🏗️ Chris Gibbs, Investment Director at Cambridge Enterprise, says, “CEC’s co-production process for sustainable cement is an elegant and revolutionary innovation. Cambridge Enterprise Ventures is delighted to invest and support the team as they commercialise this transformative technology which has the potential to make a significant impact on carbon emissions." This round was led by Zero Carbon Capital, alongside Legal & General, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Parkwalk Advisors, Delph25 and Almanac Ventures. This investment will allow CEC to industrialise production of their cement, deliver a real-world construction demonstrator and advance offtake agreements with partners and customers. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/eZJA52NR #Cambridge #Innovation #Sustainability #ZeroCarbon #CleanTech

Fantastic to be on the international panel with Richard Newcomb from The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited, Livia Esterhazy from A Lighter Touch (New Zealand), Louise Thatcher from CSIRO, Jesper Vibe-Hansen and Peter Wren-Hilton discussing Platform 10 at the 2024 Salinas Biological Summit. Walt Duflock, Dennis Donohue, Western Growers, University of CambridgeUniversity of Lincoln, University of East Anglia, Cambridge Enterprise

Take a behind-the-scenes look at this week’s MATcelerate ZERO investment event and find out how our unique partnership is helping to drive forward materials innovation. “The vision of MATcelerate ZERO aligns perfectly with our ambitions to develop technologies into this really important area for the world. ... Spending time with other industrialists and professors has been a really great part of the day today.” said Andy S., Open Innovation Manager at Johnson Matthey. Many thanks to our partners the Henry Royce Institute, University of Cambridge (Cambridge Enterprise), Imperial College London (Imperial Enterprise), The University of Manchester (University of Manchester Innovation Factory), UCL (UCL Business Ltd) and University of Oxford (Oxford University Innovation).  Grateful thanks also to the companies who have joined our investment committee: Air Products, Cambridge Display Technology Limited, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, CPI, EGAT, Evonik, Innovyz, Johnson Matthey, Marshall Futureworx, Materials Processing Institute, Ørsted, PA Consulting, Rolls-Royce and Saint-Gobain.   Thanks to BI Foresight correspondent Anna Demming for chairing an engaging panel discussion with a line-up including Michele Barbour, Ania Jolly, Tim Young., Neil Glover. And to Laura Rhian Pickard (University of Bristol), Lourens Blok (Lineat Composites) and Rony Seamons (iCOMAT) for their inspiring presentations. Find out more about MATcelerate ZERO and how you can collaborate with us: https://lnkd.in/d5trpgbH     #Climate #Innovation #Investment #Impact #NetZero #ClimateSolutions #MaterialsInnovation 

"This elegant and game-changing innovation, developed by Chris Cleaver and Julian Allwood at the University of Cambridge, will eliminate waste and carbon emission from vehicle manufacture. Cambridge Enterprise Ventures has supported DeepForm from the beginning and is thrilled to be a part of its ongoing journey. We’re also delighted to invest alongside Parkwalk Advisors in this Seed round, continuing our successful decade of co-investment” says Chris Gibbs, Investment Director. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/e4q9nckz Learn more about the impact that portfolio companies like DeepForm are achieving by following Cambridge Enterprise Ventures! #Cambridge #Automotive #Innovation #Spinouts #CambridgeEcosystem

As Dr Amanda Zeffman said earlier this year, consultancy “not only transcends disciplinary boundaries within universities but helps worlds collide, spreading and sharing ideas and information between academia, industry and other actors.”    The impact achieved by University of Cambridge members and supported by our Consultancy Services team reaches around the world and spans the breadth of knowledge and expertise across the University. We’re proud to share a little glimpse into the role this team plays with the facilitation of the project between NHS Resolution and THIS Institute (The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute) at the University of Cambridge to support the evaluation of its two maternity safety programmes: the Early Notification Scheme (ENS) and Maternity Incentive Scheme (MIS). By managing the financial and contractual administration, we aim to make it easier for the team at THIS Institute to focus their expertise on the project at hand. Learn more about this collaboration here: https://bit.ly/4c3XqSv #ConsultancyServices #CrossFunctionalCollaborations #NHS #MaternitySafety 

It was incredible to see the continued journey of MATcelerate ZERO with the second Investment Committee taking place at University of Bristol's Engine Shed yesterday. MATcelerate ZERO is a unique partnership between world-leading materials research universities and global companies to accelerate climate solutions. Thanks again to our partners Henry Royce Institute, University of Bristol (Bristol Innovations), Imperial College London (Imperial Enterprise), The University of Manchester (University of Manchester Innovation Factory), University of Oxford (Oxford University Innovation) and UCL (UCL Business Ltd) who have joined us in understanding our similar challenges and how we can achieve our impact aspirations for investments in climate solutions. #Climate #Innovation #Investment #Impact #NetZero #ClimateSolutions #MaterialsInnovation