Business Weekly newspaper

Form the Future’s Annual Conference 2024 was hosted this year at AstraZeneca’s Discovery Centre in the heart of the biomedical campus in Cambridge. Key discussions focused on ensuring economic growth raises living standards universally, with panellists stressing the need for sustainable infrastructure, accessible transport, and workplaces that inspire creativity. Experts advocated for bridging skills gaps through apprenticeships, diverse career pathways, and greater integration of vocational and academic education. Dr Kathryn Chapman of Innovate Cambridge emphasised the value of supporting neurodiverse talent and building awareness of non-STEM roles critical to the region’s future. The conference also explored the importance of nurturing local talent and fostering inclusivity. Dr Nikos Savvas DL, CEO, Eastern Education Group, called for stronger ties between businesses and schools, reducing dependence on imported skills. Discussions highlighted equity-focused approaches to career development, with AstraZeneca’s Christina Dumitriu Jackson proposing digital campaigns to promote diverse career paths. Speakers also championed apprenticeships as a key pathway to success. Addressing inequality was central to the event, with a discussion led by Kath Austin of Form the Future CIC. Panellists explored how vocational training, sustainable infrastructure, and community partnerships can empower marginalised young people and ensure growth benefits all. Cllr Dr Elisa Meschini highlighted the need for tailored opportunities, describing it as “creating the right boxes, putting them under the right people, and raising the floor.” A ‘fireside chat’ with Prashant Shah, Chair of Form the Future and Andrea Wood MBE, Assistant Director for Skills and Employment at the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority, celebrated the region’s achievements in pivotal sectors, including tech, green tech, and life sciences. Closing the event, Prashant thanked attendees, speakers, and CEO Anne Bailey for her and her team's amazing work over the past year. He praised the collaborative spirit of the conference, calling it a vital step in advancing inclusive growth and ensuring the region’s long-term prosperity. Full article – https://lnkd.in/eVmExnJX

While Cambridge and its partners in the UK’s Golden Triangle – Oxford and London – share third place in the world for leading life science locations, America still rules the roost for hotspots and wages, reports international real estate specialist Savills. Cambridge alone steals one particular slice of the ratings glory: It leads the rankings overall in terms of research intensity – measured as patent-filing activity and article publication in relation to size of workforce. The report from Savills hands the US dominance in the world’s locations for pay: San Francisco leads with an average $180k total annual earnings for a senior clinical research associate. Zurich breaks a near-total US monopoly ($145k) followed by Boston, San Diego, the US Research Triangle, New York-New Jersey, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, another Swiss interloper in Basel, then back Stateside to Denver and Seattle – all between $110k-$140k. Copenhagen equivalent grade employees hit $100k salary, Singapore $85k, then the UK Golden Triangle, Dublin, Oslo, Munich,Toronto, Berlin-Potsdam and Sydney all at between $60k-$80k. For the best global locations, Savills says that in Europe, the UK’s Golden Triangle is the highest-ranking non-US market, taking third in the global index. The report – https://lnkd.in/ehk6eUAK – says: “This cluster – consisting of London, Cambridge and Oxford – is home to exceptional multidisciplinary talent which is comparatively lower cost than US counterparts, global leading academia, a deep funding environment, and attractive lifestyle for talent. “It also benefits from the UK recently rejoining Horizon Europe, the €95.5bn ($103bn) collaborative research programme created by the European Union. Of note is that Cambridge leads our rankings overall in terms of research intensity, measured as patent-filing activity and article publication in relation to size of workforce.” Savills examined locations based on the depth of their life science talent pools (including cost of talent), R & D investment and output, fundraising levels, business environment, cost of living and lifestyle factors, and property affordability. Savills says that beyond the top 30 locations many more developing life science hotspots are emerging to offer greater cost advantages to occupiers without sacrificing access to a highly skilled workforce, with these often centred around academic institutions. In the US they include Houston, Atlanta and Tampa; in Europe – Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht in the Netherlands, Leuven in Belgium, Warsaw in Poland, Milan in Italy, and Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland; and in Asia Pacific, Bengaluru and Pune in India and Melbourne in Australia. Full article – https://lnkd.in/eS7VV6yQ

PR and Marketing agency cofinitive is preparing to “scale at pace” after being acquired by specialist global consultancy, Cambridge Management Consulting . The company will continue to operate under the cofinitive name, with the new structure taking effect on January 1, 2025. The announcement was revealed at cofinitive’s 10th birthday party at The Bradfield Centre, attended by over 200 guests including Julie Spence OBE, QPM,BEd, LLB, MA, MBA., HM Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, who proposed the toast, and science & technology executives. To date, cofinitive has taken 100 clients to market and supported over 1,000 startups through mentorship and its monthly advice clinic. It has guided numerous clients to top awards including Disruptor of the Year and a Queen’s (now King’s) Award. cofinitive founder Faye Holland said: “We are enormously proud of what we have achieved in our first decade. Now we’re ready for the second! “Our goal for the next 10 years is clear: to remain competitive, deliver even more value to our clients, and scale effectively and at pace. Joining Cambridge Management Consulting provides the perfect opportunity to achieve this vision. It allows us to continue delivering our award-winning services while gaining the resources, capacity and expanded portfolio needed to craft an even greater level of service—one that will empower our clients to grow and thrive on a truly global scale.” Tim Passingham, Chair of Cambridge Management Consulting, added: “I’ve followed Faye and cofinitive for many years and, like others, I’ve been impressed by their reach and impact. “I am delighted to welcome Faye and the entire cofinitive team to the Cambridge Management Consulting portfolio. Their expertise in strategic marketing, PR, and branding will enhance the services we offer to our global clients. Additionally, they will have access to our broader capabilities as we continue to expand in Cambridge and beyond. “As part of the acquisition, Faye will lead all our client marketing projects, head the Cambridge office and join the company leadership team. We’re truly excited to embark on this new chapter together.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/eimw9hnq

The co-founder and a major driving force behind the global growth of Cambridge microcomputer innovator Raspberry Pi is hoping to perform similar feats to turbocharge the robotics industry – tipped to reach $260 billion valuation by 2030. Liz Upton, who is in worldwide demand for her marketing and executive consultancy skills, has added another BOW to her string. She has become chair of Sheffield-based but universal robotics software company BOW. She is also CEO at new businesses Negroni Venture Studios and Negroni Capital Partners and has been fielding options to help steer other enterprises. Already developing a significant portfolio, Liz plans to achieve some of this from a base in “the lovely” King’s Parade in Cambridge. BOW – which stands for “Bettering our Worlds” – makes it possible for any software developer to create and deploy robotics applications and manage robots. By removing the need for highly-specialised robotics programmers, BOW’s universal platform allows companies to leverage the skills of generalist software developers and opens up valuable new use cases in sectors that have previously been underserved by robotics. Upton says: “What my husband Eben and I achieved at Raspberry Pi was lovely and having been head-hunted by BOW I would like to build on their success to date and be in on the start of something really big. “It is not easy dovetailing global demand from international clients with running a family of two children, for example, but I relish the challenge. BOW has some brilliant global relationships from Germany to China and is poised to take a leading role in piloting new standardisation for maximising use of robotics for general industrial applications.” BOW CEO Nick Thompson believes that welcoming Liz to BOW as new Chair could be a genuine game-changer. He said: I’d like to thank our former Chair, Peter Hopton, for his tremendous contribution to BOW since we founded the company in 2020. Liz brings a wealth of experience in scaling a transformational technology business globally. “In addition, her deep commitment to innovation and education aligns perfectly with BOW’s mission to enable millions of software developers to develop robotics applications for the betterment of our world.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/ekmBpVxv

Professor Gishan Dissanaike has been announced as the new Dean of Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, following a competitive global recruitment search. This is the first time in the last 30 years that the University has chosen an internal candidate to be Dean of the Business School. Professor Dissanaike is a financial economist and holds the Adam Smith Professorship of Corporate Governance at the University. He became the Interim Dean of Cambridge Judge in July 2023. He gained his BA from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, before coming up to Cambridge to the Faculty of Economics and Trinity College Cambridge, where he completed an MPhil and a PhD in Economics. Professor Dissanaike has also held a visiting faculty appointment at Cornell University and has been consulted by several international corporations, investment banks, and regulatory agencies. As a faculty member at Cambridge Judge for 30 years, he has a deep understanding of the school’s culture, values and operations. Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Chair of the Appointments Committee said: “I am delighted by the appointment of Professor Gishan Dissanaike as the new Dean of Cambridge Judge Business School. During his tenure as Interim Dean, Gishan has been an effective leader, earning the support of the faculty, professional staff and alumni communities. “His experience over three decades at the Business School makes him an ideal choice to lead it into its next phase of development and growth. I am confident that under his deanship, Cambridge Judge will continue to thrive. I look forward to working closely with him as he builds upon the strong foundations laid by his predecessors.” Professor Gishan Dissanaike added: “It will be a privilege to serve as the first home-grown dean of Cambridge Judge Business School and to serve the institution that has been such an inspiration, as well as my academic home for several decades. “I look forward to nurturing the relationships, ambitions and conversations that keep the Business School – and indeed Cambridge – at the top of its game, in terms of impact, research, global economic benefit and philanthropic endeavour. “Cambridge Judge Business School will focus on responsible business, innovation, and leadership in a turbulent world, and continue to solve real-world problems that have a lasting impact on society.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/eT9pS8d9

A new independent report reveals how groundbreaking research at the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge is delivering major gains for UK economic growth and job creation. It reveals significant contributions not only to the UK and global life sciences sector but also to the local Cambridge and wider UK economy. The independent evaluation, carried out between late 2023 and early 2024 by a team headed up by Professor Pete Tyler and Dr Andy Cosh, updates findings from 2019 and captures a period of transformative progress. Key findings include:- • Babraham Research Campus is delivering an annual economic contribution of £538 million to the local economy – an 89 per cent increase from 2019. Companies based at the Campus now boast a collective valuation exceeding £3.15 billion. • Job creation has more than doubled, reaching 9,400 positions, including 2,000 located on-site. • Fundraising by Campus companies is accelerated by six months compared to those based elsewhere. Derek Jones, CEO, Babraham Research Campus Ltd said: “This isn’t just about numbers; it’s about the ripple effects these successes have on innovation, health outcomes, and economic prosperity. It also reflects the importance of Babraham Research Campus being a ’place‘ with capabilities and community rather than just being a ‘space’ within which to locate.” The report – https://lnkd.in/eCV7Hj_Y – also underscores the success of Accelerate@Babraham, the Campus’ pre-seed funding and support programme for early-stage life science ventures. Established in 2018, the programme has nurtured 26 companies to date, which together – at the time of the report being compiled – have raised £72.5m in funding and have a collective market value of £139m. Since the report, the funding of these companies has reached £100m.   Employing 117 people collectively, these start-ups have achieved a 1.9x return on investment while speeding up their fundraising timelines by 12 months compared to peers outside the programme. As one of five national research and innovation campuses supported by the UK Research and Innovation’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Babraham Research Campus is designed to benefit from the world-leading research taking place across the region, which includes the Babraham Institute. Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith, BBSRC Executive Chair, said: "This evaluation underscores the pivotal role Babraham Research Campus plays not just within the Cambridge life science ecosystem, but across the broader UK and global arenas.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/e9MD5BXE

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Cambridge Judge Business School (CCAF) has launched a new tool designed to provide empirical data and analysis on the decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The invention of the Cambridge DeFi Navigator (CDN) is timely. The DeFi ecosystem has experienced extraordinary growth, with Total Value Locked (TVL) surging from a few billion dollars in its early stages to more than $100bn today, says the CCAF report. It says that while this expansion presents unprecedented opportunities for historically unbanked individuals it also exposes participants to several risks including security vulnerabilities, governance challenges and the complexities of an evolving regulatory environment. At a time when Bitcoin has reached an all-time high and DeFi’s influence continues to grow, the release of the Cambridge DeFi Navigator aims to shed light on both adoption trends and the risks involved with participating in this ecosystem. The CCAF says the tool equips industry participants, policymakers and researchers with essential insights into the dynamics and risks of the ecosystem, enabling them to navigate DeFi with greater transparency and confidence. Christopher Jack, CDAP Programme Manager at the CCAF, says: “More empirical data and insights on the development of DeFi ecosystem underpinned by a working taxonomy will shed light on this complex and evolving sector, to unlock sustainable growth potential and mitigate existing and emergent risks.” Bryan Zhang, co-founder and Executive Director of the CCAF, added that the empirical data for the dashboard was sourced from various leading providers, including Alterscope, DeFiLlama and Flipside. CDAP’s founding institutional collaborators include financial players such as Bank for International Settlements – BIS Innovation Hub; British International Investment (BII); Dubai International Finance Centre; EY; Fidelity Investments; UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office ; Goldman Sachs; Inter-American Development Bank; International Monetary Fund; Invesco US; Mastercard; MSCI Inc.; Visa and The World Bank. Four new members have recently joined the effort: NatWest; Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs; Euroclear and the The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). Full article – https://lnkd.in/eHhCqnt2

Cambridge climate tech firm Levidian has launched its first global auction – opening up a new route for buyers to access tonnes of high-quality graphene and unlock a future of more sustainable products. The exercise is being run as a sealed-bid auction so there are likely to be multiple bidding rounds and an opportunity to submit revised offers.  There is no reserve price as such and the amount Levidian could raise from the exercise depends hugely on volumes and use cases. Delivered from a global network of LOOP devices, the company will initially auction 15 tonnes of graphene in 2025 that will be functionalised to the specific needs of each buyer. Bidders will also be given the opportunity to secure additional volumes in 2026 and beyond. Chief Commercial Officer, Ian Hopkins, said: “By participating in this auction, we’re giving customers the opportunity to secure a first-mover price advantage and to build their graphene inventory. Graphene has been highly coveted since its discovery but has suffered from low adoption due to a lack of high-volume availability. We’re now at a tipping point for widespread graphene adoption – this auction demonstrates that the supply problem has been solved.” Principal Scientist, Jeremiah Marcellino added: “The graphene we produce is exceptional in the market as a consistently high-quality, high-purity product that has been proven to improve the performance and carbon footprint of products as wide-ranging as thermoplastics, batteries and solar panels.” Only last week Levidian announced the launch of its second-generation LOOP technology which will unlock industrial levels of graphene production from a global network of devices. The company is targeting annual production of over 50,000 tonnes of graphene by 2030, which will make Levidian one of the largest producers of graphene in the world, while driving down the emission of around three million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year. Full article – https://lnkd.in/eWmqZRU5

2024 has proved a fruitful fundraising year for Business Weekly’s Killer50 Technology and Life Science companies. Ten of the 50 Cambridge technology elite and 20 of the 50 life science companies have raised growth capital as they seek to scale globally via increased recruitment, establishing new global facilities or, in the case of the biotechs, advancing clinical trials. The Killer50 life science companies have raised a combined $1.15 billion with Bicycle Therapeutics’ PIPE raise accounting for almost half of that figure. Other major raises recently include Nuclera closing a $75m Series C round, Constructive Bio securing $58m in the first close of its Series A, Healx winning $47m Series C funding and Cerevance a $47m extension to its Series B. Two notable 2024 seed rounds featured ExpressionEdits ($13m) and Shift Bioscience ($16m). The Killer50 Technology companies have raised a combined $754m to date this year with the largest hauls achieved by Quantinuum ($300m) and Raspberry Pi ($225m) via a London IPO in June. Funding rounds in Cambridge Mechatronics Ltd ($40m), Echion Technologies ($37.8m), Luminance ($40m) and Riverlane ($75m) were other significant completions. The most recent raise saw Cambridge fabless semiconductor company Forefront RF unveil a £16 million Series A. Tech entrepreneur Phil O'Donovan, chair of the company, is predicting that the young business can blaze a similar trail to greatness as his former game-changing enterprise Cambridge Silicon Radio. Full article and list of companies that have made the latest Killer50 Life Science and Technology lists: https://lnkd.in/eF49jsy7

o2h Ventures in Cambridge has been recognised as the ‘Best EIS Investment Manager – Specialist’ at the 10th annual Growth Investor Awards. To date, o2h Ventures has invested in 35 portfolio companies, working on impactful areas of high unmet medical needs including cancer, depression, diseases of the ear and eye, psoriasis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, anti-ageing, and infectious diseases. The award highlights the company’s unwavering passion for nurturing the biotech ecosystem and what o2h Ventures CEO Sunil Shah calls “its commitment to being a true investment specialist.” He added: “It has been a positive quarter for the funds and we have seen an uptick in activity since the UK and US elections. “It is an exciting time for biotech, with growing investor confidence and good momentum. Whether through syndication with other funds, collaborations with Big Pharma and technology transfer groups, or stand-alone investments, we remain committed to identifying and supporting groundbreaking opportunities in human health.” Sunil’s comments are timely as the British Business Bank has just conducted a highly positive and in-depth analysis of the performance of life science funds versus other sectors (including technology). Its research found that life sciences investments were outperforming rival attractions. Sunil concluded: “This reinforces our own belief in investing in human health across our SEIS and Knowledge-Intensive EIS funds.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/eVJpVBhe