Cambridge's newest innovators put on show
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| Cool stuff: iBug's Jonathan Redfern holds one of the company's temperature tracking products |
Attracted by the chance of spotting the next 'big thing' out of Cambridge, Meerkats and Avatars draws in national and local press, providing a strong opportunity for companies to lift their profile.
As well as a wide breadth of technology sectors, companies are also at different stages of development, providing attendees with an insight into a range of business models, themselves often as varied as the technologies.
Many of the companies are after funding or a breakthrough contract, the latter something that medium sized firms could and should take a greater role in providing according to David Gill, director of St John's Innovation Centre (SJIC), which hosted the event.
Gill told those at the event what had already been outlined in a press release that morning, that a version of the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), in which early-stage, high-tech SMEs tender for government contracts, should be designed to encourage mid-sized firms to look to early stage companies for R&D, increasing the chances of
This is the high impact, low visibility world of business-to-business, not consumer facing industries and is where Cambridge is historically strongest, as highlighted by the recent Cambridge Startup Report. The report called Cambridge the UK economy's hidden engine, state-of-the-art technologies that quietly fit into other tech firms' supply chains, which is why the city's cluster is outperforming much of the UK.
Which brings us back to profile, one of the driving forces behind Meerkats and Avatars' existence, supported this year by the ideaSpace Accelerator so that a wider catchment of companies could be sought.
Here are some of the next wave of Cambridge technology companies.
Cosmos Lasers
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A working title for the Cambridge University team whose pioneering tuneable lasers are being developed in the same laboratories that produced Light Blue Optics, itself an exhibitor at this event in 2004.
Using liquid crystals, Cosmos has produced a compact and low-cost laser which is tuneable to any spectral wavelength, which means a single device could be used for a number of diagnostic and spectrometry applications.
The team is also working on producing a hand-held device, whose relative low cost could see it used by clinician in developing countries, for instance to diagnose malaria in a matter of minutes rather than days.
Cosmos has a year of funding left available to it from the EPSRC, but it already looking for future partners and investors that will help it find the best applications for the technology.
iBug Sensors
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Jonathan Redfern, an established local entrepreneur and investor whose portfolio includes Cytocell, is leading development of work at iBug Sensors on a device originating in the John Innes Centre in Norfolk that seeks to help the pharmaceutical and biotech industry on top of the cold chain, the need to keep medical supplies and samples at specific temperatures.
It does with little sensors and LEDs that fit in the top of Eppendorf-style sample tubes. The company has already raised around £300k and is looking for more with early interest coming from major corporations like FedEx, Roche and Cambridge's own Abcam.
Eliminata
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Co-founded by John Halfpenny and Giles Hutchison in 2009, cleantech firm, Energy Reducing Products, has strong leadership and innovation experience behind it, Halfpenny was CEO at CMR Fuel Cells and Splashpower while Hutchison was one of the founders and CEO of pioneering internet radio firm, Reciva.
Halfpenny used Meerkats and Avatars to demonstrate ERP's Eliminata range of 'intelligent' plugs, that build up a picture of when office equipment is used or not so that it can automatically turn them on and off without the need for any external or remote programming. It does this with light sensitive devices.
Initial interest, says Halfpenny, is coming from the public sector and private SMEs and the company is looking to raise around £400k.
Handy Elephant
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Cambridge mobile and web app startup, Handy Elephant, is fashioning productivity tools for professional social media operators is in (early) expansion mode following a windfall from the Citrix Startup Accelerator.
The team still aches for a Java developer, but that isn't holding it back from developing new products before it heads off to Silicon Valley. Will they ever return though is the question (they say yes).
Smart Architects
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Dan Cvrcek founded Smart Architects in August 2010 to push its key product, the sCrib, a USB dongle that attempts to overcome the issues of creating and remembering all the passwords that the digital world demands of us.
It stores up to 12 cryptographically-secure passwords which are accessible using just four keys and the dongle. Lose the sCrib device and the information left on it is meaningless to others as they won't know what programmes or devices they are for.
The company was a UK finalist in the Global Security Challenge and is working with QI3 on markets following a £41k grant from the Technology Strategy Board.
Tech directory
Handy Elephant
Handy Elephant is a Cambridge based social analytics startup that plans to improve people's networking productivity. The Handy Elephant app analyses users' interactions with their contacts, and...
