Business Weekly newspaper

Entries for the Business Weekly Awards are now closed and lead forensic sponsor Mills & Reeve has begun the vetting process with interviews currently taking place between its lawyers and respective shortlisted companies. Serial tech entrepreneur Dr Hermann Hauser, who co-founded Acorn Computers, Arm and Amadeus Capital Partners and who continues to invest in the cream of Cambridge, UK and European businesses, is the guest speaker at the Awards dinner at Queens' College, Cambridge on Wednesday September 11. The Awards, launched in 1990 are sponsored by Mills & Reeve, AstraZeneca, Arm, PwC, Barclays, TTP plc, Cambridge Judge Business School, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Marshall, Bruntwood SciTech, Cambridge Science Park, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, Cambridge Network, Unity Campus , and St John's Innovation Centre Ltd. New this year is the Cambridge Tech Week (CTW) Award which will honour the winner of a scale-up competition being held during CTW in September. The shortlisted companies – https://lnkd.in/ejim8hvh

Google DeepMind’s pioneering AI weather forecasting technology, GraphCast, has won the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2024 MacRobert Award – the UK’s longest-running and most prestigious prize for UK engineering innovation. GraphCast represents a revolution in weather forecasting. Its AI-powered technology uses cutting edge machine-learning algorithms and vast data sets to provide highly accurate and more timely weather predictions that, among other advantages, could help mitigate the impact of severe weather events and, ultimately, save lives. Instead of the traditional numerical weather prediction methodologies, GraphCast uses machine learning to provide highly accurate and timely weather predictions up to ten days in advance. It harnesses the power of graph neural networks to model complex weather patterns and offers unprecedented precision in forecasts and an enhanced ability to predict extreme weather conditions. The model currently takes just 45 seconds to generate a forecast that would take traditional forecasting methods over an hour on a supercomputer. This has been equated to a five-year leap forward in weather forecasting. The Google DeepMind team behind the winning innovation were presented with the MacRobert Award gold medal and a prize of £50,000 by Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence on behalf of the Academy’s Royal Fellow, The Princess Royal. The MacRobert Award winning Google DeepMind team are: Ferran Alet Puig, Research Scientist; Peter Battaglia, Research Scientist ; Meire Fortunato, Staff Research Scientist; Rémi Lam, Staff Research Scientist; Shakir Mohamed, Director of Research ; Alexander Pritzel, Senior Staff Research Scientist; Alvaro Sanchez Gonzalez, Staff Research Engineer; Jacklynn Stott, Research Program Manager; Matthew Willson, Staff Research Engineer and Peter Wirnsberger, Staff Research Scientist. Professor Sir Richard Friend, Chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award judging panel, said: “GraphCast is a great example of how engineering innovation can be an important driving force behind economic growth and a sustainable future. In an age of climate change and increasingly volatile weather events, accurate forecasting is an essential tool that can benefit society worldwide.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/eczhrbDa

Inward investment from companies based across the globe has handed Cambridgeshire & Peterborough a jobs and cash boost over the last 12 months. New government figures reveal that the region has seen an increased number of jobs created during 2023/24 due to overseas companies moving in. The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) figures show 26 investment projects supported by the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority in 2023/24, together created at least 1,700 new jobs. Last year the region welcomed Cogniss, an Australian digital health tech company, which opened its global headquarters in Cambridgeshire supported by the Combined Authority’s inward investment team. Cogniss plans to create 45 new skilled, high-value jobs over the coming years. Dr Nik Johnson, Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said: “It is great news that foreign investment is flowing into Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, helping to secure new jobs and create sustainable businesses and supply chain opportunities. “Our region is a fantastic place to live, work and invest in – competing globally for the most innovative businesses and some of the most talented people.” Al Kingsley, Chair of the Business Board added: “Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s innovative economy remains an investment destination of choice for some of the world’s biggest, fastest growing and most ambitious businesses. It is wonderful to see our collaborative and focused hard work is resulting in new job opportunities and increased investment across the region.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/equVx9-E

Exiger, a US supply chain and third-party risk AI company, has acquired Versed AI – born out of the University of Cambridge's Language Technology Lab – for an undisclosed sum. Versed AI's artificial intelligence technology is said to accelerate the process of extracting and aggregating multi-tier supplier networks, creating automated bills of material and generating proprietary value chain graph data. The integration of Versed AI into Exiger's award-winning supply chain management platform allows Exiger customers to rapidly expand multi-tier visibility with access to an array of advancements in supply chain tracing, orchestration and mapping. Versed AI automatically maps and contextualises complex supply chains, providing customers with multi-tier supply chain intelligence. The company applies cutting-edge AI technology to help leading enterprises rapidly illuminate their n-tier supply chains, analyse them and act – tackling risks from disruption, regulatory compliance and reputational damage. Exiger CEO Brandon Daniels said: “Procurement and supply chain professionals across the public and private sector are overwhelmed by the amount of data they have to navigate to meet daily operational and regulatory requirements like tariff analysis, alternative vendor sourcing, forced labor checks, environmental impact assessments and CSDDD compliance. This acquisition allows us to offer a beautifully simple solution to those challenges.” Fenella Boyle, Versed AI co-founder and CEO added: “We're excited by the disruptive power created by combining Versed AI and Exiger's best of breed capabilities. After surveying the competitive landscape, we feel strongly that our technology will have the greatest impact when deployed within Exiger's market-leading AI and across their vast and rapidly growing customer base.” Versed AI co-founder and CTO Dr Simon B. said: “We're thrilled to join an organisation that shares our commitment to developing exceptional technology – not only to satisfy and streamline day-to-day business demands but to make the world more ethical and transparent.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/eeFpa88S

There IS a special relationship between the UK and US in at least one significant area of trade – the life sciences. This may not be quite as powerful as a genuine trade alliance between the White House & Westminster, but when biotech chiefs in the territories don’t let the Atlantic get in the way of business, then the Charles River is a mere hop, step and a jump! Cambridge UK companies continue to find facilities, boots on the ground and an environment geared to growth when they put down roots in Greater Boston and wider Massachusetts – most notably in the field of BioMedTech. No-one appears to challenge the claim by Massachusetts to be home to the top life sciences cluster in the world. Companies based there enjoy a range of advantages including a thriving life sciences community, highly educated workforce, world-leading universities and hospitals, access to an array of economic development programs that support large and small biotechnology companies, and tax benefits. From biotech-zoned science parks to robust infrastructure and pre-permitted biotech sites, Massachusetts reckons it has it all for companies looking for space. And the number of Cambridge UK biotechs based there would appear to agree. In this article – https://lnkd.in/eTri3utE – we take a look at some of the Cambridge UK companies with operations in the State including: abcam, Alchemab Therapeutics Ltd, Apollo Therapeutics, AstraZeneca, Bicycle Therapeutics, Cambridge Cognition, Cerevance, Cresset Biomolecular Discovery, Cycle Pharmaceuticals, Domainex, Dunad Therapeutics, Eleven Therapeutics, Lightcast, NodThera, Nuclera, Quotient Therapeutics and Transition Bio, Inc. • Earlier this year, Cambridge and UK Life Science gateway One Nucleus held its 2024 Boston Bootcamp competition with the winners Carocell Bio, ENHANC3D GENOMICS, ikarovec and STORM Therapeutics Limited rewarded with a trip to Boston in April. One Nucleus is planning a return delegation to Boston in September to incorporate a pitching day within Biotech Week Boston.

Mission Therapeutics has been awarded $5.2 million from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) and Parkinson's UK. The funding will help advance Mission's potential disease-modifying treatment for Parkinson's, MTX325. Mission Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotech company developing first-in-class therapeutics targeting mitophagy. MTX325 is described as a potent, selective, small molecule brain-penetrant USP30 inhibitor, which is designed to protect dopamine-producing neurons by improving mitochondrial quality and function. The funding will support a 28-day dosing of MTX325 in patients with early-stage Parkinson's disease (PD), as part of Mission's ongoing MTX325 Phase I program. Patient dosing is expected to start early in 2025. he aims are to understand MTX325's safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetic profile and CNS penetration in PD patients, as well as observing effects on relevant mechanisms and disease biology biomarkers. Anker Lundemose, CEO, Mission Therapeutics, said: “This significant grant, from two of the world's leading Parkinson's disease organisations, underlines the huge potential of MTX325 as a disease-modifying treatment for this terrible neurodegenerative illness. It also represents a major endorsement of our mitophagy strategy in human diseases including PD." CSO Dr Paul Thompson, added: “We have already made excellent progress in healthy volunteers with preliminary data from the ongoing clinical trial showing that MTX325 has a good single dose safety profile, pharmacokinetics and CNS penetration. “We look forward to starting the PD patient part of the trial in the new year, which this generous funding from MJFF and Parkinson's UK is helping to support." Full article – https://lnkd.in/ePvsP6Xr

Cellular Origins, a TTP plc company, has acquired the ACTIA (Autologous Cell Therapy Industrial Automation) Platform IP developed by Geoffrey Hodge while CEO of SOTIO Biotech US. No figures have been disclosed. Cellular Origins is focused on enabling scalable, cost-effective and efficient manufacture of cell and gene therapies (CGTs). It says the ACTIA Platform complements Cellular Origins’ existing approach and will accelerate and expand R & D efforts to further develop the company’s robotic solution for automated cell therapy manufacturing – Constellation™. Launched in May 2023, Constellation combines advanced automation robotics with aseptic fluid-handling technologies in a highly flexible and scalable system. Dr Edwin Stone, CEO at Cellular Origins, said: “The acquisition of the ACTIA Platform IP shows Cellular Origins continued dedication to creating the most efficient, cost effective and scalable solution to cell therapy manufacturing.   “Combined with ongoing R & D, this expansion of our technology and IP portfolio underpins our commitment to develop Constellation to solve the challenge of affordable, large-scale production of cell therapies that meets the needs of our customers and ensures we can offer the right solution for long-term success.” Geoffrey Hodge, who is now Scientific Adviser to Cellular Origins, added: “The approach of stringing together sequential unit ops, as we did to manufacture recombinant proteins, does not meet the unique needs of autologous cell therapy. “Constellation has already demonstrated its capabilities to transform manufacturing of cell therapies, offering an easily accessible route to cost- and space-efficient, large-scale production. ACTIA further augments Constellation, and the ambition to revolutionise cell therapy manufacturing and deliver life-saving therapies to more patients than ever before.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/eYg3rEuw

Zedify, the cargo bike delivery network which operates in Cambridge, has secured a further £4 million investment from a core of backers. Investors are Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital, Mercia Ventures – which was investing from its own funds and from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) – and Green Angel Syndicate. This funding round follows a £5m investment from Barclays, Mercia and Green Angel in March 2023. The company has since almost doubled the size of its team from 113 to 209 and signed up national brands including HelloFresh, Selfridges and VEJA. The growth capital will enable the company to expand into more cities in the UK including the launch of a new Midlands hub later this year. It also plans to enhance its technology and significantly expand its teams of riders, sales and customer care staff. Zedify expects to create 80 new jobs, including 20 in the new Midlands hub, and to triple its turnover in the year ahead. Currently delivering in Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, London, Manchester, Norwich, Plymouth, Edinburgh and Glasgow, it plans to operate in 51 UK towns and cities within the next five years. Rob King, co-founder and CEO of Zedify, said: “We are seeing a real appetite from leading retail brands and UK-wide businesses looking to transform their last mile logistics and invest in more sustainable delivery models, which is why we have ambitious plans to triple in size this year. This investment will be paramount to that growth, helping us scale to meet the needs of our rapidly expanding customer base.” Gavin Chapman, Co-Head of Principal Investments at Barclays added: “The transition to net zero emission for many sectors is not as simple as swapping from high-emitting fuels to renewables, and this is particularly true of the logistics industry. “Zedify have identified that hyper-local delivery models are needed, in combination with low-carbon transport, in order to decarbonise the industry, reducing pollution within the UK’s cities.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/eWRjKw82

Cambridge based location software company 1Spatial is fast growing the influence of its innovation in the lucrative United States market. The AIM-quoted company reveals that it has won several new contracts in the US that demonstrate material progress on its Stateside expansion plans. 1Spatial now has contracts or framework agreements with 21 US States, up from 18 at the year end. It says the US business has considerable expansion potential with an ambition to generate on average $1 million from each of the 50 States per year. The recent contract wins and renewals include two customer wins for 1Spatial’s automated traffic conflation solution – powered by its patented 1Integrate rules engine – with the Departments of Transport for the States of Virginia and Georgia. The contracts will deliver, in aggregate, at least $0.5m in Annual Recurring Revenue. 1Spatial has been awarded a position on a five-year framework agreement with the State of Tennessee in partnership with Rizing, a Wipro company. 1Spatial also reports a two-year contract renewal with an existing customer, the State of Minnesota, delivering $0.25m ARR. This is an expanded deal which represents an increase of around $0.1m in annual contract value. 1Spatial CEO, Claire Milverton, said: “We continue to see considerable opportunity in the US supporting the digital transformation of transport and emergency services departments for which accurate, reliable and up to date location data is vital. “These wins and the renewal demonstrate the quality of our product and underpin our ambition to generate on average $1m from each State per annum. Alongside our newly launched SaaS offerings, the company has a number of growth vectors available to deliver on its ambitions.” Full story – https://lnkd.in/eCc5RuyN

Students from the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge are flying the flag for nautical innovation at the 2024 Monaco Energy Boat Challenge which began today. The Yacht Club de Monaco, led by President HSH Prince Albert II, is hosting the 11th Monaco Energy Boat Challenge, showcasing youth, innovation and the future at YCM Marina. Cambridge University Riviera Racing’s team are sailing towards a more sustainable maritime future. The students have built a hydrogen fuel-cell catamaran racer tipped to reach speeds above 20 knots and use less power than a kettle during the Challenge which runs until July 6. More than 700 students from 40 universities across 25 nations have developed innovative solutions divided into three categories. In the Energy Class, for the first time contestants have been allowed to incorporate foils into their prototypes, like the hydrogen-powered catamaran from Cambridge University Riviera Racing and a three-engine project by Tameo ENSTA Paris and Monaco Marine. The Solar Class features teams such as Clean Energy Ship Uvigo (Spain), known for their trimaran hull with impressive speed potential. The Open Sea Class highlights projects like Deep Silence from Sialia Yachts and hydrogen-powered boats refuelled by Natpower. Tridente, a new electric boat dubbed as efficient as it is elegant and produced in a collaboration with Vita, is also in attendance. YCM General Secretary, Bernard d’Alessandri said: “These young innovators are pushing the boundaries of what is possible in marine propulsion and hull design. By hosting students from all over the world we are fostering international collaboration for a sustainable future.” Supported by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, UBS, BMW Group, and SBM Offshore, the event draws industry giants like Monaco Marine, Oceanco, Ferretti Group and others keen on yachting's transition. This year the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation has launched the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Sustainable Yachting Technology Award, a grant of €25,000 which will be announced on July 6 for the best technological solution in terms of energy efficiency and/or carbon reduction. The winner will be able to present progress on their project at the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge for three years starting in 2025. Full article – https://lnkd.in/eriapB6K Photograph – ©Luca Butto.