The 2020 shortlist for the coveted #21toWatch Awards includes some of the most daring entrepreneurs and innovations from our region.

Out of hundreds of entries received, 246 qualified candidates made it onto a longlist, which has now been whittled down to a shortlist of 56, featuring a dynamic mix of people, companies and things.

Winners of the awards, run by Burwell-based Cofinitive and supported by the Cambridge Independent, will be unveiled at an event at Arm on March 5.

The shortlist of people includes:

Entrepreneur and Cofinitive founder Faye Holland said: We are really delighted to see an equal number of women to men featuring on the People shortlist this year. In key sectors where female entrepreneurs, founders and leaders are few and far between, this really is most encouraging.

Its also been exciting to see the wide range of industries represented on this years list. Theres been a huge shift from last year with ICT now making up 33 per cent of the shortlist, although there are a number of strong contenders in the biotech and medtech sectors too.

We also have a stronger representation from cleantech and agritech as well as increased diversity around retail, industrial and more people-based solutions. All this is a clear reminder of how amazingly diverse our region is, and the huge opportunity for convergence and agglomeration we can offer these businesses.

The shortlisted companies include:

And some Cambridge companies on the things shortlist include:

The #21toWatch shortlist is independently judged by four leading experts across a range of disciplines.

For 2020, the judges are Isabel Fox, of Luminous Ventures, Tim Robinson, of Tech East, Siddhi Trivedi, of Entrepreneur, and Bruno Cotta, of the Cambridge Judge Business School Entrepreneurship Centre, who will all assess the candidates based on five criteria: innovation, challenge, influence, viability and memorability.

Tim said: What impressed me most is that so many of the shortlist are people and companies addressing major real-world challenges in climate change, ethical AI, security, precision medicine and more.

Arm and HSBC have recently joined the #21toWatch campaign as sponsors in readiness for the awards event. Itll be one to watch in its own right.

The shortlist

People

Companies

Things

Meet the judges

Bruno Cotta is executive director at Cambridge Judge Business Schools Entrepreneurship Centre. He has more than 20 years of leadership and management experience working with public, private and third sector organisations, and has led initiatives to inform and shape world-class university strategic plans, international partnerships and innovation ecosystems, including founding the Enterprise Lab at Imperial College London to support the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs;

Isabel Fox is a mother, wellness coach, biohacker, Peloton enthusiast and horse lover. She also happens to be one of just a handful of female general partners in the UK, at Luminous Ventures, with a $30million fund and a portfolio of groundbreaking founders who are daring to disrupt the status quo;

Tim Robinson is the first chief operating officer of Tech East, the leading voice of the digital tech community in the East of England. He spent 14 years with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in London where he created a product technology division in 2007 and ran the information, data and technology business from 2010-14.In 2014, Tim founded his own marketing strategy consultancy in Suffolk, specialising in the technology sector.

Siddhi Trivedi is a multi-award-winning disruptor in technology with 30 years of business innovation. Her projects have featured in TechCrunch, Disrupt Berlin, Novo Nordisk Innovation Awards and many more. She is continuously searching for pioneeringideas that will change the world and features them on the global TEDx platform as curator and licence holder of TEDxLeicester.

What does it mean to get on the shortlist?

Kay McGuinness, of ANB Sensors, was one of the top 21 in 2019.

She says: Being on the Cofinitive One to Watch Top 21 list in 2019 has been great for us. We were in the process of going through a funding round, and the recognition gave our potential investors greater confidence in us as a company and the products we were developing. As we go commercial this year, the award lends greater initial credibility to our offering as a new player on the market.

But even those on the longlist neednt be disappointed if they dont make it onto the shortlist.

Richard Hobson, Herdsy, appeared on the 2019 longlist.

He says: Just being on the longlist raised our profile beyond our wildest expectations. To be highlighted amongst Cambridges brightest and best put us on the radar of several high-profile customers and investors, and lead to our company being profiled in the Sunday Times, giving us national exposure.

Being on lists doesnt usually make that much difference - but getting on this one will change your company direction forever. It was a game-changer for our small company.

People have actually heard of us now, and customers and investors Google us and rate us among the best globally as a direct result. How many lists can you say that about?

This year, Herdsy has been shortlisted in the #21toWatch Things shortlist.

Read more

#21toWatch in 2020 - nine trailblazers on Cofinitives longlist revealed

Watch the highlights and see the pictures from the Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards 2019

Stemnovate offers unique multi-organ drug screening on reprogrammed human cells

Agile Analog awarded Innovate UK funding towards 1m project

Cambridge technology that locks CO2 into rock will halt climate change

Six-minute lithium battery recharge for phones and cars on way

Alkane data puts Intellegens lubricants in R&D driving seat

OKRA founder calls for open data to drive up cancer care

Riverlane building operating system for quantum computers

Academy Award winning pedigree of AudioTelligence, the Cambridge start-up thats raised 3.1m

Cambridges FlexEnable folds display borders for bezel-less screen

Cambridge firm Sano Genetics bakes ethics into its genomic platform

Go here to read the rest:
#21toWatch shortlist of people, companies and things revealed - Cambridge Independent

Comments are closed.