#21toWatch 2025 shortlist revealed, featuring inspirational entrepreneurs and game-changing innovations from Cambridge and the East
The 2025 shortlist for next month’s coveted #21toWatch Awards has been announced, spotlighting inspirational entrepreneurs and game-changing innovations from Cambridge and across the East.
From low-carbon hydrogen solutions to zero-emissions cement, halting the progression of Parkinson's disease to intercepting cancer tumours before they form, and harnessing the regenerative capabilities of human stem cells to reprogramming immune cells as living drugs, this year’s eclectic shortlist offers a peak into a future that is net zero, and where medical treatments are personalised, non-invasive and impactful.
People
The final seven Top21.2025 People will be selected from the following 11 remarkable individuals:
Dr Anna-Maria Kypraiou - founder of Eyesea Green Ltd, Dr Kypraiou is at the forefront of developing technologies aimed at reducing carbon emissions while enhancing living standards.
Arkoprovo Paul (Arko) - a stem cell/neuroscientist and co-founder of biotech company Oltera, which is focused on reprogramming immune cells as living drugs.
Austin Reed – founder and CEO of IntercepTx, which is working to revolutionise cancer treatment by developing tools to enable cancer prevention therapies, intercepting tumours before they form.
Dr Ethan Waisberg - academic foundation programme doctor at the University of Cambridge, and member of NASA’s Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Working Group. His lifelong goal is to improve quality of life through vision research and clinical ophthalmology. His research has led to significant developments in the understanding of Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS), a condition that affects nearly 75 per cent of astronauts.
Georgina Leadley – winner of the 2024 Female Founder's Prize, Georgina is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, researching non-invasive brain imaging for newborns using NIRS and DOT. Her start-up, SLICE, aims to use ultrasound technology to create pioneering ice-crushing tools for transplant surgeons.
Jiayin Hong – a research associate at University of Cambridge, specialising in precision epigenetics to provide efficient cellular reprogramming solutions, offering customised cells for research, therapeutic and regenerative medicine.
Jonathan Fisher - shortlisted for the 2024 James Dyson Award for his wearable biomedical device, Peter, initially designed to help his father and millions of others with Parkinson's disease regain their mobility and walk confidently again.
Lucy Jung – medtech entrepreneur on a mission to help others less fortunate. Co-founder of Charco Neurotech (with its non-invasive wearable device to improve the lives of those with Parkinson’s) and Lyeons Neurotech, which is developing non-invasive solutions to support people with anxiety, depression and sleep disorders caused by neurological conditions.
Luke Cullen – founder of Just Decarbonise, a platform for automating carbon emissions estimates in supply chains.
Ping Lin Yeap – a medical physicist, whose research work has the potential to revolutionise adaptive radiotherapy workflows in clinical settings and contribute to the advancement of personalised cancer treatment and precision medicine.
Raifa Al Maamari - whose research work focuses on the policies and economics of implementing low-carbon hydrogen energy in the GCC countries in the Middle East.
Companies
Meanwhile, the 12 outstanding companies in the running for the seven Top21.2025 Company places are:
Alceus Bio - pioneering the first class of multimodal CAR T therapies, targeting solid cancers in multiple ways to prevent cancer resistance and improve therapeutic outcomes.
Bioscopic - a groundbreaking biotech start-up that is tapping into an unexpected source of medical innovation: beneficial bacteria found in infants. These tiny microbes play a crucial role in developing a healthy immune system and fighting diseases from the earliest stages of life.
BioTryp Therapeutics - it is developing novel anti-biofilm therapies to revolutionise how we treat infections, starting with urinary tract infections.
Cellestial Health - a pharmacological discovery company protecting the neglected half of the brain composed of astrocytes - to stop the progression of Parkinson's disease from the time of diagnosis.
Clock.bio - it aims to extend and improve quality of life by reversing the harmful effects of time in our cells, harnessing the regenerative capabilities of human pluripotent stem cells.
Evoralis - pioneers enzyme technology to break down textiles and plastics into reusable building blocks, transforming polyester, nylon and even tough, blended fibres, accelerating a truly circular economy.
Infiniti Recycling Ltd - is building the world's first carbon-negative closed-loop battery recycling system, creating low-impact active materials for new batteries from waste streams
Nanomation - patented technology makes it possible for the semiconductor industry to manufacture with nanomaterials for the first time, paving the way for faster, more powerful, and more efficient chips.
Nanoprint Innovations - specialises in advanced thin-film deposition technology. It provides high-speed, vacuum-free deposition systems for industrial and research use, enhancing solar cell efficiency and enabling scalable, cost-effective solar and electronics production.
Outsee - a deeptech bio company exploiting an innovative computational approach to genomics for drug target discovery and precision medicine. It extracts great value from genomics datasets.
TRIMTECH Therapeutics - its unique technology targets and degrades aggregated proteins, without affecting non-aggregated forms, offering a solution that is both potent and offers outstanding safety in the treatment of Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.
Trismik – is focused on solving a key challenge: to efficiently and effectively test Large Language Models (LLMs) to ensure they behave as expected, accurately, without hallucination, and aligned with societal values.
Lastly, the seven Top21.2025 ‘Things’ will be selected from the following 11 game-changing innovations:
AllFocal Optics - this pioneering technology delivers adaptive focus and unparalleled visual experiences, combating the nausea and dizziness associated with VR and AR, making digital images accessible to everyone, including those with vision impairments.
HEAVENS - Ethicronics' flagship software solution provides fabless companies enhanced protection against compromised and counterfeit hardware. The software delivers 100 per cent assurance of the integrity and authenticity of circuitry, from the full product all the way down to nanometer scale
iBoxit - offers sustainable and carbon-negative packaging and logistical solutions, made entirely from natural and waste materials
Journey Lens - more than just smart glasses, Journey Lens is a fitness tracker for your focus - using biosensors to monitor your attention and help you stay in control.
Lamda Agri - it has developed a low-cost, highly scalable spray coating for greenhouse panels that runs on natural sunlight. It converts unused ultraviolet light to red light, increasing food production by 20 per cent and displacing 1.3mt CO2e by 2050.
Prospectral - offering a new approach to spectral imaging, it is building a technology to empower companies with dramatically lower-cost, more compact, and less complex cameras for gathering the data required to detect and analyse materials.
Reclinker (previously known as Cambridge Electric Cement) - the world's first zero-emissions cement has been invented in Cambridge. The new cement is made in a virtuous recycling loop that eliminates the emissions of cement production, saves raw materials and reduces the emissions needed to make lime-flux.
Supersense Technologies - an at-home monitoring service that protects the privacy and independence for people with dementia while making caring easier for families.
Synthetizor - a simulation and synthetic data engine that builds better defences against financial crime by translating financial crime intelligence into data resources.
VyperCore - its technology significantly accelerates existing high-performance compute-intensive workloads by a factor of up to five times, while blocking out the highest risk technical cyber-attack vectors at gate-level within the processor - and all without having to change a line of the original code.
Wave Photonics - is breaking into the quantum economy with deeptech chips based on a fibre-optic design. A client-friendly reusable turnkey solution, it has a raft of applications.
The judges
Each of the names on the shortlist will be assessed by an independent judging panel who, for 2025, are:
Chris Ellis, scaleup director at Innovate UK Business Growth. Chris supports founders and leaderships teams with a sector-agnostic remit to drive growth and scale through ‘innovation exploitation’.
Christine Martin, head of ventures at Cambridge Enterprise and a respected scientist.
Jo Slota-Newson, managing partner at Almanac Ventures – an early-stage deeptech venture capital investor with a focus on decarbonisation.
Tom Hughes, an experienced early stage investor and advisor, and mentor at Trinity College Cambridge.
Each of the shortlisted candidates will be judged against five strict criteria: innovation, the ability to address a real challenge, influence, viability and memorability.
Chris Ellis said: “Having worked in Cambridge for over 30 years, I have been privileged to share the journeys of many innovators, entrepreneurs, disruptors, and risk takers. I think that’s why I have never left the region.
“This year’s #21toWatch candidates are proof, if needed, that the well is far from dry. It’s a thrill to be judging the 2025 submissions, and I wish all the people, companies and ‘things’ the best of luck in their respective sectors. I will be watching with vested interest.”
Tom Hughes added: “This year’s entries prove that the chillier climate for start-ups hasn’t stymied the flow of promising ideas and businesses. The variety and depth of the finalists showcases the intellectual capability of Cambridge and the East of England which makes it attractive despite any dip in sentiment.”
#21toWatch is organised each year by award-winning technology PR and communications agency, cofinitive - a Cambridge Management Consulting (Cambridge MC) company - and supported by the Cambridge Independent.
Faye Holland, creator of #21toWatch and managing partner at Cambridge MC, said: “Two of our Top21 from several years ago also featured last month in The Times and Sunday Times: 'Ones to Watch' in the ‘100 fastest-growing tech companies in Britain’ list - which shows that we know what we are doing and are always ahead of the game providing an independent platform to showcase the next round of start-ups. The people, companies and innovations on this list are the future, and the future is looking very bright.”
The Top21.2025 will be announced at an exclusive ceremony on Thursday, 6 March 2025 at The Glasshouse in Cambridge. To stay informed, follow #21toWatch on all social media platforms, and at cofinitive.com/21toWatch.