Cambridge is ranked as No 1 in Europe for unicorns per capital – with 29 unicorns of the UK’s 97 billion dollar companies born in the city.
With Cambridge Tech Week in full swing, we highlight 10 Cambridge businesses all vying to be the next big thing.
1. Kodiaq Technologies
Kodiaq Technologies is a spinout from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Chemistry Melville Laboratories and has patented technology in the field of long-duration energy storage.
The company believes its technology will enhance the performance of flow batteries while significantly reducing the investment cost per unit of storage.
David Fyfe, the former CEO who led Cambridge Display Technology from university spinout to a NASDAQ-listed company and an eventual $285m trade sale, came out of retirement to found Kodiaq.
2. Memorify
Memorify is an award-winning, Innovate UK-backed technology platform on a mission to organise the world’s memories.
It was founded by Charlotte Ridley to capture digital memories following the death of her father.
Charlotte Ridley, founder & CEO of Memorify Technologies
Earlier this year, the startup raised more than £420,000 in pre-seed funding from private investors.
3. Forefront RF
Founded in 2020, Forefront RF is a fabless semiconductor company pioneering a new approach to global wireless connectivity.
Built on award-winning academic research, the company has developed Foretune, which it describes as the world’s first commercially viable tunable duplexer technology.
Its technology, rooted in pioneering research by founder Dr Leo Laughlin, enables mobile device manufacturers to overcome printed circuit board (PCB) size limitations while supporting more frequency bands with simplified, cost-effective designs.
In 2024, the company closed a £16m Series A funding round. Serial entrepreneur Rupert Baines is the chair.
4. Polytecks
Polytecks is a Cambridge-based bioelectronics startup developing non-invasive bioelectrical mapping technologies for healthcare and diagnostics.
The award-winning company was founded by CEO Dr Ruben Ruiz-Mateos Serrano, who completed his PhD in bioelectronics at the University of Cambridge.
5. LYEONS
Lucy Jung was diagnosed with a brain tumour at the age of 24 and underwent brain surgery.
“Overnight, I became a patient, and this experience deeply shaped my future,” she explains.
Lucy Jung launched LYEONS to support individuals experiencing anxiety, low mood, and sleep difficulties related to neurological conditions
In 2019, Jung co-founded Charco Neurotech, a MedTech startup developing novel solutions to improve movement and quality of life for people with Parkinson’s disease.
The company secured more than £14m through grants, angel and institutional investment while successfully taking its medical device from research to market.
Driven by a desire to find solutions for other long-term conditions, she recently launched LYEONS, a research project focused on developing innovative solutions to support people with anxiety, depression and sleep disorders caused by neurological conditions.
6. Heartfelt Technologies
Heartfelt Technologies is developing an automatic, AI-supported, non-contact telemonitoring solution for heart failure patients.
Its technology is designed to help patients, their families, carers and doctors reduce hospital readmission rates caused by heart failure decompensation.
7. ExpressionEdits
ExpressionEdits seeks to enable the development of new proteins using artificial intelligence and intronisation technology.
The company was founded in 2021 by Dr Kärt Tomberg, Professor Allan Bradley and Dr Liliana Antunes, based on research from the University of Cambridge.
The Cambridge spinout raised £10.2m in 2024 ‘to revolutionise gene design’.
8. Lambda Agri
Lambda Agri is on a mission to tackle the global food crisis through innovative agri-tech solutions.
The company produces a coating for greenhouses that converts unused sunlight into light that can be used for photosynthesis, which it believes can increase crop yields by 20 per cent.
Monica Saavedra is the CEO & founder of Lambda Agri
Monica Saavedra is the founder and CEO of Lambda Agri.
9. Cellestial Health
Cellestial Health is a pharmaceutical spinout from the University of Cambridge developing small-molecule drugs that protect an overlooked half of the brain – networks of brain cells called astrocytes – with the aim of stopping the progression of Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions.
The company was founded by Dr Nataly Hastings and has secured pre-seed funding from Zinc VC.
10. LinkGevity
Based at the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge, LinkGevity is a drug discovery company founded on research in longevity science.
Its goal is to change the paradigm of ageing and pave the way for people to live healthier lives for longer.
Dr Carina Kern is the founder and CEO of LinkGevity.