2018 Postdoc Business Plan Competition finalists announced

We are delighted to announce the finalists of our 2018 Postdoc Business Plan Competition.

It has been another year of high calibre submissions. As a result, the judges elected to send six business plans through to the final round. The postdoctoral researchers, and their affiliations, are:

Marc Rodriguez Garcia with project PlantCaps (Department of Chemistry)

Carmen Palacios Berraquero with project nu quantum (Department of Physics)

Tian Carey with project Textile 2 Dimensional (Department of Engineering)

Tongtong Zhu with project Poro Tech (Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy)

Jeroen Verheyen with project Semarion Discovery (Department of Clinical Neuroscience)

Saif Ahmad with project NeutroCheck (Department of Oncology)

The Grand Finale will be held on Thursday 1 November when the finalists will pitch their business ideas in front of an audience of experts in spin-out investment.

The judges include Anne Dobrée, Head of Seed Funds at Cambridge Enterprise, Srishti Gupta, President of the Entrepreneurial Postdocs of Cambridge, Mike Anstey, Investment Director at Cambridge Innovation Capital and Charles Cotton, Member of the Cambridge Enterprise Investment Committee.

The finalists’ pitches will be judged on a number of criteria, including each business’s competitive position, the potential for new business creation and the teams’ collective skill set.

The event is sponsored by private investment firm, Holben Holt.

Up to three prizes in total will be awarded.

• First Prize: £20,000 investment sponsored by Cambridge Enterprise, and a pitching slot at a Cambridge Enterprise Venture Partners Dinner
• Second Prize: £10,000 investment sponsored by Cambridge Enterprise
• Third Prize: £5,000 cash sponsored by Cambridge Innovation Capital.

With special thanks to ideaSpace for providing all six finalists with membership, including tailored support and office space, for one year.

If you entered but didn’t make it through to the finals, we hope you have learned from your mentors and that the process has helped you in moving your business idea forward.

Congratulations to all the finalists. We’ll see you at the grand finale. Good luck!

Image: idea concept with light bulbs on a orange background