We are delighted to share the names of this year’s finalists in the Chris Abell 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.

We would like to offer a big thank you to all those who participated.

The projects, lead postdocs, and their affiliations, are:

  • Accelerated Materials led by Nicholas Jose (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology)
  • Cambridge Conduits led by Alex Justin (Department of Engineering)
  • Cambridge Nucleomics led by Kaikai Chen (Department of Physics)
  • DeepForm led by Christopher Cleaver (Department of Engineering)
  • Photoreforming led by Michael Stanton (Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry)
  • William Oak Diagnostics (formerly Vitamin K) led by Alexander Patto (Department of Physics)

The Grand Finale will be held, online, on Thursday 11 November. At the event the six finalists will pitch their business plans to an audience of experts in spin-out investment.

The judges include Christine Martin, Acting Head of Seed Funds at Cambridge Enterprise, Maximilian Ge, President of the Entrepreneurial Postdocs of Cambridge, Chris Tapper, Associate at Cambridge Innovation Capital, and Heather Richards, 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 each team’s collective skill set.

The competition is sponsored by Taylor Vinters.

Up to three prizes will be awarded.

  • First Prize: £20,000 investment sponsored by Cambridge Enterprise
  • 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 part-time membership for up to two people for 12 months.

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!