We are delighted to announce the finalists of the 2019 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:

 

  • Chris Proctor with project Cambridge Bioelectronics (Department of Engineering)
  • Simon Baker with project Versed AI (Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics)
  • Marta Serrani with project Polivalve (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology)
  • Leonard Ng with project Inkling (Department of Engineering)
  • Geoff Macintyre with project Pinpoint Oncology (Cancer Research UK – Cambridge Institute)
  • Freya Jephcott with project Univursa (Department of Veterinary Medicine).

The Grand Finale will be held on Thursday 31 October 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, Ashutosh Trehan, President of the Entrepreneurial Postdocs of Cambridge, a member of Cambridge Innovation Capital and Iris Good, 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 competition is sponsored by Taylor Vinters and Hardcastle Burton.

Up to three prizes in total 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!