Investing in Impact
Thursday 30th March 2023, Robinson College, 1.00pm-5.00pm
Welcome to Investing in Impact and our first Investor Showcase dedicated to Social and Impact ventures.
We are delighted that you have been able to join us at Robinson College for this special showcase of Social and Impact Ventures emerging from the world-leading research of Cambridge’s academic entrepreneurs.
These companies represent a growing pipeline of dynamic early investment opportunities with their focus on delivering results in sustainable global development, tech for good, and the creative and cultural industries.
Today, you’ll hear seven exciting pitches from our portfolio companies who are all in various stages of their journeys and looking for investment.
We hope you’ll stay with us for a drink afterwards to continue the conversations and networking.
Programme
13:00 – Registration & Lunch
14:00 – Welcome
Dr Emma Salgård Cunha
Commercialisation Manager (AHSS)
Emma is responsible for the development of Cambridge Enterprise’s Technology Transfer services for the University’s social science, arts and humanities research base.
A literary historian by training, Emma came to Cambridge Enterprise from a background in research and public engagement, via stints in the museum sector, and work with the edtech social enterprise Causeway Education.
Emma works with innovators targeting a wide range of high-impact sectors, from creative industries to sustainability; AI to fintech; education to global development. Emma also leads on delivery of the University of Cambridge’s response to the UKRI-funded CRoSS (Commercialisation of Research out of Social Science) national workstream.
14:05 – Showcase Pitches, Session 1
Obliquity Group
Delivering simplified, relevant content through gamified software that makes learning and upskilling easy, fun and efficient.
Obliquity Group span out of research at The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Our focus area in employee upskilling and engagement in Corporate Sustainability initiatives and actions and our principle product is Stickerbook, enterprise software that simplifies and gamifies upskilling.
Funding Opportunity
The pre-seed round of £100k sought is to execute development of the software so we can take on more customers, more efficiently.
For full details:
Planarific
Empowering people with the architectural design vision to create better spaces and more sustainable homes.
Planarific is building the world’s first generative search engine, making architectural design quicker, more accessible and affordable.
Planarific is a pre-seed company established in late 2022 by Ran Xiao, a Cambridge PhD, and advised by fellow Cambridge graduate Benjamin Tennant, an MBA from Judge Business School. Ran is a UK-registered architect and developed the technology that underpins Planarific during his PhD. This technology solves long-standing productivity problems in architectural design that constraints the sustainable retrofit of the aging building stock.
Funding Opportunity
Planarific is now seeking seed funding of £1.44m to develop and roll out its platform to homeowners in the UK.
Full Details:
Snicket
Putting the world’s culture, art, and heritage at the world’s fingertips.
Snicket is a revolutionary engagement platform for the arts. It takes the user experience of discovery, journey, and recommendation from eCommerce and mobilises it for the cultural sector. Snicket empowers museums, galleries, universities and creatives to unleash virtually their story-telling genius and raise revenue.
For visitors Snicket creates bespoke experiences enabling users to follow a curated route, or be led by their own interests, and wormhole through world’s great art and culture.
Funding Opportunity
Snicket are currently raising £50k in a Pre-seed round.
Full details:
Planetary Processing
Changing the gaming industry by empowering all game developers to create massively
multiplayer online games.
We provide a service to small and medium game studios. We recognise the effort and cost
required to launch, scale and operate online games. We offer a platform that makes creating
and running large online games simple. Our product lets game developers focus on their game, while we handle the infrastructure.
Funding Opportunity
Planetary Processing are currently raising £2.4m over 2 years to develop software and engage with indie developers.
Full Details:
14:45 – Coffee Break
15:15 – Showcase Pitches, Session 2
Cambridge Adaptive Testing
Measuring the mind, efficiently.
Addressing the global concerns about worsening mental health and the mounting costs to society and to organisations, Cambridge Adaptive Testing (CAT) creates precise, standardized, ultra-rapid and easily managed assessments of mental distress. This supports screening for mental health difficulties, the effective allocation of mental health resources and the evaluation of change.
The elegant use of computerised adaptive technology allows bespoke products for young people and for adults, and can be used as a measurement ‘chip’ for use in other mental health applications.
Funding Opportunity
Cambridge Adaptive Testing are currently raising a Pre-seed funding round of £320k.
Full Details:
Where You At
Harnessing the technology of the future to allow you to connect in the present.
Where You At solves the problem of people losing friends inside busy venues, helping to alleviate the anxiety and stress that is currently endemic to nightlife. Combining social and safety functionalities, Where You At allows users to see their friends’ precise indoor positions mapped out on a floor map and message them offline without signal. The solution for safety in venues has four key components, delineated in full here:.
- Micro-location and indoor location: Upon reaching the venue, users can see a floor plan of the venue and their friends’ locations in real time. This was designed to ensure that locations are very precise in comparison to generic friend-finding apps which only work outdoors. This means you can know whether friends are on a different floor, by the bar, on the dance floor or even heading home.
- Offline capabilities: The app can work offline using Bluetooth mesh networks. This aspect was created to ensure that even when there is no signal in the venue users can use all the core functionalities of the app.
- PING: If a user feels unsafe they press an SOS button. This sends an alert to their circle (through an alert sound/vibration of their choosing) and highlights their location for others to find.
Time and place-stamped SOS data can be used to report incidents with information the next day, encouraging venues to improve safety in places where SOS reports are repeatedly being called.
Funding Opportunity
Where You At are currently raising a Seed round of £1.5m-£2m.
Full Details:
Kalamna
Providing a high-quality Arabic language curriculum and resources using a research and evidence base.
Headquartered in Cambridge and with branches across the UK, Kalamna has been running community classes to understand first-hand and test its solutions to the challenges of Arabic language learning for heritage speakers. Born out of a genuine need for the diaspora community, its efforts has shone a light on the larger challenges that plague the field across the Arab World.
Funding Opportunity
Kalamna are seeking £1.5m in Seed funding.
Full Details:
CAUSE
Empowering users in the struggle for digital rights, security and confidence on the Web.
CAUSE has developed a new way to do targeted advertising on the Internet. Big Tech platforms are suffering a loss of trust: currently, users of these platforms have no real knowledge of how their data is collected and where it ends up. CAUSE gives users agency over their data: affording Internet users genuine privacy and ownership of their targeting data.
We’re validating this technology in a niche initial market implementation – the CAUSE Network – to develop a userbase of early adopters and motivate the follow-on funding needed for a Web-wide release strategy.
Funding Opportunity
CAUSE are looking to raise £230k in Seed round funding.
Full Details:
