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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:
- Autohaem led by Samuel McDermott (Department of Physics)
- BrainChart led by Richard Bethlehem (Department of Psychiatry)
- Cambridge Adaptive Testing led by Jan Stochl (Department of Psychiatry)
- JW Glass led by Junxin Wang (Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy)
- PowerSense led by Borong Hu (Department of Engineering)
- Sparxell led by Benjamin Droguet (Department of Chemistry)
The Grand Finale will be held at Downing College, on Thursday 10 November 2022. 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, Head of Seed Funds at Cambridge Enterprise, Maximilian Ge, President of the Entrepreneurial Postdocs of Cambridge, Edward Inns, Associate at Cambridge Innovation Capital, and Pam Garside, 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 Chris Abell Postdoc Business Plan Competition is sponsored by Cambridge Innovation Capital, ideaSpace, Oxbridge Angels, Start Codon and 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 Innovation Capital
- Third Prize: £5,000 cash sponsored by Oxbridge Angels.
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!