From Cambridge labs to New York stage: Showcasing companies at Columbia Pitch Day

Jointly hosted by Columbia Technology Ventures, Cambridge Enterprise and Oxford University Innovation, with an audience of over 100 heard companies pitch their groundbreaking innovations.

And what a day it was. With two parallel sessions broadly split into life sciences and tech, a total of 31 companies pitched and networked with investors, fellow founders and entrepreneurs in the fantastic setting of the New York Times building.

It was a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase to US investors, the groundbreaking companies created from research at Cambridge, build relationships and attract US investment into UK companies.

Our presenting companies illustrated the strength of Cambridge innovation beautifully. The companies and their presenting founders demonstrated not only the breadth of Cambridge spinouts and startups but the rich and supportive ecosystem that surrounds them.

Here at Cambridge we are backing our own companies. Cambridge Enterprise supports entrepreneurship activities to enable and accelerate the transformation of research into impact at every stage, from idea to translation to investment and beyond to a positive impact on society.

Cambridge Enterprise Ventures is the direct investment arm of the University of Cambridge, backing startups and spinouts with strong founder ties or breakthrough technologies connected to the University.

Since 1995, we have helped launch more than 210 companies. Our evergreen fund recycles returns back into the ecosystem, ensuring that today’s successes fuel the category-defining companies of tomorrow. As of July 2025, we have invested £55m across high-growth sub-sector, with £50m realised from 66 exits, £3.5bn catalysed in follow-on capital for our portfolio and a 3.03x realised multiple on investments.

Founders at the University of Cambridge runs a growing portfolio of venture creation and venture building programmes designed to form and accelerate exceptional founders and their companies. Among them is START, whose alumni include four of the companies pitching at the Columbia showcase. Of the 19 startups that have completed the START programme to date, 12 have collectively secured over £14 million in further funding. Meanwhile, the most recent SYNC co-founder matching accelerator programme cohort saw four new companies incorporated, three of which have already secured funding.

We are not just building companies. In Cambridge we are building the next generation of global innovation leaders to solve challenges the world is facing.

We don’t do it alone. In addition to the vast expertise and experience of our team, we work with a network of experts, mentors, co-investors, professionals and advisors. Founders at the University of Cambridge has its own dedicated supporting community of over 300 members from 16 countries.

We work in partnership with others across Cambridge, the UK and beyond to support and accelerate university innovation. We help companies emerging from Cambridge research to build and grow, and we are not just building companies, we are building the next generation of global innovation leaders.

We are bringing global investors into Cambridge and the UK.

Thank you to Columbia Technology Ventures, our generous hosts Goodwin Proctor, Oxford University Innovation and our participating portfolio companies:

To find out more about the eight participating Cambridge companies, please visit here.