Postdoc Venture Creation Challenge 2025 winners revealed
IE CambridgeAt an exciting Grand Finale event, four standout postdoc-led ventures were crowned winners of a competition whose alumni have already raised over £172m.
Ötzi, pitched by Omer Nivron, has won first place in this year’s hotly contested Postdoc Venture Creation Challenge and goes home with a £20,000 prize awarded by Cambridge Enterprise Ventures.
Ötzi are a unique venture that have built the first physics-informed AI for predicting climate catastrophes. They were selected by the judges for creating a model that is more accurate, cheaper to produce and quicker to run than anything else on the market. They were also able to demonstrate that the insurance market they are targeting are in desperate need of a product like this that will save them money, bring down premiums and help countries most impacted by climate change to have more accurate modelling.
Omer is a postdoc in the University of Cambridge Department of Computer Science.
Second place went to Dielectrix, pitched by Maheera Abdul Ghani, who was awarded the £10,000 prize by Cambridge Innovation Capital. Dielectrix, selected by the judges for its IP protected technology and high market potential, is building the future of semiconductor hardware through smaller, more energy efficient and rapid transistors. Maheera is a postdoc in the department of Materials Science and Metallurgy.
The social venture track was won by GreenMixes, pitched by Dushanth Seevaratnam, who also secured a £20,000 investment prize from Cambridge Enterprise Ventures.
GreenMixes are on a mission to build a carbon-negative future. They are developing a new biomass waste-derived additive to sequester carbon in the atmosphere to reduce environmental damage. Dushanth is a postdoc in the Institute of Manufacturing.
There was also an audience winner prize that went to Nina Rzechorzek, representing SomNyx who impressed the 100 plus audience with her dynamic pitch. SomNyx are a venture creating next-generation diagnostic equipment for sleep conditions, with potential for both clinical and at-home applications.
“The finalists did an amazing job of pitching and made our job as judges very hard. They were all so good! They really represent what the University of Cambridge excels at: cutting-edge, transformative research with the potential to improve lives.”
Dr Christine Martin continued:
“The Grand Finale was an exciting celebration of that, and I think everyone was inspired by seeing these postdocs step out of the lab and onto the stage, sharing ventures that could shape the future.”
The Postdoc Venture Creation Challenge (PVCC) is the University of Cambridge’s flagship competition designed to help postdocs take their first steps in transforming research into real-world ventures. Welcoming innovative ideas across deep tech, life sciences, AI, software, and social impact, the PVCC has a track record of producing some of Cambridge’s most exciting startups. Previous winners have gone on to raise over £172m in investment, with alumni including Xampla, Nu Quantum, 52 North and Sparxell.
The Postdoc Venture Creation Challenge is delivered by IE Cambridge in partnership with Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Founders at the University of Cambridge and the Postdoc Academy.
The Challenge is generously sponsored by Mischon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking and BDO.
Image credits: Elodie Giuge Photography
