startup-cambridge.github.io
Startup Cambridge
- A local community to help building new businesses in Cambridge / UK.
- The focus is on the University of Cambridge but we will also list useful links for outside this academic ecosystem.
This overview is available under the domain startup-cambridge.com.
Discord server
Free, open discord server to discuss ideas, problems, tech with fellow local entrepreneurs:
You can get the Discord app for free here
Join the discord server to:
- find team members
- discuss tech problems like designing the right architecture for your problem
- meet up in Cambridge to discuss specific topics
- ask for experience with specific investors, etc.
- …
Table of contents
- Startup Cambridge
- Table of contents
- Useful local links and advice
- University environment / startup ecosystem
- Current local startup competitions
- Useful links and advice by domain
- Local business angels, investors, VCs
- Local Hackathons
- Local startup / entrepreneurship events
- Local resources for makers of physical products
- Local startup news
- Cambridge development groups / initiatives
- Local startups
- Local incubators
- Funding opportunities
- Local companies with special offers for local startups
- Workspaces / Co-working spaces
- Computational resources
- Finding co-founders or additional team members
- Entrepreneur events
- Graduate Entrepreneurs Visa
- Important advice
- Non-local links
- Checklist
- Misc.
- You want to add / change something?
- Maintainers
- License
Cambridge area
The Cambridge ecosystem is also known as “Silicon Fen”, the ‘Cambridge Technopole’, the ‘Cambridge Cluster’, or the ‘Cambridge Phenomenon’. The area is now one of the most important technology centres in Europe.
Technopole report
An overview of the ecosystem is available via the Technopole report (2013) published by the Institute for Manufacturing and the St. John’s Innovation Centre.
Useful local links and advice
University environment / startup ecosystem
The University Enterprise Network provides an overview of all entrepreneurial activities at Cambridge University.
Entrepreneurial student societies
- Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE)
- Largest entrepreneur society at Cambridge University
- Cambridge University Technology and Enterprise Club (CUTEC)
- Annual “Technology Ventures Conference (TVC)” with annually changing domain focus, such as AI or health
- Please note that the previous domain cutec.org is outdated and cutec.io is now being used
- Entrepreneurial Postdocs of Cambridge (EPOC)
- “The business face of the Cambridge research community”
- Cambridge University StartUp Society (CUSUS)
- Younger society, founded in October 2016
Tech-related student societies
These societies are not directly entrepreneurial but focus on specific technologies or tech areas. They may be helpful if you want to connect to people with expertise in these technological domains.
- Hackers at Cambridge (HaC)
- Virtual Reality (VR / AR / MR) society (closed Facebook group)
- Student-Run Computing Facility (SRCF)
- Cambridge-based society to provide useful and flexible computing and network services to students and staff
Other student initiatives
- Innovation Forum
- The Innovation Forum is a student-led initiative that seeks to build bridges between academia, industry and policy makers.
- Hackbridge.io
- Collaborative sessions called “cluster”; in collaboration with HackersAtCambridge (HaC)
- Science Union
- Non-profit organisation
- Support for translating science into real-world solutions
Others
- i-Teams
- i-Teams runs projects in Cambridge during each Cambridge University term.
- BiomakeSpace
- Non-profit organisation
- Open access laboratory on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus
College entrepreneur societies
- Hughes Hall Enterprise Society
- Open to Hughes Hall students but also the wider Cambridge community
- Fitz Enterprise
- Fitzwilliam’s entrepreneur society
University institutions
- Cambridge Enterprise
- Wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Cambridge aimed at the commercialisation of IP
- St. Johns Innovation Centre
- Cambridge Science Park (established by Trinity College)
Regular startup competitions / awards
University of Cambridge
- Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) annual competitions
- £100 for 100 words
- £2k for a basic business plan / pitch
- £10k
- Young Entrepreneur of the Year track with Darrin Disley
- Entrepreneurial Postdocs of Cambridge (EPOC) Business Plan Competition
Anglia Ruskin University
- Anglia Ruskin University competition “The Big Pitch”
- Annual competition exclusively for undergraduate and postgraduate students at Anglia Ruskin University
Organised by colleges
Competitions organised by colleges often require one team member to be member of the college.
- Hughes Hall Enterprise Award
- One team member must be affiliated with Hughes Hall
- Churchill Enterprise Competition
- Restricted to Churchill college members
- King’s College Entrepreneurship Prize
- Annual prize; team leader must be a King’s member; £20,000 top prize
- Downing Enterprise
- Annual business plan competition for all students of Downing College
- Prizes of up to £2000 for one-page business descriptions
- Report from past competition
- Pembroke’s ‘The Parmee Prize for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship’
- Annual prize for the best business idea from the Pembroke community
Accelerator programmes & similar
- Accelerate Cambridge
- Run by the Cambridge Judge Business School
- i-Teams
- i-Teams runs projects in Cambridge during each Cambridge University term.
- ‘Impulse’ programme at the Maxwell Centre
Current local startup competitions
Useful links and advice by domain
General
There is a list of Enterprise champions maintained by Cambridge Enterprise for each department of the university. This includes the departments of Architecture; Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, etc. These Enterprise champions act as a first point of contact for department members who want advice on bringing their ideas and expertise to market.
Machine Learning
Local domain experts who are open to discuss problems with you
Computer Science (programming and IT architecture)
Local domain experts who are open to discuss problems with you
Biotech
- Babraham Research Campus
- “One of the UK’s leading campus’ to support early-stage bioscience enterprise”
- Biomakespace
Local domain experts who are open to discuss problems with you
Mathematics
Local domain experts who are open to discuss problems with you
Legal
Local domain experts who are open to discuss problems with you
Local business angels, investors, VCs
Business angel groups
- Cambridge Angels (60+ individual investors)
- Chaired since 2016 by Peter Cowley
- Cambridge Capital Group
- Business angel network comprised of private investors, family offices, and venture funds
Individual business angels / investors
- Peter Cowley
- Darrin Disley
- Jonathan Hay
- Cambridge-based Partner at Delin Capital, London
- Herman Hauser
- Matt Bellamy
- Robert Sansom
- David Cleevely
- James Sore
- David Gammon
- Neil Davidson
- Jon Bradford
- Pilgrim Beart
- Chris Torrance
- Tim Parsonson
- Hamish Anderson
- Alex Sutherland
- Alan Moore
- Alex van Someren
- Max Bautin
- Kerry Baldwin
- David Grainger
- Victor Christou
- Ed Stacey
- Robert Wardrop
- William H. Janeway
- Pete Menell
- Goncalo de Vasconcelos
- Robert Tansley
- Allister Frost
- Daniel Cowell
VCs / Investing organisations
- Based in Cambridge (headquarters or offices or local contact person)
- Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC)
- CIC has raised £125 million from investors to date
- ET Capital
- Managing director of ET Capital Limited: Martin Rigby
- Cambridge Venture Partners Ltd.
- Cambridge Enterprise (Cambridge University)
- Cambridge Capital Group (Business angel network)
- Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC)
- Active in Cambridge (have invested in Cambridge startups or are interested in investing in Cambridge startups)
- Talis Capital
- Contact person: Kirill Tashilov (kirill AT taliscapital.com)
- SyndicateRoom
- IQ Capital Partners LLP
- GEIF Ventures
- The Cambridge Gateway Fund
- Springboard
- Acacia Capital Partners
- ARM
- Chord Capital
- Invoke Capital Partners
- ETCapital
- NW Brown Ventures
- Rockspring
- Martlet
- CREATE Partners
- Fund Twenty8
- ProQuest
- Qi3 Ventures
- University of Cambridge Endowment Fund
- Horizon Discovery
- Red Gate Software
- CSR
- Oxford & Cambridge Ventures
- Aitua Ltd
- Accelerate Cambridge
- Cantab Capital Partners
- FUSION Biomed
- Talis Capital
Local Hackathons
Local startup / entrepreneurship events
Local resources for makers of physical products
If you work on physical products, these are some of the resources available in Cambridge:
- Makespace
- Equipment includes 3D printers and CNC mills
- 3D printing facilities
- Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) 3D Printing Lab (for MET students only)
- Cambridge University 3D printing club (appears to be dead)
- 3D printing at the Dyson Centre
- Makespace
Local startup news
Cambridge development groups / initiatives
- Cambridge Ahead
- “Cambridge Ahead is a business and academic member group dedicated to the successful growth of Cambridge and its region in the long term.”
- Cambridge Network
Local startups
Cambridge startup map
Cambridge unicorns
Unicorns are companies that reached a 1 billion dollar valuation. So far, there have been 15 companies that achieved this milestone:
- ARM
- Darktrace
- “The world leader in Enterprise Immune System technology for cyber security.”
- Improbable
- Founded by Cambridge alumni Herman Narula (Girton 2007) and Rob Whitehead (Robinson 2009)
- Wired article from May 2017
Cambridge next unicorn candidates & rising stars & famous startups
- Established
- Cambridge Epigenetix
- Biomedicine (epigenetics)
- Horizon Discovery
- RaspberryPi
- Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK-based charity
- Wikipedia profile
- Cambridge Epigenetix
- Five AI
- Self-driving cars
- Prowler.io
- Geospock
Current Cambridge startups
- Reinforce.io with their product Tensorforce
- “Deep reinforcement learning for the real world.”
- Heterogeneous
- Genetics / “Heterogeneous connects individuals directly to researchers.”
- Fetch.ai
- Blockchain
Sold startups
- SwiftKey (sold to Microsoft
- Founded by three Cambridge graduates
- Founded in 2008
- Acquired by Microsoft for a reported $250m in 2016.
Deadpool (name and short description)
- …
Local incubators
- Eagle Labs (by Barclays)
- ideaSpace
- Co-working space in 3 offices in Cambridge (part-time fee: £80 excl. VAT; full-time fee: £250 excl. VAT)
- …
Funding opportunities
Local
UK-wide
International
Crowdfunding
- Kickstarter
Local companies with special offers for local startups
These offers may be discounts, deferred payments, or variable payments linked to your success.
Workspaces / Co-working spaces
- CambridgeSpace
- Based at Cambridge University Rugby Club on Grange road
- Hub for collaborative co-working
- Cambridge Business Lounge
- Eagle Labs Incubator by Barclays
- The Bradfield Centre
- Future Business Centre
- ideaSpace
- Cambridge Deskspace
Out of the ordinary
- CamJelly
- Co-working Meetups
- Cambridge’s CoWorking Community
## Computational resources The recent trend of Machine Learning affecting all areas of science and business increased the demand for computational resources.
For academics
The High Performance Computing cluster provides free resources for students. The resources do not have to be used for your direct academic purposes but they are allocated on a “per PI” basis. The PI has no monetary cost but each PI’s budget is limited to 8000 GPU hours per quarter.
Generally available options (focus on Machine Learning)
- Amazon Web services (AWS)
- Paperspace
Finding co-founders or additional team members
- Check out our Discord server
Entrepreneur events
Graduate Entrepreneurs Visa
The University of Cambridge is an endorsing institution under the Home Office’s Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) route. An overview maintained by the university is available here.
Important advice
Set up a contract between all founders / stakeholders
- Do not arrange profit share agreements. This is a red flag for investors you might want to get on board in the future.
- Arrange equity shares, ideally vetted (so that additional shares are only issued if stakeholders continue to contribute)
SEIS and EIS scheme
- EIS scheme (UK gov)
- The EIS scheme makes investing in your startup very attractive to investors. It can change the whole equation.
- Furthermore, you can get tax benefits for your own R&D, such as an employed software developer.
EU law
Data privacy
- Cookie rules
- Data privacy
- Newsletter opt-in
VAT rules
- Verification of country using a 2 out of 3 rule
MOSS VAT
If you sell product or services to customers, you generally have to collect VAT and then somehow transfer that money to the country where the customer is based. Now, that is impractical if you sell digitally and your customers can be anywhere in the world. To automate that process, MOSS has been developed, the VAT Mini One Stop Shop (MOSS).
Non-local links
London
- Entrepreneur First (EF)
- London-based company builder and startup accelerator
- You can join them without having an idea yet
- EF helps you to find a co-founder, develop an idea, and find investors
- Business Growth Programme
UK-wide
Competitions
- …
Checklist
Thinking of a name
Finding a domain name
Checking existing trademarks
- Do not ignore this step and do not start trading or spending money before you have checked your name against trademark registers.
- You can do the checks yourself for free:
- Even just similar names can be problematic if customers can confuse brands.
Misc.
Entrepreneurship podcasts
Useful links for entrepreneurs
You want to add / change something?
If you are tech-savvy:
- Just clone the repository
- Make your changes in the spirit of this document
- Then send a pull request
If you are medium tech-savvy:
- Click here to get to the repository
- Click on the index.md
- Click on the little edit icon (pencil) in the top right
- Make your changes and commit them with a little change log message
If you are lost but want to change or suggest something:
- Send an email to pw351 @ cam (typical Cambridge university email), or - even better
- File an issue by clicking on this link
Markdown
The current overview is written in Markdown, the standard markup language for GitHub. This document may later be converted into an HTML document.
Maintainers
Responsible editor
The overview is maintained by Pascal Wichmann (pw351) and Marc Felske with contributions from many others.
Contributors
- …
License
- The license for this content is a Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Please use attribution with link to this page (startup-cambridge.github.io).
- Header image is not part of the CC license but (c) Pascal Wichmann