Initial shortlist unveiled for Business Weekly Awards

The addition of two particular categories has helped produce a brilliant initial shortlist for the Business Weekly Awards. The DeepTech/AI and Quoted Company of the Year categories have injected an extra pizzazz to the process.

The former is especially important to the process. Not only are AI and DeepTech generally a particular strongpoint for Cambridge on the global stage but also many of our front runners here are young but exceptionally well funded startups.

As such they have a long runway for sustainable growth. Investors in at the outset are likely to enjoy a comfortably prolonged and fruitful ride.

Our quoted category reflects a renewed appetite for IPO in the UK, Europe and US. Companies are raising larger amounts of growth capital as listed businesses and we are seeing this across hi-tech, the life sciences and general industry.

Companies have entered different categories based on what they consider to be their strengths but closer examination almost unfailingly identifies that they have a strong case in other segments of the awards.

For example, entrants to the Life Science Innovation category are usually succeeding to differing degrees on an international stage; they will often deploy qualities endemic in other sectors that are being honoured – for example bleeding edge engineering or exceptionally disruptive technology.

For this reason judges will usually take a wider view of a business and its capabilities. Several candidates are being considered for multiple accolades.

This holistic approach ensures that the Business Weekly Awards honour the very best companies based on judges’ years of experience in investing in startups and achieving successful exits.

The initial shortlist holds up a mirror to the current power of the cluster, for example in freshly recognised strong suits such as synthetic biology, animal healthcare, CleanTech – and, notably, quantum computing.

As ever, there is also a core cohort of companies based on brilliant engineering spanning areas as diverse as aviation and space exploration.
Top law firm Mills & Reeve, which is lead forensic sponsor of the Awards, has begun interviewing representatives of companies on the initial shortlist.

They have put top operators on the case, led by Nick Finlayson-Brown and Kevin Calder. Life science ace James Fry and corporate law stars Zickie Lim, Anthony McGurk and Stephen Hamilton will also play a major role in this initial element of the judging process.

Mills & Reeve will produce comprehensive reports for selected entrepreneur judges; these reports are produced on a totally private & confidential basis so candidates feel free to share their successes and visions of the future with complete confidence.

We will then monitor the progress of candidates over the summer – hopefully covering the dawn of a new era as the UK emerges from Covid lockdown. No final decisions will be announced until the night of the bounceback banquet at Queens’ College Cambridge on September 7.

Business Weekly Awards Initial Shortlist, includes: 

PetMedix
PetMedix is taking the experience of its founding team and decades of human clinical research, to build platforms that can develop fully species-specific, naturally-generated therapeutic antibodies. It will use these platforms to develop its own veterinary medicines to target some of the most important underserved clinical areas, which not only would have critical healthcare impact but also represent excellent market opportunities.

Start Codon
The Cambridge healthcare accelerator focuses on supporting highly disruptive, translational innovations created by exceptional teams from across the globe. Its vision is to disrupt monocultures and stagnation. It only accept a small number of exceptional applicants onto its program and then provides seed funding, intensive coaching and access to state-of-the-art facilities.