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Cambridge
Home to one of the most historic and successful universities on the planet, Cambridge is also one of the most well established technology clusters in the UK. The formation of the Cambridge Consultants in the 1960’s helped create the conditions necessary to commercialise the research capabilities of the university and its students, sparking the area’s innovative identity and intellectual heritage.
This unique identity has been shaped, amongst other factors, by some fifteen $1 billion technology businesses, two of which reached valuations of $10-20 billion (Autonomy and ARM).
Successful companies born and raised in Cambridge are not only hardware focussed, they’re strong in gaming (Frontier Developments, Jagex), software (Bromium, Solarflare), cyber security (Darktrace, Cambridge Intelligence) and digital healthcare (Healx3, BlueGnome).
With an established network of commercial, technical and academic research laboratories, as well as an excellent business support environment with a self-sustaining venture capital market, it could be argued the Cambridge cluster is approaching an area of maturity. The University of Cambridge has been instrumental in creating the pool of world class talent and innovative brains that are necessary to form such a successful digital cluster.
They’ve also committed to supporting the further growth of the cluster through initiatives such as ideaSpace. Furthermore, networks such as Cambridge Angels, Cambridge Network and Cambridge Wireless provide the ideal level of support for a thriving ecosystem. Finally, Cambridge Science Park is constantly expanding its world-class facilities while the cluster generally has attracted inward investment from large multinational corporations such as Microsoft, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, AstraZeneca and Illumina.
Founding Director of ideaSpace, Stewart McTavish, comments: “Cambridge has a very entrepreneurial culture. We formed the ideaSpace accelerator to help people coming out of the university get started on high-impact new ventures.”
Support:
- Accelerate Cambridge, The three-month programmes combine entrepreneurship training, regular coaching and mentoring, as well as access to shared workspace
- Cambridge Technology Group, a group of product development and technical consulting companies, providing innovative solutions to leading businesses
- Cambridge University Technology and Enterprise Club, a student-run organisation aiming to nurture entrepreneurship in academics and students
- Ideaspace, is an initiative run by the University of Cambridge which aims to support “high impact new ventures” through a membership programme
- Cambridge Business Lounge, co-working space
- Cambridge Network – Membership organisation
- Cambridge Cleantech – Membership organisation focused on supporting the growth of environmental goods and services
Funding:
- Cambridge Destination Digital programme offers various funding and support services to local firms.
- Grants4Growth, The programme provides capital grants for small and medium-sized businesses to install new processes, production facilities and clean technology
- Cambridge Angels, making investments of up to £1m, the group focuses on software, science, technology and biotech businesses
- Cambridge Capital Group, is a set of around 60 investors which, again, focuses on high-tech and technology start-ups in the region
Sookio offers web content and social media campaigns, consultancy and training to small businesses and household names including Toshiba, University of Cambridge, Drinkaware, Magic FM and GOV.UK.
ARM is a semiconductor IP provider. It designs scalable, energy-efficient processors and related technologies to deliver the intelligence in applications ranging from sensors to servers.
Psonar offers on-demand streaming on a pay-as-you-go basis, called Pay Per Play. A large music catalogue tailored to every market in which
it operates, and payment direct to mobile phone bills.
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