A shortlist of six companies have been selected to pitch to Angels at the Innovation & Investment Event taking place at The EpiCentre, Haverhill, on Thursday 3 March 2022.
Applications were received from across the UK from a diverse range of companies from the science and technology sectors. The final six will be presenting to an audience made up of three different Angel groups – Cambridge Angels, Oxford Investment Opportunity Network (OION) and Angels@Essex, who collectively make up a combined network of 750 Angels.
The event starts at 5pm and will be live streamed, commencing with a debate on university spin-outs and commercialising Intellectual Property. The second part of the event will be live pitches from the following:
Duncan McKay from Aistetic that creates highly accurate visual 3D body models with mobile devices;
Maximilian Jakobs from DeepMirror that has developed a platform that enables breakthrough discoveries from small data;
Simon Harris from Metaboards that is the first to demonstrate charging multiple devices wirelessly at the same time from a single power source;
Edo Gaude from Pockit diagnostics that has developed rapid tests to help identify stroke patients;
Christian Peters from Seloxium - aqua-mining for a circular economy, by cleaning wastewater by selectively recovering valuable metals; and
Oliver Sotirios Bourne from WYSPR that uses the influence of social media to turn consumers into influencers.
Babita Devi, Innovation Director for Oxford Innovation, the managers of The EpiCentre, said: “We are looking forward to hosting this event. It is a great opportunity for companies looking to raise funding and be supported by three of the UK’s leading Angel groups. The EpiCentre plays a key role in supporting innovation and investment and as part of the Oxford Innovation network we have an ethos of supporting economic prosperity across the UK. We will also be discussing the crucial role universities play in supporting innovation and supporting businesses and leading professors from Cambridge, Oxford and Essex will lead this debate.
Emmi Nicholl, Managing Director Cambridge Angels says: “Cambridge Angels as a 20-year history of supporting innovation in and around Cambridge. University spinouts are a clearly an essential and exciting part of that innovation ecosystem, and we are delighted to play a role in their success. I am eager to be a part of a collaborative effort to further these ambitions.”
While Richard Cooper, Managing Director of OION Ltd, comments: “Access to early stage-funds cannot be underestimated in future success of innovative companies from across the UK. We are delighted that the Oxford Investment Opportunity Network (OION) has been able to support the ambitions of an estimated 700 businesses with funding over the last 25 years. The collaboration of investors whether funds or Angel Investors plays a key role in supporting an infrastructure of innovation and growth. We are delighted to be part of this unique opportunity to support innovation and present a great line up of pitches for our investor community.”
The live debate will see Professor Andy Neely OBE who is the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Relations at the University of Cambridge and Professor Chas Bountra who is Pro-Vice Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Oxford outline how they built their global reputations for supporting spinouts and entrepreneurial academics. Meanwhile Professor Chris Greer who is Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Essex will explain their progress to being the number one university for working with businesses through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) and how it unlocked millions in angel investment for start-up businesses in the region.
The event will share knowledge and best practice for commercialising new technologies and ideas to support the UK’s ambition to be a ‘science superpower’.