IDEAIncubator

The

Since 1999, Cambridge University Entrepreneurs have been helping students to turn their business ideas into realities through the journey of the CUE Business Creation Competition.

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THIS YEAR’S

2011THE ONES TO WATCH

RISEis an evidence-based program matching court-involved young people with adult coaches. Its mission is to provide role models who can inspire, educate, and expose youth to new opportunities. Through its innovative, activities-led curriculum, Young RISErs will develop critical life skills and educational tools that will empower them to achieve greater success and

education, at-risk youth mentorship program development, and law enforcement. They are both currently pursuing post-graduate degrees in criminology at the University of Cambridge.

is a software application that helps students and researchers manage and extract maximum value from their research materials. Qiqqa combines innovative technology tools with powerful natural language processing algorithms to give academics the ability to cope with the vast amount of information required in modern research. Qiqqa helps them focus on the important facts, discover related material and improve recall, allowing them to learn faster. Students love Qiqqa because it’s free, but the software has application in industry, too. Qiqqa Premium brings additional features, expanded web storage, group collaboration, and no advertising. Qiqqa makes research fun.

QIQQA

has high hopes of commercial success: with the increasing demand for wireless services to penetrate building structures, revenues from in-building wireless systems are predicted to reach over £9.4 billion by 2013. Traditionally, distributed antenna systems (DAS) has been an attractive approach for improving radio signals in buildings. However, conventional DAS is limited on several fronts, performing poorly in its dynamic range and energy use. Using digital signal processing techniques, eComm

provide the smartest in-building wireless infrastructure to the market – seamless, reliable and high performance, for every

ECOMM

is promoting the cause of safer insecticides of biological origin and seeks to raise $300,000 to launch its project. It has introduced a novel approach for the production of “green” bio-insecticides that will compete in the current market by escaping strict regulatory restrictions through its eco-friendly and decreased production costs with the use of recycled agricultural wastes. The launch of Sphericos Vault, an online information database of all Sphericos Custom products, will

against mosquitoes and malaria.

SPHERICOS BIOTECHNOLGIES

£5K PRIZE WINNERS

ANGEL PRIZE WINNER

Elpida Cambridge Health says its vision is to provide aggregated POC diagnostic tools for the early detection and rapid

Toolbox (EDT) will equip mobile doctors who visit rural communities to provide care, with an innovative toolbox that combines POC diagnostic tools with pictorial guides expressed in local dialects that empower patients to take owner-ship of their management plans. Maximising the impact of mobile doctor visits unlocks an important solution to rural healthcare.

ELPIDA CAMBRIDGE HEALTH

is a social enterprise founded to help students fund the rising cost of education by giving academic and cultural tours of Oxford and Cambridge to corporate groups, schools and tourists. The partners said: “Our triple bottom line centres on: People - We pay more than double market rate and give them hands-on management experience; Planet - We recycle and encour-

market leader for walking tours in Cambridge within 36 months and franchise to similar cities worldwide.”

OXBRIDGE TOURS

‘FIRST STEP FORWARD’ WINNERSgrowing trend, as African-inspired designs are showcased in London and New York fashion weeks. Initially the business will import existing ranges from Southern Africa and target small fashion boutiques to build interest and gauge the market, particularly in cosmopolitan areas. Once established, larger retail chains will be approached with the range, creat-ing a strong brand and ultimately bringing African fashion to a wider market.

TOUCH OF AFRICA

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What Do They Say?

The CUE competition was an excellent opportunity for all of the participants to learn quickly, in a fun way, what it takes

done in three fun and incrementally demanding stages. From the perspective of the Qiqqa team, we learned how to articulate our company’s intentions. The writing of the formal business plan crystallized several of our objectives to the point where we understood how we could change and develop Qiqqa to better capture the attention of our customers and judges, and to ensure that the business was still exciting for us. This process was further aided with the insight provided by our mentor. The most valuable part of the competition was the opportu-nity to pitch our idea to a panel of experienced members of the Cambridge entrepreneur community. Their question and interest only enhanced our enthusiasm and commit-ment towards making Qiqqa a success.

Building a great company seems to take a lot of practice, and the CUE competition has given us a great opportunity to practise. We can’t wait to follow through!

James Jardine, James Philips“

”

The journey to winning the Angel Prize was a very enjoy-able learning experience with an amazing team and a great business idea. The idea of bringing the point- of‐care diagnostic tool to developing world came from

This idea inspired many others to come together for the CUE £1K competition. Five friends formed a team and worked hard in building the idea. Even though we didn’t win, this was never a setback - we were only further inspired to be patient and structure the team to develop-

at the £5K competition, our business plan impressed the judges and the audience and we won the Angel Prize.

This was an unprecedented experience for all the Elpida team members. We are grateful to CUE, the Angel inves-tors, and Dr Darrin Disley from Horizon Discoveries for their support and guidance.

Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, Vivian Lu Tan, Michael Freedman, Kasia Zajkowska and Christian Clough

“

”

Cambridge Temperature Concepts

Gamma

Where Are They Now?

An innovative software that revolutionizes proof-reading and grammar checking tools, was founded by Li Sun, a Cambridge PhD student, with Yichi Zhang and Shuguang Li, winners of the £1K, £5K and Angel prize in the 2010 CUE Bsiness Creation Competition for an innovative software development. It’s only been one year since they set up the company Greedy Intelligence in China and secured more than half a million pounds of investment and hired 15 employees. Their product was released in July 2011 and has reached over 10,000 users within two months.

University. Shuguang told him that CUE organises "the best entrepreneurs’ competition in the United Kingdom". The two then decided to take part in the challenge. However, it didn't have a smooth start: they

taught us everything about business." With the help from the training and mentoring , they went on to succeed in a big way.

"CUE Business Creation Competition is outstanding, especially compared to other competitions nation wide. It is so real, just like the commercial world. " He also spoke highly of the networking opportunities in various CUE events. "CUE opened many doors for me. I met Angel investors, venture capitalists and educa-

Among CUE’s successful alumni includes Cambridge Temperature Concepts (CTC), a startup company initially founded by a small group of scientists in 2006. Winners of the 2007 CUE Business Plan Competition, these Cambridge graduates presented an innovative device called DuoFertility, a non-invasive wireless fertility moni-tor that helps couples enhance their natural conception potential.

By placing a small device under the arm, DuoFertility monitors fertility by calculating body temperature based on readings taken over 20 000 times throughout the day. CTC secured early seed funding in 2007 and went on to launch their product commercially in the UK pharmacy chain, Boots, two year laters, before penetrating retail chains across the European Market.

While DuoFertility is currently pending FDA approval in the United States, CTC is developing ways to expand their device applications to include monitoring of sleep, infection, and blood sugar levels. With the 2011 European QPrize under their belt, CTC’s future is looking bright.

ARM is one of Cambridge’s greatest technology

example of a semiconductor business based on licensing intellectual property. In the process, the team of Cambridge engineers who founded the company taught themselves the skills necessary to run a world-class public company. ARM is now the world’s leading semiconductor intellectual property supplier, designing the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products around the world.

Simon Ford from ARM says: twelve years ago ARM

it ever since, watching it ever since, watching it grow into a successful and established organization. Over the time, CUE has generated a consistent stream of high quality business cases and start-ups. The most rewarding metric for the success of CUE and the ongoing support by ARM has been seeing these start-ups develop into companies, which later become ARM customers themselves. For ARM, sponsoring CUE not only provides a way to give something back to Cambridge, but also ensures the creation of more successful new companies to work with in the future.

Horizon was founded by PhD life scientists who saw the importance of taking an entrepreneurial and unconventional approach to technology exploitation,

approach has enabled the company to grow by >100% in every year since its foundation in 2007, serve the needs of hundreds of customers and has allowed the founders to retain enterprise control and

investor exit. Horizon wishes to support this kind of entrepreneurship in other life science researchers and is proud to become a Gold sponsor of CUE for the next 3 years. Horizon Discovery is a leading provider of research tools to support the development of personalized medicines. The Company’s virally-mediated gene-engineering technology, GENESIS™, enables any endogenous gene in a human or mammalian genome to be altered quickly, reliably and without introducing unwanted and confounding genotypes and/or phenotypes. The technology has enabled the

-a-Test-Tube” which is being deployed in all aspects of translational genomics and therapeutics research.

Sir Ernest Shackleton is widely known as one of the most inspirational leaders of the twentieth century. Although he never achieved his personal dream of

as a leader of men is based on a still greater success: the survival and safe return of all of his team members, while overcoming almost unimaginable odds. Shackleton’s name lives on as a synonym for courage, bravery and most of all, leadership.

Supporting the Social Enterprise Stream within the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs business

“individuals of who exemplify the spirit of Sir Ernest Shackleton: inspirational leaders wishing to make a

We believe that singular people making singular contribution to the public good can act as beacons of inspiration, and we wish to support them in their

will develop or possess the personal qualities that

succeed, a willingness to take intelligent risks, and the ability to inspire and energize those around them to do their utmost towards worthwhile causes.

“Redgate in a word? Amazing!” That’s how one of our new team members described us after being with us for just a week. It’s employee opinions like this which make us renowned as a great place to work. The Sunday Times agrees, calling us one of the top 100 places to work in the UK and the best small company

Microsoft technology professionals worldwide. We recruit the best talent for a wide range of roles, from

to be a diving instructor in the Maldives. Don’t take our word for it. Visit www.redgate.com/careers and see what some of our employees say.

Ensors Charted Accountants are very pleased to be working with CUE and supporting their work with Cambridge’s entrepreneurs. Ensors have assisted many businesses through the start-up

support on tax, VAT, payroll

record keeping processes. We are committed to our clients, to Cambridge and to Cambridge University Entrepreneurs.

Established in 1970 by Trinity College, Cambridge Science Park is one of the UK's oldest and most prestigious science parks. Now home to over 90 companies and 5,000 personnel, Cambridge Science Park continues to attract new businesses from small start-ups to large multi national corporations.

Taylor Vinters have enjoyed supporting CUE and are continu-ally impressed by the enthusiasm, creativity and business acumen demonstrated by the teams, the decision which entrepreneurs take at very earlier stage in the life of a business shape that business

impact on investability, growth and ultimately returns to its founders and investors. Entrepre-neurs learn those decision making skills through the Entrepreneurs Challenge, the training from sponsors and supporters, and dedicated networking events. Cambridge is an exciting and dynamic place to do business and CUE is helping to develop the future of this innovative commu-nity.

At Mills & Reeve, we were delighted to formalise our support of CUE last year and hope that the starter pack we put together for CUE competi-tion entrants will help entrepre-neurs as they develop new ventures and lay the founda-tions for their long term success. As one of the UK's leading law

stage technology sector, we have extensive experience of working with start-ups, spin-outs, university technology

and investors. And we're always happy to have a chat over

Special Thanks

To the CUE committee for their dedication and input over the year, and to the Advisory Board for their time

and helpful advice.

To all of our sponsors who make it all possible.

To all the judges for all the judging meetings and many hours spent giving feedback for the entrants.

To all the mentors for the time, energy and commit-ment they put into the teams.

To the designers, contributors and editors of this review: Sharon Lee, Jun Chen, Michelle Stewart, Jennifer Yen, Jing Zhang.