Meet 10 Top Cambridge Companies Innovating Across Industries

10 Top Cambridge Companies

1. 1. Monumo – Multi-physics Deeptech Engine
   2. Fulfillable 3PL – 3PL Management Software
   3. Blecon – Bluetooth-based Cloud to Device Connectivity
   4. LEX Diagnostics – Thermal Cycler Technology
   5. Queue Technology – Digital Business Cards
   6. Qtrace – Food Trading Quality Control Automation
   7. Tokenovate – Blockchain-powered Smart Contracts
   8. Clix – Smart Lockers
   9. NDG Artificial Intelligence – Cloud-based Workforce Scheduling
   10. T-Therapeutics – TCR-based Therapeutics

Where is this data from?

This innovation data is sourced from StartUs Insights’ Discovery Platform, which covers 4.7M startups, scaleups, and tech companies globally. To compile the startups showcased in this report, we apply filters such as location, founding year, technology readiness, employee number, etc. From this selection, we highlighted 10 standout startups using funding information and our proprietary popularity metric, Signal Strength. Signal Strength measures a company’s influence within the global innovation ecosystem. Let’s dive in!

1. Monumo

• Founding Year: 2021
• Industry: Mobility
• Technology: Multi-physics Deeptech Engine

Monumo develops the Anser multi-physics deep tech engine to provide radical engineering solutions for electric motors. The Anser engine integrates machine learning, leveraging a scalable and parallel architecture to run millions of simulations per day. It enables rapid exploration of complex design spaces. Its advanced data and compute APIs allow ML training and optimization processes for the discovery of unintuitive yet optimal designs. Monumo enhances electric motors, reduces global electricity consumption, and contributes to sustainable resource usage by combining extensive simulation capabilities with optimization intelligence.

2. Fulfillable 3PL

• Founding Year: 2021
• Industry: Supply Chain
• Technology: 3PL Management Software

Fulfillable 3PL provides tech-enabled fulfillment solutions for businesses. Its platform connects with e-commerce channels to import products, manage inventory, and sync orders for fulfillment. Its reporting and centralized dashboard enable businesses to track inventory flow, manage orders, and access real-time billing information. It offers features like multi-channel fulfillment, automation, and dedicated account management to ensure efficiency and reliability. Fulfillable 3PL allows businesses to focus on other aspects of growth while handling warehousing, picking, packing, and shipping for them.

3. Blecon

• Founding Year: 2021
• Industry: Cross-industry
• Technology: Bluetooth-based Cloud to Device Connectivity

Blecon enables physical products to communicate with cloud applications using bluetooth low energy (BLE). It provides a network service and flexible hotspots that allow devices equipped with standard BLE chips to securely connect to the cloud without pairing. This system leverages BLE’s low-cost, low-power benefits while offering a deployment model similar to WiFi and a network model akin to cellular networks. It offers secure bi-directional communication, geolocation, and time services, along with hotspot flexibility using either dedicated hubs or personal devices. Blecon’s solution offers a cost-effective, scalable, and globally deployable connectivity framework that bridges physical products to cloud applications to support IoT connectivity across diverse environments.

4. LEX Diagnostics

• Founding Year: 2020
• Industry: Healthcare
• Technology: Thermal Cycler Technology

LEX Diagnostics develops thermal cycler technology to enhance rapid PCR diagnostics at the point of care. Its patented system’s heating and cooling mechanisms maintain precise thermal control to enable rapid enzyme-driven amplification. The LEX platform features an automated swab-to-result workflow, eliminating liquid handling and minimizing hands-on effort, which reduces exposure risks for healthcare workers. It delivers results for respiratory infections such as Flu A, Flu B, and COVID-19 within a few minutes with multiplex testing capabilities. LEX Diagnostics provides medical professionals with timely insights for better patient care and clinical decision-making by combining speed, ease of use, and high sensitivity.

5. Queue Technology

• Founding Year: 2019
• Industry: Media, FinTech
• Technology: Digital Business Cards

Queue Technology provides a digital business card solution that enables the creation and sharing of contact information easily. Its NFC-enabled Queue Card allows instant sharing of contact details, social profiles, and other information with a single tap, which eliminates the need for traditional paper cards. It allows to access and update their digital cards via a simple drag-and-drop editor to make changes quickly and efficiently. The platform also offers analytics integration to provide insights into card views, traffic sources, and team performance through Google Analytics. Queue Technology improves connectivity for individuals and teams by offering an updatable, user-friendly, and environmentally conscious alternative to paper cards.

6. Qtrace

• Founding Year: 2021
• Industry: Food & Beverage
• Technology: Food Trading Quality Control Automation

Qtrace offers a quality control automation platform for food trading, focusing on seafood. It uses a combination of AI, image recognition, and machine learning to assess seafood quality throughout the cold chain. The platform generates real-time reports on product quality to enable rapid decision-making for producers and buyers by analyzing images and performing chemical tests. It offers features like manual image labeling and streamlines quality assessments to produce actionable insights. Qtrace enhances food safety, ensures compliance with quality standards, and minimizes resource wastage and packaging inefficiencies by improving transparency and traceability in the food chain.

7. Tokenovate

• Founding Year: 2022
• Industry: FinTech
• Technology: Blockchain-powered Smart Contracts

Tokenovate provides blockchain-powered smart contracts to automate the lifecycle management of financial trades. Its platform integrates distributed ledger technology, a rules engine, and smart digital legal contracts to streamline processes from pre-trade to post-trade. The platform validates trades, selects compliant templates, and executes transactions directly on the blockchain to ensure security and immutability. Its features include real-time trade validation, transparent reporting, and integration with existing financial trading systems through a customizable representational state transfer application programming interface (REST APIs). Tokenovate reduces operational costs, mitigates risks, and enables a distributed financial market infrastructure that simplifies and secures trade execution and compliance. It enhances transparency, security, and efficiency in over-the-counter (OTC) and exchange-traded derivatives markets.

8. Clix

• Founding Year: 2021
• Industry: Retail
• Technology: Smart Lockers

Clix provides smart locker technology for click-and-collect solutions in retail environments. Its system allows businesses to customize lockers to match their brand adapt to various store layouts and ensure a fit for each retailer’s needs. The mobile-led technology integrates with existing retail systems to enable customers to access their orders via a simple digital interface. It features secure compartments, flexible configurations, and real-time monitoring, which enhance customer convenience and operational efficiency. Clix delivers a simplified click-and-collect experience that enhances customer satisfaction while optimizing in-store collection processes by offering a customizable and scalable smart locker ecosystem.

9. NDG Artificial Intelligence

• Founding Year: 2020
• Industry: Cross-industry
• Technology: Cloud-based Workforce Scheduling Solution

NDG Artificial Intelligence provides a cloud-based workforce scheduling solution called OptifAI that automates and optimizes the management of mobile workforces. OptifAI integrates AI-powered algorithms and customizable templates to streamline the scheduling process, considering business goals like cost efficiency, employee preferences, and service continuity. Its rules engine generates realistic schedules that allow coordinators to manually fine-tune them when necessary while reducing manual labor and travel times. It also offers detailed reports to provide insights into visit coverage, costs, and compliance with regulations.

10. T-Therapeutics

• Founding Year: 2022
• Industry: Healthcare
• Technology: TCR-based Therapeutics

T-Therapeutics develops T cell receptor (TCR)-based therapeutics using its OpTiMus platform. The platform leverages a humanized TCR mouse model to generate antigen-specific human T-cell receptors. It refines T-cell biology to create therapies that recognize and target cancer cells by identifying tumor-specific peptides and neoantigens. This addresses the challenge of recognizing “self” antigens re-expressed in cancer cells, thus enabling precise redirection of T cells to kill these cells. T-Therapeutics offers powerful biologics that treat currently untreatable cancers by combining mouse genome engineering, single-cell genomics, and structural biology.

Explore the Cambridge Startup Ecosystem

The Cambridge tech companies and startups’ ecosystem features 420+ companies, with an average team size of 16 employees.  It represents a dynamic range of industries including fintech, construction, media & entertainment, biotechnology, and healthcare. This diversity highlights a balanced focus on technology-driven and essential sectors, fostering cross-industry innovation opportunities.

The ecosystem’s top investors, such as the University of Cambridge, Cambridge Enterprise, Start 1.0 Accelerator, Carbon13, and Parkwalk Advisors, emphasize funding types like seed, early-stage VC/series A, accelerator/incubator, pre-seed, and angel, underscoring a supportive environment for startups at critical growth stages. This structure is beneficial for corporates partnering with these startups to offer a pathway to co-develop emerging technologies, explore innovative business models, and adapt to evolving market needs by leveraging the strong early-stage funding support available.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. For personalized insights into the local or global startup ecosystem, depending on your needs, get in touch with us. We can provide tailored information and analysis to help you navigate the vibrant startup landscape.