The inaugural Business Weekly and Cambridge Tech Week Scale-Up Business Plan Competition was among the many highlights of Cambridge Tech Week 2024. The competition provided an exciting opportunity to identify, celebrate and promote inspirational new scale-ups.
As part of Scale-Up Day, three finalists made their case on the floor of the historic Cambridge Union Debating Chamber – Samantha Creswick from VividQ; Dr Chindu Kabir from Post Op; and, Stuart Mellis from Optalysys. This was followed by the People’s Vote in the chamber before our judging panel retired for their ruminations. Later that evening, Chair of Judges, Shai Vyakarnam, announced the winner to be Optalysys – a revolutionary company who are leading the way in secure data processing. Optalysys later joined the illustrious Business Weekly Awards Dinner to formally accept their award.
Stuart Mellis, CFO at Optalysys, said: “It was a truly exciting opportunity to present Optalysys’ investment opportunity to the Cambridge Tech Week Scale-Up Competition judges. Winning this competition against some of the UK’s most innovative startups is an honour and a testament to the groundbreaking potential of our technology.
This achievement underscored the significant scale-up potential of Optalysys, as we work to enable the future of secure computing. This win serves as a springboard as we take our Series B proposition to prospective investors in the UK and beyond,” added Stuart.
Tony Quested, CEO, Business Weekly, said: “A Google search shows that 402.74 million terabytes of data are created each day. (Data that is newly generated, captured, copied, or consumed). That equates to around 147 zettabytes per year, 12 zettabytes a month, 2.8 zettabytes a week and 0.4 zettabytes every single day.
Our winning company, Optalysys, is building a chip that uses light to transport and transact data, allowing organisations to keep their data private and where it can be analysed without being decrypted. Using this technology, hospitals, for example, will be able securely send private data – such as MRI scans – to multiple sources for analysis while ensuring the intel remains secure and private.”
Tony added: “All things being equal, Optalysys has the opportunity to fulfil a vital security function without blitzing the environment. A worthy winner by any measure!”
Huge thanks to Tony Quested and team at Business Weekly for their invaluable support for the inaugural year of this important award.
Many thanks also to our expert judging panel:
- Chair of Judges – Shai Vyakarnam, Visiting Professor, The Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship, Cranfield University, and Co-Founder of TerraWaste
- Manjari Chandran-Ramesh, Partner, Amadeus Capital Partners
- Cian Hughes, Head of VC AI EMEA, Oracle
- Prashant Shah, Co-CEO, o2h
- Martin Rigby, Managing Director, ET Capital
- Jo Slota Newson, Principal, Almanac Ventures
Further information on Optalysys
Founded in 2013 by Dr. Nick New (CEO) and Robert Todd (CTO), Optalysys enables secure data processing and sharing without the data having to be decrypted. It does this by using the power of advanced silicon photonics to enable Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), a cryptographic technology to allow organisations to securely commercialise their data.
Optalysys is building a chip that uses light to transport and transact data, which would allow organisations to keep their data private and where data can be analysed without it being decrypted. Hospitals, for example, can securely send private data, such as MRI scans, to multiple sources for analysis while ensuring the data remains secure and private.
Optalysys has raised over £30 million to date from investors including Northern Gritstone, Lingotto, Verve Ventures and imec.xpand. Its most recent round was a £21.3m Series A in July 2023. Find out more: www://optalysys.com/
Further information on our other finalists VividQ and Post Op
VividQ is leading the display revolution by integrating innovative and immersive holographic display technology into every conceivable device. Find out more: www.vividq.com
Post Op is redefining surgical care, giving patients the ultimate recovery experience. Clinical teams have greater insights, through AI-empowered communication. Learn more: https://postop.ai/
For more details on Cambridge Tech Week visit: www.cambridgetechweek.co.uk
