First, we have a brand new segment on the podcast.
Starting this week, we will bring you a summary of the week's hottest Tech headlines, to help keep your finger on the pulse of everything that is happening across the Cambridge Tech cluster.
Two companies with links to Cambridge University are headline makers this week — VividQ and TeraView.
VividQ has unveiled a major breakthrough that could revolutionise augmented reality gaming. The company is working with Finnish company Dispelix which is regarded as the world’s top waveguide designer and manufacturer. The duo have released the world’s first commercially available 3D waveguide combiner — a critical component of an AR optical system — which can display simultaneous variable-depth 3D holographic images in the real world.
VividQ CEO, Darran Milne says:
“There has been significant investment and research into the technology that can create the types of AR experiences we’ve dreamt of, but they fall short because they can’t live up to even basic user expectations. We’ve solved that problem, designed something that can be manufactured, tested and proven it, and established the manufacturing partnership necessary to mass produce them. It is a breakthrough because without 3D holography, you can’t deliver AR.”
VividQ currently employs 50 people. Besides the main office in Cambridge it also has facilities in London plus team members in Japan and Taiwan.
Founded in 2017, it has raised more than $20 million in VC funding to date with investors geographically diverse — for example in Japan, Europe and the US.
TeraView was spun-out of Toshiba and the University of Cambridge back in 2021 and is a pioneer in terahertz technology. TeraView this week opened a US subsidiary in Delaware to expand further into North America — a key market for the company as it looks to gain a foothold in the automotive, high value coatings and semiconductor industries.
Some of Cambridge’s stockmarket-listed companies have been hit hard in the early part of 2023 with the likes of Darktrace and Frontier Developments seeing their values almost halved. One company that has bucked this trend is Quixant which posted record revenues for the year to December 31, 2022.
The company, which provides products principally for the global gaming and broadcast industries, expects to report full year revenues of $119.9 million.
That’s 38 per cent up year-on-year — the highest revenue performance in the group’s history and slightly ahead of market expectations.
These news headlines are provided each week by our media partner, Business Weekly.
Now let's meet this week's guest.
Lucy Jung CEO of Charco Neurotech reflects on three and a half years as an entrepreneur. She discusses being the youngest winner of the women entrepreneur award of the year at last year's Business Weekly Awards, her responsibility as a role model and building a company ethos that puts people with Parkinson’s at the heart of everything that the team does.
Founded in 2019 the company found itself at Cambridge Judge Business School and part of the unique Founders Network. At the end of 2022 Charco raised $10m which was noted for being the highest seed raise of the year for a health tech device, and the 6th largest globally.
Tune in to find out about the non-invasive medtech device that will change the lives of the 10m people with Parkinson’s globally.
This is one Cambridge-based company to watch as they scale with care.
To listen and subscribe, search for ‘Cambridge Tech Podcast’ on your favourite podcasting platform or visit cambridgetechpodcast.com.