Meet Owen Thompson, CEO of Cambridge Future Tech

Tell us about Cambridge Future Tech

We found DeepTech ventures! Cambridge Future Tech is a uniquely tech-first venture builder, working nationally with the very best technical talent, to turn cutting-edge technologies into market-leading ventures. We work with the leading academic and corporate research groups, to build ventures with enormous market reach, which have the potential to change the world.

What do you think makes this company unique?

We support DeepTech founders from day-zero of their journey, working with them as co-founders. We bridge the acute support gap between pre-incorporation and pre-seed with our team of commercial and technical experts. Our approach to seeking out ventures is also unique; we always start with the intellectual property and technical talent. We found ventures from academic and corporate research groups, and always build from that point.

Challenging the traditional venture capital model, we use our operational and commercial expertise to actively participate in all aspects of our ventures.

We are ambitious, risk-tolerant, and passionate about DeepTech, which allows us to support founders from the birth of their companies through to their first substantial funding round, where the companies will be self-sufficient. We often join the funding round, working with our investor network to invest via a Cambridge Future Tech SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle).
 

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

In the last two years, we’ve closed over $8m of private funding and $4m of grants for our portfolio companies; we’ve created over 60 skilled jobs and built 10 DeepTech companies.

These include Mignon, which is set to form the next generation of ultra-efficient Artificial Intelligence; Mimicrete, a new vascular self-healing concrete technology that will pave the way for a more sustainable built environment; and AutoPickr a high-tech, low-cost harvesting and field solutions for the agriculture industry.

We’ve started investing, and even more significantly, we’ve started working extensively with large corporate partners such as Anglo American, where we offer our venture-building capabilities as a service. This setup has the added advantages of a validated market-pull, as well as the access and market knowledge that a large corporate brings.

What can we hope to see from Cambridge Future Tech in the future?

Over the next year, we will found another eight DeepTech ventures with talented scientists and technical specialists; and we’ll also build another eight on behalf of our corporate partners.

But more significantly, we’re also setting up our own VC fund focussed purely on fuelling early-stage DeepTech ventures. We’ll focus on pre-seed, where we can make the most impact, while generating the highest returns for our investors.

DeepTech’s potential for disruption is unprecedented, and the breadth of problems it could address is vast. As the leading venture builder for DeepTech company creation, our approach makes the route to market a reality; supporting both founders and corporate partners alike.