Analysis
Cambridge Wireless Discovering Start-Ups winner goes on to global success
Cambridge Temperature Concepts (CTC), one of the winners in the Cambridge Wireless Discovering Start-Ups competition at the end of last year, is one of six global finalists in the Qualcomm Ventures’ QPrize™ competition to represent Europe; and has already picked up a prize of 100,000 euros in venture financing.
The six Qprize finalists representing China, Europe, India, Israel, Korea and North America now proceed to the final round of competition at the prestigious DEMO Spring 2011 event in California, to compete for the Grand Prize of an additional US$150,000 in venture financing.
CTC’s involvement in the Qualcomm competition came as a direct result of entering the Discovering Start-Ups competition run by Cambridge Wireless and supported by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA). “We were delighted to win the Discovering Start-Ups competition and it was one of the judges, Frederic Rombaut, Head of Qualcomm Ventures for Europe, who encouraged us to enter the QPrize,” explained Dr. Shamus Husheer, CEO at Cambridge Temperature Concepts. “To be selected for the final from the whole of Europe is incredible for our CTC team and also reflects the strength of world leading research and innovation coming out of Cambridge.”
“The future of our industry relies on entrepreneurs to take risks and do what others have not done before to turn innovative ideas into reality,” said Nagraj Kashyap, vice president of Qualcomm Ventures. “This year, we expanded QPrize from four to six regions through the addition of Israel and Korea, and the level of creativity and vision from the finalists really exceeded our expectations. Congratulations to these companies on their impressive accomplishments in the competition.”
“We are delighted that CTC continues to go from strength to strength and is gaining International recognition,” said David Cleevely, chairman of Cambridge Wireless. “Discovering Start-Ups was designed to provide a platform for new technology businesses and many of the other finalists from last year’s initiative have also benefited from taking part in addition to the recognition and prize money. We all wish Shamus and his team every success in the final and we hope that CTC’s experience will encourage more entrepreneurs and new companies to enter Discovering Start-Ups 2011.”
CTC along with the other winners of Discovering Start-Ups 2010 - Augmentra, MagicSolver, OXEMS (Oxford Electromagnetic Solutions) and PneumaCare - will also be presenting at the Innovation Hothouse during the Cambridge Wireless, Future of Wireless International Conference in June.