The Entrepreneurship Centre at Cambridge Judge Business School congratulates the winners of the #21toWatch Top21.2026 awards, announced at an awards ceremony at The Glasshouse innovation hub in Cambridge.
The Top21.2026 list highlights founders tackling under-served challenges alongside solutions addressing climate and industrial transformation.
We are delighted to see strong EnterpriseTECH representation across the Top21.2026 list. The recognitions reflect the programme’s role as a practical bridge between frontier research and real-world adoption.
Cambridge remains one of the world’s most concentrated sources of scientific and technical talent. But there is a persistent gap between what is discovered in the lab and what reaches the market. EnterpriseTECH, one of the Entrepreneurship Centre’s flagship programmes, exists to help close that gap by giving researchers the skills, frameworks, and confidence to think commercially about their work, and by giving inventors structured insight into innovative business models, market building and development and routes to market.
Top21.2026 winners who are part of the EnterpriseTECH community
EnterpriseTECH alumni (participants)
- Osarenkhoe Ogbeide (Obasense): developing low-cost, hypersensitive nanomaterial-based sensors for detecting toxic gases and pollutants.
- Sara AlMahri (Mina AI): building an agentic AI execution layer for supply chains across procurement, logistics, and compliance.
- Protalea Bio (founded by Dr Elena Pavlova): developing therapies targeting pre-disease inflammation to halt progression of cancer and neurodegeneration.
EnterpriseTECH inventors
- Callon Peate (co-inventor on GreenMixes): recognised for developing a carbon-negative cement admixture to support concrete decarbonisation and long-term carbon storage.
- Prof Ian Farnan (Cambridge Atomworks): a transportable nuclear fission micro-reactor concept aimed at replacing diesel in off-grid, energy-intensive settings.
- Dr Ruben Ruiz-Mateos Serrano (Polytecks): smart textile electrode arrays enabling high-resolution, comfortable bioelectrical signal capture for next-generation diagnostics.
Applications are now open
EnterpriseTECH applications are currently open for both participants and inventors. If you are a researcher or professional looking to build commercial capability, or an inventor seeking structured market insight and a clearer path to market, we welcome your application.
If you are a scientist or technologist looking to commercialise your research and make the transition to company founder, or a corporate innovator working in an in-house R&D team and wants to trial and prepare your business idea for the commercial environment, Ignite applications are also now open.
#21toWatch 2026 list
#21toWatch 2026 Winners Revealed: Deeptech Founders Tackling Society’s Toughest Health and Climate Challenges, 6 March 2026.
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