Cambridge Tech Podcast

Hosted by James Parton & Faye Holland

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195

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Jun 2026

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About the show

Your weekly tech news download from in and around Cambridge, plus in-depth conversations with the founders, innovators, and enablers within the Cambridge tech ecosystem. Published every week and hosted by James Parton and Faye Holland. Get in touch with the show via info@cambridgetechpodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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June 16, 202632 min

Cambridge Tech Growth at a Pivotal Moment

This week on Cambridge Tech Podcast, we sit down with Dan Thorp, CEO of Cambridge Ahead, to dig into the freshly published Cambridge Economic Overview (CamEO) Report - and the picture is more complicated than the headlines suggest.The positives are real: 281 equity deals between 2020–2024 (the highest of any UK location outside London), three of the five biggest UK biotech VC deals in Q1 2026 from Cambridge companies, and meaningful government commitments - the Development Corporation, and the AI Hardware plan featuring ARM and Common AI.But the data has a sting. New company formation has dropped nearly 50% - from an average of 1,129 companies a year (2013–2019) to just 620 in 2024–2025. Knowledge-intensive employment recorded its first annual decline since Cambridge Ahead began tracking in 2011. And businesses are increasingly citing access to scaling capital - not just talent, housing, and transport - as a real constraint.What makes the CamEO distinctive is its insistence that success shouldn't be measured in GDP alone. Housing access, employment pathways, and mental health support for young people matter too. Programmes like Form the Future and Included are doing important work - but need sustained, coordinated funding to deliver at scale.Dan's bottom line? "There is no other place quite like Cambridge to innovate and to scale tech companies." The fundamentals hold. 🎧 Listen now on all major platforms.Headline sponsor Holden Polestar Produced by Cambridge TV #CamTechPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

June 9, 202638 min

Memorify: How Charlotte Ridley Is Building the Home for Your Digital Memories

What happens to your photos, videos, and digital memories when you die? If you're storing them with Apple, Google, or any of the major tech platforms, the answer may surprise, and disturb, you. This week, Faye sits down with Charlotte Ridley, founder and CEO of Memorify Technologies, for one of the most personal and purpose-driven founder stories the Cambridge Tech Podcast has featured. It's a conversation about grief, parenthood, AI, wellbeing, and the very human need to feel connected to the moments that shape us.Charlotte's story begins in 2021, when her father passed away unexpectedly while she was four months pregnant. In the time that followed, she found herself battling Apple and Google for access to his digital memories, and losing. The experience didn't just break her heart. It planted the seed for an entirely new category of technology.Memorify  is an AI-powered memory platform - "the home for your digital memories." The app monitors your camera roll with your permission, identifies meaningful photos and moments, curates the best of them, and writes rich narrative summaries of your experiences. Memories are then stored securely, with guaranteed access for up to 100 years after death. Memorify is private, intentional, and rooted in authenticity everything social media has moved away from.Three failed Innovate UK grant applications before winning the fourth, for ethical and impactful novel AI. The pre-seed round was oversubscribed - raising over £420,000 against an initial target of £200,000 - backed by Sheffield Angels, Anglia Capital Group, and FundmyPitch. Memorify is also supported by the London Stock Exchange Group and Innovate UK's high-growth business programme. The seed round opens in early September 2026."Humanity has never documented so much of its life, yet never felt so disconnected from its memories."Listen to the full episode on the Cambridge Tech Podcast and subscribe for weekly updates on the region's most exciting founders and innovations - available on all major platforms.Headline sponsor Holden PolestarProduced by Cambridge TV#CamTechPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

June 2, 202624 min

Inside Coherence Engine with Founder, Robin Sterling

Robin Sterling started his PhD 20 years ago when useful quantum computers were "at least 10 years away." He's seen the field go from academic curiosity to venture-backed race - with companies like Quantinuum and Riverlane demonstrating things that once felt like pipe dreams. But he's candid: today's systems are still orders of magnitude smaller than what's actually useful.Right now, quantum systems are just small enough that engineers can manage complexity with Python scripts and intuition. Make them 100x bigger - which is what the industry needs - and that stops working entirely. Robin talks about how we’re at the same wall classical computing hit in the 1980s, when CPU design had to be automated. Enter Coherence Engine: The company builds system-level simulation and validation software for quantum hardware. The goal: let quantum engineers design, simulate, and validate their next-generation systems before buying a single piece of hardware. Think of it as CAD tools for quantum computers.Founded in August 2024, with pre-seed funding secured in January 2025, Coherence Engine was built with the support of Cambridge Future Tech (CFT) - the deep tech venture builder based at the Bradfield Centre. Robin credits CFT as instrumental in turning his idea into a fundable, scalable company, particularly as a solo founder coming off the back of a previous unsuccessful startup.Tune in to hear this and more, and subscribe on all major podcast platforms. If you enjoyed this episode, a five-star review goes a long way - it helps more people discover the show.Headline sponsor Holden PolestarProduced by Cambridge TV#CamTechPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 26, 202631 min

CWOW Preview with Prashant Shah

Prashant Shah co-hosts this week’s episode with Faye Holland talking all things CWOW - and it's going to be a big one.CWOW runs from 11th–19th June 2026, bringing together the life sciences community across Oxford, London and Cambridge for a week packed with pitches, open days, panels, and networking.Here's a snapshot of what we talked about:🚀 Ventures Tours (Oxford → London → Cambridge) Kicking off on 11th June in Oxford, the Ventures Tour moves through London (12th) before landing in Cambridge for two full days (15th–16th). Investor showcases and networking sessions with the likes of Oxford Science Enterprises, KQ Labs at the Francis Crick Institute, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, Cambridge Angels, and many more – all showcasing their most inspiring startups and entrepreneurs.🏢 Cambridge Wide Open Day - 17th June The centrepiece of the week. Tours, company showcases, masterclasses, and a party - all in one day. A brilliant way to see the Cambridge life sciences ecosystem in action. If you want to be part of the car pool with #CamTechPod then let us know!🧬 TechBio, Biotech & Pharma Day - 18th June BIA TechBio X at AstraZeneca's Discovery Centre, plus the AZ Exchange celebrating collaboration across the UK Life Sciences ecosystem.Big shout out to Ajit Guller and Francois Meullenet and the o2h team, and sponsors Donna Ardeman, Mills & Reeve, Jonathan Goodacre, Keltie, and so many more sponsors, supporters and partners.Tune in to hear the full conversation on the Cambridge Tech Podcast - available on all major platforms.Headline sponsor Holden PolestarProduced by Cambridge TV#CamTechPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 19, 202630 min

The East of England Hidden FinTech Gem with Tech East and Idenfo

In this week's episode, hosts Faye Holland and James Parton dive deep into the region's thriving FinTech ecosystem with Tim Robinson, CEO of Tech East, and Antony Bellingall, co-founder of Norwich-based compliance software company Idenfo. What emerges is a compelling story about regional tech excellence, female founder leadership, and why London's dominance in FinTech might be masking some genuinely impressive talent elsewhere.What makes this particularly interesting is that Norwich wasn't even mentioned in the government's 2021 Khalifa review of UK FinTech - despite financial services accounting for one of the highest proportions of GVA in the city's economy. The oversight was glaring.But there's something special happening across the East of England:Female founder leadership: Outside London, Norfolk has the highest proportion of female tech founders in the UKStrong role models: From university leadership to corporate executives, visible female pioneers are normalising entrepreneurshipSupportive ecosystem: Professional services, legal support, and university partnerships create a genuine communityThe Idenfo Story: Global Ambitions, Local RootsAntony Bellingall's journey perfectly encapsulates why the region works. After stints in Japan and Singapore building compliance expertise, he returned to Norwich to launch Idenfo in 2019. Today, they have 2,000 customers across 15 countries.The collaboration with the University of East Anglia on hologram detection systems for identity cards shows how academic partnerships can drive real product innovation.What's Next?Tech East has just launched FinTechEast.com and is planning a major push to connect FinTech businesses across the entire region - Cambridge, Norwich, Ipswich, and beyond. Rather than competing with London, the strategy is smarter: build a distributed network of smaller hubs that collectively punch well above their weight.Tim Robinson will be speaking at London Tech Week 2026 on Regional Tech Ecosystems, bringing the East's story to the capital. Listen to the full episode on the Cambridge Tech Podcast and discover why this region deserves a place on every tech investor's radar.Headline sponsor Holden Polestar#CamTechPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 12, 202651 min

How CuspAI is Revolutionising Materials Discovery, with Debbie Toms

When Debbie Toms met Chad Edwards at a casual barbecue in early 2024, neither of them could have predicted what would unfold. Two years on, CuspAI has raised over $130 million, assembled a world-class team across Europe, and is tackling some of humanity's most pressing challenges through AI driven materials discovery. It's the kind of origin story that makes you question whether you've been to the right barbecues lately.What makes Debs' journey particularly compelling is her transition from structured corporate roles. Nine years at Deloitte, eight at Marshall Aerospace, to the controlled chaos of an early-stage deep tech startup. Her insight? "You have to get very comfortable very quickly with just not knowing all the answers."The company itself represents a genuine breakthrough. CuspAI has built an agentic platform that models material properties with extraordinary speed. Where traditional materials discovery involves years of laboratory work with a mere 6% success rate, CuspAI can deliver equivalent results in 45 minutes with a projected 90% success rate.Key Milestones in Two Years·      Company incorporated March 2024·      Seed round closed June 2024·      First platform version live January 2025·      Series A raised over $100 million ·      Team grown to 55 employees with contracts signed for more across UK, Amsterdam, Berlin, and London  CuspAI isn't building technology for technology's sake. Their partnerships focus on genuinely transformative applications, for example:·      Carbon capture through direct air capture (DAC) projects with Meta·      Forever chemicals removal from water in partnership with Khmera, a NASDAQ-listed Finnish company·      Next-generation batteries and semiconductors addressing real infrastructure challengesAs Debs notes, there's genuine purpose embedded in the work: "The loveliest thing about that project is our lead chemist working on that project was pregnant at the time and is really aware that this is something that is impacting human life."What's Next?CuspAI is expanding aggressively into Asia-Pacific with a Singapore office and partnership already in motion. They're announcing new talent hires and partnership deals over the coming months, with an ambitious goal to deliver best-in-class materials by year-end.For founders and investors, CuspAI's story offers several lessons: the importance of mission-driven teams, the power of combining deep technical expertise (Max Welling's world-leading AI research) with commercial acumen (Chad Edwards' background), and the value of building based on what customers actually need.Listen to the full episode to hear Debs discuss the mental health implications of AI tools, why Cambridge needs to do more for AI talent, and how she maintains culture whilst scaling at breakneck speed.Headline sponsor Holden Polestar#CamTechPod  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 5, 202641 min

Rafie Faruq: From Trading Floors to Legal AI with Genie AI

In the latest episode of the Cambridge Tech Podcast, hosts James Parton and Faye Holland chat with Rafie Faruq, co-founder of Genie AI. Genie AI is already backed by Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures, operates across 35+ countries, and serves everyone from SMEs to enterprises. But the real story? It's about reimagining an entire industry. "We're democratizing expertise and what we're really selling is trust."Genie AI's secret sauce is a patent-pending architecture called Eidetic Intelligence, which dramatically outperforms ChatGPT and Claude for legal tasks: 86% accuracy on benchmarks vs. GPT's 48% a significant leap in legal qualityHandles unlimited context length across 20-30+ documents simultaneouslyCreates a knowledge graph of company policies, templates, and negotiation behaviourMaintains legal quality through intelligent compression and gating mechanisms This matters because most law firms operate on a template and tweak model, charging tens of thousands for slightly modified contracts. Genie flips the script entirely.Perhaps most fascinating is Rafie's vision for the future of work itself. As AI agents handle more tasks autonomously, company structures are already shifting: Rather than cross-functional teams slowing things down with collaboration, we're moving towards generalists managing multiple AI agents - essentially, one-person companies at scale.Tune in to hear the full conversation on the Cambridge Tech Podcast - available on all major platforms.Headline sponsor Holden Polestar#CamTechPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

April 28, 202627 min

How Retapp’s AI and design are revolutionising e-waste management

This episode of the Cambridge Tech Podcast tackled one of the industry's most overlooked crises: electronic waste. We spoke with Sonia Lange Ramontja, founder of Retapp, about building a sustainable business that's as profitable as it is purposeful.Here's a sobering statistic: e-waste constitutes 70% of all toxic waste globally, yet it remains largely invisible in mainstream conversations. Sonia recognised this gap and built Retapp to address it. Retapp ran a successful pilot from July to September 2025, collecting 860 kilos of electronics across five pop-up events in collaboration with Cambridge City Council. The product is now live on both App Store and Google Play. Retapp's platform combines consumer-friendly design with intelligent automation:Users scan devices using the app (phones, laptops, toasters—anything with a plug or battery)AI identifies categories, estimates weight, and calculates resale value or eco-pointsUsers choose drop-off or collection optionsOptional data erasure certificates available for enhanced securitySustainability metrics track environmental impactRetapp also provides detailed device insights to refurbishers and recyclers through a web portal, helping them manage the deluge of electronics without overwhelming their operations. Currently fundraising their pre-seed round, Retapp is seeking investors who understand the circular economy and recognise this as a genuine business opportunity. With EU circular economy regulations tightening and extended producer responsibility (EPR) becoming mandatory, the timing couldn't be better. Listen to the full episode on the Cambridge Tech Podcast and subscribe for weekly updates on the region's most exciting founders and innovations.Headline sponsor Holden Polestar#CamTechPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

April 21, 202642 min

Bill Yost's full circle journey with Reclinker

Cambridge Tech Podcast latest episode is with Bill Yost talking cement, startups, and the differences in building businesses either side of the Atlantic. Cement is the second most used material on Earth with 4 billion tonnes produced annually, and conventional cement production accounts for 7% of global CO2 emissions. If the cement industry were a country, it would rank behind only the US and China in carbon output. That's the scale of the opportunity.Enter Reclinker, a Cambridge-based startup that converts reclaimed cement into clinker using electric arc furnaces already used in steel recycling. Rather than building expensive new infrastructure, they're partnering with existing steel manufacturers. Bill talks about the funding journey, how to demonstrate the process at industrial scale, and how they have secured important supply chain agreements.Whether you're fascinated by climate tech, curious about fundraising strategy, or interested in how to build in Cambridge's ecosystem, this episode delivers real insights from someone who's done it multiple times, on both continents.Tune in on your preferred podcast platform and subscribe to join the weekly conversation. Headline sponsor Holden Polestar#CamTechPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

April 14, 202630 min

From Aerospace to Impact: How Rob Walden Built Ventures That Save Lives

This week we meet Rob Walden, co-founder of Euthasafe, and discuss his journey from aerospace engineering to the life-saving technology his team is developing right now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.