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PITCH PERFECT

What’s now and what’s next for artificial intelligence in the Cambridge Cluster & beyond

A Cambridge start-up with a revolutionary climate change solution

INVESTMENT

Your guide to getting a slice of the city’s booming economy

THE BIG THREE

Entrepreneurs on the professionals who helped them succeed

O N T HE P UL S E O F T HE C I T Y ’ S B U S INE S S C O MM UNI T Y

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CONTENTS

04 NEWS & EVENTS

News and events, including details on Cambridge Cleantech's Venture Day.

08 AI SPECIAL With tech giants flocking to Cambridge to develop their machine learning capabilities and cutting-edge artificial intelligence start-ups surfacing here almost weekly, our city is establishing itself as a globally recognised AI capital. But as companies and investors race to harness its mind-boggling potential and artificial intelligence becomes ever-more embedded in our daily lives, should we be worried?

Many of us are, according to research highlighted in Has AI Got An Image Problem? (page 8), which explores commonly held fears about AI bias, ethics and most alarmingly, the potential for superintelligent machines to take over and make slaves of us all (thanks for that one, sci-fi). This feature, along with other AI focused articles in this issue, will draw on expert insight from movers and shakers of the Cambridge AI scene to delve into the misconceptions, challenges and opportunities presenting themselves in the world of machine learning.

One Cambridge academic taking a positive view on AI’s applications is Dr Marcus Tomalin, who looks at how artificial intelligence could be the key to tackling online hate speech. Amid growing concerns about the psychological and societal harm this kind of abusive digital content can cause, he investigates how AI-powered quarantining of content may hold the solution on page 20. We’ve also got a look at the role of AI in healthcare over on page 17, where Cambridge Cancer Genomics CEO John Cassidy discusses his company’s revolutionary AI precision oncology. Then, on page 18, we learn about Camb.ai, a new network for artificial intelligence companies in the city. With a goal of creating on and offline spaces where Cambridge’s ever-growing number of AI firms and entrepreneurs can meet, learn and collaborate, it’s about bringing the community in the city together and pushing it forward, says founder Belle Taylor.

Elsewhere in this issue, we continue our guide to investing in the Cambridge economy, offering pro tips on getting a piece of the commercial property market (page 22), plus get the lowdown on Cambridge Carbon Capture in Pitch Perfect on page 27.

Enjoy the issue and keep an eye out for number 5, out in January.

Leading local AI firms consider the challenges facing those working in artificial intelligence.

17 ADDRESSING BIASES IN DATASETS

J ohn Cassidy of Cambridge Cancer Genomics looks at the role of AI in healthcare.

18 A NEW AI COMMUNITY

Belle Taylor discusses the new network she's building for AI companies in the city.

20 SURE YOU WANT TO POST IT?

Dr Marcus Tomalin looks at using AI to combat hate speech online.

22 INVEST IN THE ECOSYSTEM

Anna Lawlor shows you how to get a slice of the booming Cambridge economy.

27 PITCH PERFECT

Local start-ups give us their pitch. Up this month, Cambridge Carbon Capture.

28 THE BIG 3

Greg Law, CEO of Undo, on the people who've been integral to his success.

30 INNOVATION: THE FUTURE OF FOOD

The director of Agri-Tech East discusses how digital mapping is revolutionising farming.

32 TECH BYTES

The latest news from the fizzing Cambridge Cluster.

36 SPACE EXPLORATION

We explore business spaces in the area, from co-working hubs to conference venues.

NICOLA FOLEY EDITOR IN CHIEF

40 DOING GOOD & DOING WELL

The Cambridge social ventures making an impact.

EDITORIAL

EDITOR IN CHIEF Nicola Foley 01223 499459 nicolafoley@bright-publishing.com CHIEF SUB EDITOR Beth Fletcher SENIOR SUB EDITOR Siobhan Godwood SUB EDITOR Felicity Evans JUNIOR SUB EDITOR Elisha Young

CONTRIBUTORS Anna Lawlor, Matthew Gooding, John Cassidy, Belle Taylor, Marcus Tomalin, Greg Law, Belinda Clarke, Charlotte Griffiths

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DESIGN & PRODUCTION

AD MANAGER Sam Scott-Smith 01223 499457 samscott-smith@bright-publishing.com AD SALES MANAGER Ed Grundy 01223 499463 edgrundy@bright-publishing.com MANAGING DIRECTORS Andy Brogden & Matt Pluck

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DESIGN DIRECTOR Andy Jennings DESIGN MANAGER Alan Gray EDITORIAL DESIGN Laura Bryant, Lucy Woolcomb, Emily Lancaster, Bruce Richardson, Man-Wai Wong AD PRODUCTION Man-Wai Wong catalystads@bright-publishing.com

CAMBRIDGE CATALYST IS A MAGAZINE BY BRIGHT PUBLISHING, MAKERS OF CAMBRIDGE EDITION CAMBRIDGE CATALYST Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridgeshire CB22 3HJ, 01223 499450 cambridgecatalyst.co.uk All rights reserved. Material contained in this publication may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior permission of the publishers. Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of CAMBRIDGE CATALYST or Bright Publishing Ltd, which do not accept any liability for loss or damage. Every effort has been made to ensure all information is correct. CAMBRIDGE CATALYST is a free publication that is distributed in Cambridge and the surrounding area.

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47 AGAINST THE GRAIN

We find out the story behind Grain Culture, the Ely bakery everyone's talking about.

52 A CATALYST CHRISTMAS

Blitz your Christmas shopping at these interesting and innovative Cambridge shops

56 OUT OF OFFICE

What's on this month, plus we pay a visit to The White House hotel in north Norfolk.

WANT TO RECEIVE COPIES OF CAMBRIDGE CATALYST? Visit cambridgecatalyst.co.uk and sign up to be added to the distribution list.

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© LUCINDA PRICE

The latest events and developments in the world of Cambridge business, innovation, start-ups and networking

Discover at The Grafton Need a quiet place to park up with your laptop for a few hours? The Grafton has revealed a new space, Discover, which is equipped with power points, desks, free Wi-Fi and a handy location next to a coffee shop for when you need a caffeination break. There’s no need to book, it’s free, and it’s open to the whole community.

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NEWS

SVC2UK is geared towards connecting the best of San Francisco’s tech hub to the UK, showcasing the businesses using technology to change the way we live, work and play for the better. This year’s event, running 18 to 20 November, will offer a special focus on exploring how emerging financial inclusion, healthtech, edtech, cybertech and spacetech are changing the world now and will in the future, keeping a continued focus on how artificial intelligence and machine learning push the boundaries of humanity. Events will take place in Oxford, London and Cambridge, designed to provide practical information for students, entrepreneurs and established

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business leaders, as well as fostering important discussions around tech innovations and their implications.

On the 18th at Trinity College, check out the Cambridge Masterclass, which is focused on building a business, considering the key ingredients for turning an idea into a product, taking it to market and scaling, hosted by Silicon Valley experts. The same day, the Cambridge University Union will host Cambridge Thought Leadership, with a variety of keynote speakers from Silicon Valley and UK ecosystems who will debate whether technology has the right to influence our personal choices – and whether it has started to overstep the mark. svc2uk.com

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NEWS

Creative Cambridge

Cambridge Cleantech is inviting applications for its pitching and investment event, Cleantech Venture Day, due to be held 11-12 February. Established in 2006, this prestigious event has seen more than 220 business pitches since its inception, and enabled investment of as much as €600 million. “In today’s climate, with a rising need for environmental change, it becomes more and more important for Cleantech companies to expand and grow, so that their positive impact will be even greater”, says Martin Garratt, CEO of Cambridge Cleantech. “We aim to achieve that by connecting investors and SMEs at Cleantech Venture Day.”

On the day, 24 cleantech innovators will get the chance to present their pitches to an audience of investors from across Europe, with the most inspiring and investment-ready selected. It’s a great opportunity for SMEs in the sector to secure funding, as well as for experienced fund managers, business angels and corporate investors eager to invest in innovative and disruptive cleantech companies. Head along to listen to pitches, meet investors, network and hear talks about the latest trends and innovations in cleantech. Applications to pitch close on 15 November.

A programme of talks, round tables, pitches and a networking lunch to support university-industry collaborations in the creative sector is planned for 19 November at Creative Cambridge. Geared towards sparking conversations between researchers and industry experts, this free, one-day event will highlight work by some of the top academics in the humanities, social sciences and technology, address challenges and identify opportunities.

Attendees will hear from speakers including erstwhile Cambridge MP and current director of Jesus College’s Intellectual forum, Julian Huppert, as well as Rachel Drury, co-creator and director of Collusion Cambridge, a not-for-profit company that creates ambitious, interactive public artworks that consider the impact of emerging technology on society. Also on the programme is Dr Jan Storgard, project director at Reactor, a regional development scheme led by Anglia Ruskin University to support SMEs in growing their business through the use of applied games, and Dr Chris Doran, ‘entrepreneur in residence’ at Cambridge Enterprise.

In addition, there will be quick pitches, informal case studies from new university ventures, collaborative projects and start-ups, and guidance on how the university can facilitate R&D collaborations.

Register your interest via Eventbrite.

cleantechday.com

Transformative Leadership workshop Guest speakers Kim Wedral-Rooke (partner, Taylor Vinters), Rakhi Rajani (associate partner, QuantumBlack) and Anne BoisierFouché (Shine For Women) lead a workshop at Judge Business School on 21 November focusing on creating a great team that can power your business forward. It begins with an interactive session that challenges the stereotypical image of a leader, exploring how you can influence others and create impact.

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International employment law expert Kim Wedral-Rooke will look at people-strategy considerations to support scaling up your business, and Rakhi Rajani will follow up with a talk on innovative methods for building and leading teams. This event is part of EnterpriseWOMEN, a CJBS programme geared towards women leaders and entrepreneurs who are starting or scaling businesses. jbs.cam.ac.uk

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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

For small businesses, the benefits of a virtual office can be game-changing or freelancers, self-employed people or start-ups, hiring an additional person fulltime to tend to jobs like managing correspondence and customer service isn’t always viable. But with a virtual office, even when you're not available, customers can reach you.

Your mail is taken care of and calls are answered in your company name by a professional receptionist. A virtual office can also provide home-based and small companies with an address in a prime location, lending a feel of credibility and professionalism.

Mantle Business Centres has premises in Stansted, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Duxford, Stevenage and, coming soon, Oxfordshire, and offers a full suite of virtual office services.

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not a call centre) or you can get the whole lot for £99+VAT. For an affordable amount, these services can really help a business thrive and show the company in a positive light. As an added bonus, customers also get access to flexible, physical workspaces in a number of locations, whether you need a shortterm working space, a private office for a couple of hours, a hot desk for a day or a cost-effective desk in a shared office, Mantle has a co-working option that is perfect for you.

If you work from home, it’s an opportunity to get out of the house and work in a collaborative environment to help boost productivity: everything you need is provided, from a kitchen with tea- and coffee-making facilities to high-speed broadband.

IMAGES Mantle Business Centres at Stevenage (above) and Duxford (below left)

There are also meeting rooms available to virtual office clients at a discounted price, which you can book by the hour to host clients, conduct business and make a lasting first impression.

Virtual office clients are also offered complimentary tickets to inhouse networking events at Mantle locations, with speakers from an array of businesses. These meetups provide an excellent opportunity for personal growth and business development, and the opportunity to make valuable connections, too.

What’s more, breakfast is included.

Get in touch to discuss how Mantle Business Centres can help you meet your business requirements, as well as your future plans. mantlebusinesscentres.co.uk 0333 00 66 330

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AI SPECIAL

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AI SPECIAL

While artificial intelligence has the potential to bring about massive positive changes in society, the emergence of powerful and complex algorithms is not without its drawbacks. Here, Matthew Gooding talks to four experts to discuss the challenges facing those working in this field ambridge is awash with artificial intelligence companies. Barely a week goes by without a start-up announcing it will use machine learning to revolutionise a hitherto untouched area of our lives.

But while entrepreneurs and investors have rushed to embrace the potential of machine learning, with over ÂŁ800m of funding received by British AI businesses in the first six months of 2019 alone, consumers are not so sure.

Research from the Edelman Centre of AI Expertise, commissioned earlier this year in conjunction with the World Economic Forum, found that 54% of the general public believe AI cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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development will hurt the poor, while 71% are concerned it will lead to a loss of human intelligence. Meanwhile, 60% of those polled feel greater regulation is critical to AI’s continued safe development.

Like many emerging technologies, AI faces a battle to convince people that its benefits outweigh its drawbacks, and the depictions of powerful and rogue AIs often found in popular culture add another level of confusion.

Here, four leading lights from the Cambridge AI scene tell Cambridge Catalyst about some of the misconceptions and challenges facing their industries.

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HEALTH AI SPECIAL

LEFT Mohamed Elmasry, CEO of Tactful AI

A machine will always lack the human capacity to know everything, and be limited by the information you give it" COULD AI ENSLAVE HUMANS? “It’s very difficult to build something that’s completely flawless,” says Tactful AI’s CEO Mohamed Elmasry, when I ask him if there’ll ever be an artificial intelligence that can rule the world. And after “15 to 20 years” working in the industry, he should know.

“No one was calling it AI when I started,” he recalls. “We were talking about things like neural networks. The first projects I worked on were about controlling motors or small power stations, trying to get them to think like humans so they’d know when to speed up or slow down.”

This kind of relatively rudimentary task is a long way from the allconquering computers depicted in films like Terminator and The Matrix, and despite the hype, Mohamed expects this kind of general AI to remain firmly in the realm of science fiction.

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of different software, a new type of programming. With the current technologies, I can’t see a path to that.

“For an AI to work properly you have to put in a lot of effort to train it, and because of this it’s good for specific processes. But a machine will always lack the human capacity to know everything, and be limited by the information you give it – an AI can’t build something by itself. The standard of machine-to-machine communication you would need doesn’t exist, either.”

Though his background is in hardware and Internet of Things (IoT) systems, Mohamed’s day-to-day work at Tactful is now software focused.

The company has built an AI system which helps businesses improve their engagement with clients.

“We’re trying to transform customer care,” he says. “We work with engagement teams to provide them with relevant information while they’re dealing with customers.

Our platform uses natural language

processing to follow what’s happening in a conversation between the end user and the customer care team, and provides specific pieces of relevant information. So if someone is asking for a phone upgrade, for example, the system will check their account for previous contracts and upgrades they’re eligible for and provide the agent with the information they need to advise the customer.

“This helps the company offer a more efficient and personalised service, and improves customer satisfaction and engagement.”

Tactful started life in 2016 as an IoT business, but pivoted to its current product last year after Mohamed and his co-founders spotted a gap in the market. Its product is already in the hands of customers around the world, and last month the company agreed a deal with two major hotels in Saudi Arabia, Makkah Clock Royal Tower and Raffles Makkah Palace, which will use Tactful systems to help their guests. tactful.ai

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AI SPECIAL

IS AI BIASED? Examples of AI reinforcing social biases are myriad, including an infamous occasion when a Google image recognition algorithm classified black people as gorillas. “Bias is a really important problem in AI,” says Libby Kinsey, a machine learning specialist and advisor at Iprova, the Cambridge company which uses AI to help companies develop new inventions. “It occurs when people make generalised claims which aren’t backed up by sufficient data, or data which has been wrongly applied to all user groups.

“But we’re all a bit biased, and I think these cases shine a light on problematic areas for humans in general. In the industry we’re starting to see a move away from the old Facebook mantra of ‘move fast and break things’ – people are becoming more conscious about how they use data and there’s a lot of work going on around establishing good practice.”

Iprova’s team of invention developers (surely a candidate for the world’s best job title?) uses AI to

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LEFT Libby Kinsey, a machine learning specialist and advisor at Iprova, with colleagues

generate potential game-changing inventions based on parameters set by its clients, which include global big names such as Philips and Panasonic.

By using algorithms to search and cross-reference breakthroughs in relevant areas, the company says it can dramatically cut product development times.

“We use AI to augment human innovation,” Libby says. “Invention teams within companies often become top experts in a particular area, but this sometimes makes it difficult for them to scan around and

find the most promising opportunities.

Our system helps them to make those connections.”

Libby’s background is in venture capital, but she retrained in machine learning after seeing a rapid rise in opportunities in the sector. “When I tell people I work in AI, reactions tend to fall into the extreme positive or extreme negative category,” she says.

“One of the most common fears is around loss of jobs, but I think machine learning has the potential to transform roles, rather than replace them, because it’s good at doing the routine, boring tasks that humans find difficult.

“There was a time, around 2014 to 2016, where people were simply saying, ‘there’s AI, what can we do with it?’.

Now I think people are becoming more aware of what it can do and thinking more about how it can be translated into value for businesses.”

Iprova is based at the Bradfield Centre on Cambridge Science Park, and is currently hiring across a range of roles. iprova.com

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AI SPECIAL

IS AI UNETHICAL? Andrea Pierleoni and his team at Healx use AI to come up with potential new treatments for patients with rare diseases. Despite this being an obviously positive application of machine learning, he is acutely aware of the need for AI to develop in an ethical way.

“We’re in a bit of a bubble in Cambridge, so people around here understand what we’re doing, and the area in which we work is something everyone can benefit from,” he says.

“Other areas cause more concern; AI is basically a set of very powerful tools, and can be used for good or bad. The negative perceptions around it arise because there’s always a lot more noise around bad things. But AI also has the potential to make major improvements to our lives. As with everything that’s powerful, it needs to be used correctly, which is why ethics are really important.

Ethics start with researchers, they have to consider the implications of what they’re working on, and whether they will necessarily be positive.

“A good example is a model developed by Open AI, which had the potential to generate realistic fake news

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AI is basically a set of very powerful tools, and can be used for good or bad" LEFT Andrea Pierleoni, head of AI at Healx

reports if it wasn’t used in the right way.

They decided to only release part of the model because they knew that part could have very good effects.”

Andrea is head of AI at Healx, which was co-founded in 2014 by CEO Dr Tim Guilliams and Dr David Brown, the co-inventor of Viagra. The company aims to advance 100 rare disease treatments towards the clinic by 2025 using Healnet, its AI platform, which delivers data-driven treatment predictions that can shorten the discovery-to-clinic timeline to as little as 24 months. The company recently raised $56m in Series B financing

which it will use to develop its drug pipeline and to launch a global Rare Treatment Accelerator programme, which will help it connect with more rare disease communities. “We work with drugs that are already approved, and I lead a team of people whose job it is to make the sense of all the information that we can digest around these drugs,” Andrea says.

“We use natural language processing to understand texts, looking at publications and other relevant documents, then extract the information and put it together. This is then used to make predictions about which drug may work for a type of condition.

“We’re giving patients with rare diseases access to medication where they might otherwise have nothing.” healx.io

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AI SPECIAL

DOESN'T AI NEED A LOT OF DATA? Artificial intelligence and big data often go hand-in-hand, but generating the kind of enormous datasets required to train an algorithm can come at a big financial and environmental cost.

This is why Cambridge’s Prowler.io is doing things differently, working with what CEO Vishal Chatrath describes as “small data” to create its novel AI decision-making platform.

“Machine learning relies on lots and lots of data points and lots of information, and for that you need a lot of sensors,” he says. “We don’t believe in this approach, it’s costly and involves putting a lot of plastic and silicon in the world, which isn’t that great from an environmental impact perspective.

“Everyone talks about a future where we will need big data, but this is often driven by IT companies trying to sell server space, rather than what can add value for businesses.”

While most AI companies base their systems on deep neural networks, algorithms that learn as they are fed more and more data, Prowler’s system uses Gaussian theory, a type of probabilistic modelling that requires a lot less information.

Prowler's trick has been to apply this theory at scale, something previously thought to be impractical, so that its AI can help the company’s clients, working in industries such as financial services and logistics, make smarter decisions around their processes and supply chains.

Vishal believes moving away from the big data model can help smaller businesses embrace the positive impact of AI. “Companies of all sizes should be able to benefit from AI,” he says.

“People do think it’s just for the big corporates, but that all stems from this idea that you need lots of data and it’s going to be expensive.” cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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Everyone talks about a future where we will need big data, but this is often driven by IT companies trying to sell server space" Prowler has enjoyed a stellar 2019, securing additional investment and major new clients. And while Vishal believes more and more people are opening their eyes to the potential of AI, he is aware that the industry still has some work to do on its image.

“I think one of the biggest problems is around expectations and the hype that comes with AI, because if you build up expectations and then don’t meet them, you get into difficulties," he says. “I think we’re now in a place where people are becoming more aware of the hype and having a healthy scepticism towards it.

“When we go and talk to customers we just ask them about their problems and how we can solve them. We take the AI out of the customer’s world, because the method we use to solve their problem isn’t particularly relevant - whether we’re using a hammer, a spade, or an AI is a moot point.”

ABOVE Prowler CEO Vishal Chatrath

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AI SPECIAL

John Cassidy, CEO of Cambridge Cancer Genomics (CCG.ai), considers the role of artificial intelligence in healthcare rtificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform healthcare as we know it. But will it make healthcare fairer and more accessible for all, or will AI lead to a widening of healthcare disparities between the rich and the poor?

AI, and in particular deep learning, excels at uncovering non-obvious connections in large data sets. For this reason, it is hardly surprising that healthcare professionals are excited about the possibilities of AI. In general, the aim is not to replace existing healthcare professionals, but to give them the tools they need to reduce mundane or repetitive tasks. With AI that can process thousands of images in minutes, a doctor’s time can be freed up to focus on providing experiencebased judgements on difficult to diagnose ‘edge cases’.

As our population ages and the burden on our healthcare systems increases, there is also a huge economic incentive to develop intelligent systems to improve healthcare efficiencies.

For these reasons, it is not surprising that hardly a day goes by without a new announcement on how intelligent algorithms will soon be able to diagnose cancer, macular degeneration or heart disease better than many experts.

However, as with all new technologies, there are limitations that need to be addressed. Perhaps the most glaring in healthcare are those of ‘black-box algorithms’. Artificial neural networks (ANNs), a specific type of deep learning, for example, excel at finding hidden cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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patterns and connections in large and often apparently unconnected training data sets.

While these could tell you that you are more likely to die of heart disease, for example, they are terrible at explaining the hidden logic between connections and distinguishing correlation from causation.

In some ways this is a familiar concept in biomedical science – we still don’t understand how paracetamol works on the molecular level, for example. Doctors may be keen to deploy whatever tool is most effective, regardless of our deeper scientific understanding. For healthcare, this raises an interesting question: do we need to understand the reasons for our diagnosis or treatment regimen? Or is it enough to know they will work?

More interpretable methods in machine learning may offer some assurances to regulators by at least attempting to define the most important features of a decision. Indeed, these methods often uncover hidden biases within data sets.

In our work at CCG.ai, for example, we uncovered a signature correlated with poor response to chemotherapy for breast cancer patients. Unfortunately, one of the most important individual features identified to be associated with poor response was race. In this case, we did not uncover one of the deeper socioeconomic issues in our healthcare system, in fact ‘unknown race’ was far more associated with relapse than any other label. We reasoned that if a hospital did not

manage to record a patient’s race, then perhaps clinical follow-up was less than robust. Indeed, most cases of ‘unknown race’ within our training set were from a single clinical centre in the USA. In cases like the above, identifying biases in our training sets through the use of interpretable machine learning models could have an unforeseen benefit: we could use them to correct human biases. The real danger comes when we use models with poor interpretability.

If unchecked, AI could amplify and perpetuate biases that already exist in healthcare.

But what if we were to use powerful black-box models in data sets without any bias? Aside from being a technical challenge, AI can be ‘brittle’. While a model trained on data from our best clinical centres may perform well in our best in a similar scenario, they may break when exposed to brand-new data.

At CCG.ai, we are building software tools to enable AI-powered precision oncology for all patients, so it’s important to ensure that AI doesn’t perpetuate inequalities already present in healthcare.

Therefore, we need to 1) uncover and reduce biases already present in our healthcare systems, and 2) ensure a wide variety of medical data sets are free for researchers to train from.

Identifying biases in our training sets through the use of interpretable machine learning models could have an unforeseen benefit: correcting human biases" ISSUE 04

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AI SPECIAL

AN AI COMMUNITY FOR CAMBRIDGE Belle Taylor, director of Camb.ai, introduces Cambridge's new artificial intelligence network, designed to connect and push forward the AI community in the city amb.ai is a recently launched network to connect the AI community in Cambridge. But does Cambridge really need a(nother) AI network? What do we hope it will achieve? And how do we hope people will get involved?

There are so many exciting and interesting companies and people doing great things with AI in Cambridge, but they often don’t have a chance to talk to each other and share their experiences. The aim of Camb.ai is to create spaces — both on and offline — where people can meet, learn from and collaborate with other people in the AI community.

Camb.ai is a not-for-profit initiative started by Cambridge Cancer Genomics (CCG.ai). As an AI start-up in Cambridge, CCG.ai benefits hugely from the vibrant tech and life science ecosystem locally. However, with the explosion of AI around us — including huge companies like Microsoft, Apple and Amazon, and much smaller start-ups operating out of labs and shared workspaces — we find that it is increasingly difficult to make meaningful connections with all our neighbours.

AI is a field that benefits hugely from communication. Whether sharing new research, discussing successful

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and failed analysis techniques, or debating how to minimise biases in AI data sets: there are few problems in AI that someone else won’t have met in some capacity before. It is therefore in everyone’s interest to meet people beyond their immediate workspace. By forging more connections, people have access to more knowledge, resources and support. From that, who knows what great things will happen?

While Cambridge does not lack cool AI events and initiatives, it is hard to keep on top of them without trawling websites and signing up to a million mailing lists. Camb.ai aims to be a central resource for local AI related events with our website, newsletter and social media highlighting AI events or workshops happening locally. This, we hope, makes finding and signing up to cool events – and meeting like-minded, interesting people in the process – that much easier.

Additionally, Camb.ai runs its own programme of events. But, with the very real possibility of ‘event fatigue’, we try to ensure that they add to the conversation without overwhelming it. We consult our members as to what events they’d like to attend, and then we do our best to make them happen! One of our most recent events, in partnership with World AI Week, brought together an eclectic panel – a science and tech journalist, an AI philosopher, a machine learning engineer, a doctor-turned-CSO and a decision-making researcher – to talk about the impact of AI in business and academia (this will be released as a cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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AI SPECIAL

RIGHT An event held recently at The Bradfield Centre by Camb.ai as part of World AI Week 2019

It is important to us that we are not competing with existing communities: rather, we are linking them together into one giant spiderweb of connections"

ABOVE Belle Taylor is the founder and director of Camb.ai

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podcast via Science:Disrupt soon). In contrast, the next event was a Health and AI recruitment event!

The hub of AI activity in Cambridge is so exciting! But, in an era of events and networks, it is important to us that we are not competing with existing communities: rather, we are linking them together into one giant spiderweb of connections. We believe that by strengthening the cross company/ people links within the area, we can raise awareness of all the great work occurring here and increase the collaborative spirit of the community.

Camb.ai’s aims for our members are therefore quite simple: Develop professional skills and networks by creating spaces for people to meet, talk to and learn from others in the AI community.

Be a central resource for all AI related events in Cambridge.

Our aims for Cambridge are: Connect people and companies to create and strengthen professional links in the area.

Showcase Cambridge as a world AI hub in order to attract and retain AI talent.

This is hopefully just the beginning of an exciting AI community in Cambridge. So, if you’re interested in AI in any capacity, we’d love to welcome you to Camb.ai!

To get involved, check out our events listings online at camb.ai and subscribe to our Slack channel or mailing list for updates. We hope to meet you soon!

To join the Camb.ai community and stay up to date with local events, request training, or discover recruitment opportunities, visit camb.ai/events

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AI SPECIAL

ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO POST IT? ILLUSTRATION BRUCE RICHARDSON

Dr Marcus Tomalin, senior research associate at the University of Cambridge's Machine Intelligence Laboratory, looks at using AI to combat hate speech online

here are currently deep concerns about the psychological and societal harms caused by online hate speech.

Published in June, a government report called the Online Harms White Paper recognised that “hateful content on digital platforms is a growing problem in the UK, inflicting harm on victims, creating and exacerbating social divisions, and eroding trust in host platforms”.

But determining the scale and scope of hateful online content is not easy. Hate speech is defined as abusive or threatening language directed towards an individual (or group) who is targeted because of protected characteristics such as gender, race, religion and age.

In many countries, victims of social hate speech can seek redress under existing laws. But online hate speech raises particular problems. Many of the offensive messages are posted anonymously, and some of them are generated by automated chatbots.

At present, social media companies generally deal with hate speech reactively on their platforms. An already-offended user can report an offensive message, but it will only be removed if human moderators decide to uphold the complaint. In terms of protection, this is usually too little too late: the victim has already suffered; the damage has already been done.

Keen to take a more proactive stance, Facebook recently chose to ban all overtly white nationalist material, having previously banned white supremacist content. While those decisions may well be positive and effective ones, it’s important to consider whether unelected corporations should be the self-appointed gatekeepers of censorship and free speech in our modern digital democracies.

This topic is of particular contemporary relevance because language-based artificial intelligence (AI) systems are starting to determine with reasonable accuracy whether a given utterance constitutes hate speech or not. These emerging technologies present the possibility of handling the growing phenomenon of offensive online language in new ways.

For instance, automated hate speech detection systems could enable the responsibility of dealing with harmful messages to be delegated to the users themselves, rather than to corporations or to governments.

A specific example should clarify this. If someone with the username ‘White Dragon’ tried to post a blatantly homophobic message as a comment beneath a YouTube video, then the

These emerging technologies present the possibility of handling the growing phenomenon of offensive online language in new ways"

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AI SPECIAL

It’s important to consider whether unelected corporations should be the self-appointed gatekeepers of censorship and free speech in our modern digital democracies" offensive nature of the notification would be identified automatically, in real time, and the sender could receive a warning message: This may be homophobic hate speech. Are you sure you want to post it?

No Yes An interface like this would also enable the recipient to see who sent the message, but the content would remain undisclosed initially. In other words, the potentially harmful post would be temporarily quarantined, and the recipient would be able to decide whether to read it or not, and whether it should appear or not.

And even if the recipient allowed the message to appear, the same warning could still be received by anyone else who happened to be reading through the posts. This additional level of cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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protection would be beneficial, since the sender and the recipient may share offensive views that are not shared by other users.

The basic approach summarised here is similar to quarantining methods that have been used since at least the 1980s to protect computers from malware. It is also similar to other protective measures that certain social media companies have introduced for images in recent months. As a method for countering the growing online hate speech problem, it acknowledges the traditional tensions between freedom of expression and appropriate censorship, and it tries to find an acceptable middle ground between the equally dubious extremes of entirely unregulated free speech and coercively authoritarian suppression.

Quarantining, it seems, may need to become a more familiar part of our global digital ecosystem.

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INVESTMENT

Anna Lawlor, co-founder of Luminescence Communications, on the pros and cons of investing in commercial property ith Cambridge’s seemingly ever-buoyant property market attracting international interest and the expansion of myriad property developments springing up, is commercial property the missing asset class in your investment portfolio?

Commercial properties are premises that house the likes of shops, warehouses, offices, cafes, hotels, restaurants and pubs, and are usually owned by an individual, company or organisation that then rents them out to a tenant.

The collection of this rent provides an income stream for the owner – as does any price rise if the building is ever sold – making it an attractive asset class to include in a portfolio.

With UK commercial property investment volumes hitting £62.1bn in 2018, according to estate agent Savills, plenty of people seem to be doing it, too.

While last year’s figure was 5.7% below that of 2017, it was comfortably above the three-year rolling average of £59.8bn, suggesting commercial property investors have largely regained their confidence after the shock they exhibited on the back of the EU referendum result.

Snapping up a commercial property might sound ideal, but there is a lot to consider.

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Direct or indirect?

A crucial decision is whether to make your property investment directly or indirectly. A direct investment means either buying a property – its freehold or leasehold – and generating a return from a tenant or setting up a business there, or investing in a fund that does the same thing. An example of this would be M&G Real Estate, which recently purchased a warehouse development on Buckingway Business Park in Cambridge for £22m.

An indirect investment includes investing in the shares of property companies, developers or housebuilders, or investing in a fund or real estate investment trust (known as a Reit) that targets the same opportunities, but can be traded similarly to shares (see issue 2 of Cambridge Catalyst for more on this).

Location, location, location Where you want your property investments to be located might help make the direct or indirect decision.

Investors don’t have any control about where a fund manager buys property for their fund but a direct investor can choose to home in on one location, such as Cambridge.

That being said, as Philip Woolner, a managing partner at Cheffins in

Commercial property investors have largely regained their confidence after the shock they exhibited on the back of the EU referendum result" cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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INVESTMENT

Cambridge warns, commercial property investment is “not for the uninitiated”.

“If you don’t know what you are doing then you need to take good advice from a surveyor,” he says.

“Freehold transactions are more straightforward, but some investments are long leaseholds. You need to look carefully at what the leaseholder interests are to ensure what you are buying is a good investment.”

To reinforce the point, Woolner states that residential leasehold documents might be roughly three to four pages whereas a commercial lease would be a minimum of 35 pages – although often around 65 – and each one is usually different to the next.

Other major considerations are the financial strength of your tenant and whether you believe they will remain in business for a long time. Just like with a residential let, if you don’t have a tenant, you still have to pay the mortgage (see box). cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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Competitive Cambridge While a high-demand city is attractive to investors, it means intense competition for investable properties, reducing available real estate stock.

Savills cites Cambridge as a city that has low office availability and limited choice for occupiers. This means valuers are applying higher rental value growth and above average increases in capital values; you pay higher prices for the same property stock, and profitability is squeezed.

Philip Woolner says the competition to own property in the city is “quite intense, because the story of Cambridge is so good”.

“Cambridge stands out for the growth potential everyone sees here as well as its sector-specific nature,” he says. “This is one of the places in the world where tech businesses want to come and set up their research and development (R&D) facilities.” This view is substantiated by the recent move

While a high-demand city is attractive to investors, this means intense competition for investable properties, reducing available real estate stock" from Chinese communications giant Huawei, which splashed out £37.5m on the 550-acre former Spicers site at Sawston.

Large amounts of central Cambridge are owned by the university and its respective colleges: the combined property holdings of Oxbridge colleges were worth £3.5bn, while the universities collectively hold property investments worth £863m in 2018.

Beyond this, strong demand means rents are being pushed ever higher, possibly reducing the pool of tenants

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INVESTMENT

who will be able to afford the monthly payments: prime sites in Cambridge are now demanding around £45 per square foot compared to between £20 to £25 a decade ago, according to city agents.

More broadly, the city’s local plan, adopted in October 2018, predicts 44,000 jobs and 33,000 homes will be created by 2031. For smaller investors, therefore, investable opportunities may be more attractive outside the city.

Philip Woolner suggests “looking where the chimney pots are going”, given that larger residential developments are likely to be accompanied by a surge in surrounding commercial property.

Action required Just like any asset, care and attention is needed to achieve results in commercial property. A tenant is only going to want to pay the market rate if the building is of a good standard, which might require further investment from the owner post-purchase.

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Care and attention is needed to achieve results in commercial property. A tenant is only going to want to pay the market rate if the building is of a good standard, which might require further investment from the owner post-purchase" Attracting – and importantly keeping – a tenant is vital to the success of a commercial property investment, too. Not only does their rent pay the mortgage but a high-quality tenant could bolster the property’s capital value during an economic downturn.

Given that Savills expects price appreciation to account for less than one third of total returns across UK property for 2019 to 2023, keeping tenants happy will be extremely important for any near-term property investment.

Picking a side Before deciding how to keep your tenants happy, you need to identify

which type of tenant you want. Such a decision obviously has a huge impact on the building you invest in, given the needs of a retail or an industrial tenant, for instance, are very different.

Analysing industry data is a useful way of deciding which sector to target. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) produces its Tenant Demand Indicator on a quarterly basis.

This remained in negative territory for the fifth consecutive quarter in Q2 this year, but the retail sector was largely responsible for this, while tenant enquiries for industrial space “continued to rise smartly”. If possible, it would be sensible to diversify your

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INVESTMENT

Savills prime yields comparison January 2018 West End offices

December 2018

January 2019

3.25%

3.5%

3.5%

City offices

4%

4%

4%

Offices M25

5%

5%

5%

Provincial offices

4.75%

4.75%

4.75%

High street retail

4%

4.5%

4.5%

Shopping centres

4.75%

5.25%

5.25%

Retail warehouse (open A1)

5%

6%

6%

Retail warehouse (restricted)

5.25%

6.25%

6.25%

Foodstores (OMR)

4.5%

4.75%

4.75%

Industrial distribution (OMR)

4.5%

4.25%

4.25%

Industrial multi-lets

4.25%

4%

4%

5%

5.5%

5.5%

4.5%

4.25%

4.25%

Leisure parks Regional hotels Source: Savills Research

commercial property investments. Large institutions that invest in the sector will often have exposure to multiple areas. Cambridgeshire County Council, for instance, recently snapped up the 986-year leasehold of a Tesco site and industrial land in Peterborough for a combined £63m as part of its ambition to grow income from commercial property from 3% of its budget now to 15% within the next five years.

If picking a winner seems overwhelming or the likelihood of raising the necessary finance is a tall order, online property investment marketplaces have made it possible to invest in mortgages.

Companies such as Lendinvest allow individuals and institutions to invest in mortgages secured against UK properties. Such websites allow you to create a portfolio of property investments, providing the possibility of accessing several industries at once.

Of course, just like more direct investments, the prices of the properties that these mortgages are secured against could fall and economic pressures could also stretch the finances of tenants, making it more likely they might negotiate for rent relief or even default on their lease. cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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Just like any investment, taking on a commercial property warrants serious consideration – and professional advice too – to help ensure you make the best use of your money.

Experts also recommend investors have a well-diversified portfolio, which means a good mix of different asset classes such as equities, bonds, property and alternatives, such as energy. This is because it is less common for these asset classes to move in the same direction (increase/ decrease in value) simultaneously, giving a diverse portfolio a better chance of providing positive returns over the long term.

RICS data shows that nationally, 53% of respondents to its survey view the commercial property market as in some stage of a downturn, with fear heightened in London due to Brexit uncertainty.

Nonetheless, those in the market are expecting a ‘soft landing’ rather than a full-blown crisis at present, meaning it might be worth doing your homework on property investment.

Just like with a residential property, most individual investors are unlikely to have the necessary spare cash to buy a commercial property outright.

This means a mortgage will be needed to complete a transaction.

While notionally a residential and commercial mortgage are the same thing, lenders such as banks and building societies are likely to demand a bigger deposit for the latter.

According to Cheffins partner Philip Woolner, commercial property borrowers are more likely to be offered two thirds to three quarters of the value of the property as a mortgage, unlike the more common 80 to 90% for residential property transactions.

“Commercial property is seen as more of a specialist product and potentially more vulnerable to valuation swings,” he says. “The bank wants to know that you can service the loan.”

The author, Anna Lawlor, is co-founder of Luminescence Communications. Additional reporting by Bradley Gerrard

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31/10/2019 16:43

PITCH PERFECT

Michael Evans, CEO of Cambridge Carbon Capture, gives us his business pitch What’s your pitch?

Cambridge Carbon Capture has developed a potentially gamechanging solution to climate change.

Our technology removes CO2 from the atmosphere and converts it into a versatile and marketable material with many potential commercial uses. By offering a solution where it is possible for companies to make a profit from CO2 capture, our technology enables all industries to reach net zero, putting a halt on climate change permanently.

How did the company start?

In 2014, we secured funding and industry support to develop our CO2LOC process and carbon capture technology. Since then, we’ve proved the technology in the lab, and are now developing demonstrators to prove it in industrial applications.

For that, we need investment. We’re currently in discussions with a range of organisations to establish partnerships to trial the technology, and are seeking investment to support and accelerate ongoing projects to demonstrate our technology in real-world applications.

What’s your role and background?

I started my career as a product designer, but my interest in science and innovation took me in new and exciting directions. My current role at Cambridge Carbon Capture is CEO, which involves meeting and discussing our technology with commercial businesses, writing proposals and developing the business strategy to raise the funds needed to develop and commercialise the technology. cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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What makes the company unique?

As well as being able to capture vast amounts of CO2 from industrial emissions and the atmosphere, our technology has the potential to make significant profit from the sale of valuable by-products from the captured CO2, using our process.

The technology takes the concept of a circular economy to a whole new level, offering significant commercial opportunities. The by-product is strong and lightweight, extremely fire and water resistant and has many different potential applications across the construction and base chemicals industries. As such, the technology offers an unmissable opportunity for industry to make a profit while removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

We hope this will drive investment in the rapid roll-out of our technology and make a significant contribution to reaching net zero.

to develop products using the byproducts from our demonstrator trials – watch this space.

ABOVE Michael Evans became the CEO of Cambridge Carbon Capture in 2014

Biggest achievement so far?

Earlier this year, we secured a contract with a major UK energy utility company to demonstrate how our technology can impact their operational carbon emissions and have collaborated with the one of the world’s largest construction materials companies

Our technology removes CO2 from the atmosphere and converts it into a versatile and marketable material"

Biggest challenges?

Our biggest challenge is the scale of the task ahead of us and the speed at which we need to work. If we are to have any chance of keeping the rise in average temperatures below 1.5°C, CO2 emissions must hit net zero as soon as possible. We’re working to ensure a better future for our children and future generations, but we need close collaboration with existing industries and large amounts of investment to implement our technology on an impactful scale.

Which individuals or companies are your biggest inspirations?

My biggest inspiration is Greta Thunberg, because she speaks for her generation. It is her generation that will suffer the most and they are rightly holding us to account. We need to respond to the climate emergency and prevent climate change for good.

Where do you want the business to be in five years?

Within the next five years, we need to have achieved a full demonstration of our technology across all major industries that produce a significant amount of CO2. We hope that, in turn, this will mean that we are growing closer to putting a halt on dangerous climate change.

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ENTREPRENEUR STORIES

Greg Law, co-founder of Undo, tells Catalyst about the three professionals who were integral to his business success

’ve been a software developer all my career, and as everyone in the industry knows: debugging dominates software development. Together with my co-founder Julian Smith, we figured there was a smarter way to do this, and so we created Undo to allow software developers to see what their code has really done as opposed to what they thought it would. You can think of the technology as like a black box flight recorder that allows investigators to piece together what happened to cause an aeroplane to crash, except our tech is to allow software developers to know why software crashed.

After several years spending our evenings and weekends proving that our approach could work and would be useful, in 2012 I quit my day job and started working from the garden shed full-time. We raised a very small amount of funding from some local investors (Robert Brady, Peter Harverson, Robert Swann and David Gammon), who introduced me to Ken Roberts – now CEO at Audiotelligence – who helped me get the commercial aspects of the business together, but also was a huge help in all sorts of things. I really didn’t know what I didn’t know, and Ken and those four angels were so useful. In fact, Robert Swann sits on the Undo board to this day.

IDEASPACE B3 This series of articles is inspired by ideaSpace’s B3 events, at which you can hear from a successful entrepreneur and the three professionals who were instrumental in helping their business to flourish. The events also include networking, with pizza and beer to finish. Visit ideaspace.cam.ac.uk for details on upcoming events.

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ENTREPRENEUR STORIES

JONATHAN LEINMULLER FUNDRAISING COACH Jonny helped me get my funding deck together for our series B raise. He is a former VC turned actor – I’m willing to bet a unique combination! Fundraising, as with so much, is mostly about telling a compelling story. Jonny started by tearing our existing deck to shreds, then built it up afresh; it took four or five sessions of several hours each, with a lot of homework for me in between, but by the end we had something unrecognisable and so much more compelling.

We went out to raise £10m and ended up with just under £15m.

Whether you use Jonny or someone else, for all but the smallest raises it’s so worthwhile working with someone who knows what they are doing to get your pitch the best you can make it. If it can raise your valuation by even 10% it will be the best return on a few thousand pounds investment you ever make.

DR HELENA KIM COACHING PSYCHOLOGIST & WORK RELATIONSHIP SPECIALIST When we started, I figured it would be all about the tech, and a bit about sales, maybe some finance stuff, but in reality, emotions dominate. My own and those of the people I’m working with, even customers and investors. Most people walk around completely oblivious to their own emotions and how they are driven by them, and even more so others’ emotions, how you can influence them and the impact they can have on you. This becomes especially important

as the company grows from a few people (family) to a dozen or so (tribe) to a few dozen (village).

Helena has helped me through all that. I like to think that after many years of working closely with her, I have now reached the level of “consciously incompetent” when it comes to my own emotions!

I think this puts me above 90% of people, who spend their whole lives in the realm of “unconsciously incompetent”.

MARK SAUNDERS RECRUITER Over the past two years, Mark has overseen our recruitment as we’ve grown from a team of two in my garden shed to 60+ people in Cambridge and San Francisco. Your first few hires are likely to be people you know or are introduced to, but once you get past that, it’s so valuable to get someone like Mark in from outside to help you attract the talent you need.

It’s a cliche, but completely true, that a company is its people – and recruitment is the single most important thing in building a good team of people. Get that right and everything else follows. As a founder,

you need to be intimately involved, but it’s incredibly time consuming and you will benefit enormously from getting expert help.

That goes for everything, from designing a logo and doing your accounts to hiring. The temptation as a founder is to do it all yourself, but there are people who will do a better job than you in less time. There�s a saying I like: never trade time for money, you’ll always run out of the former first. But it’s not just about time; by working with people who have done it all before, you�ll get better results, too.

JOHN WATKINSON I also need to mention John, a Vistage chair. Vistage is an international organisation of small groups of entrepreneurs and senior executives. It attracts all different types of businesses and helps with plenty of different challenges, but many are the

same from business to business. I joined Vistage three years ago or so, and it’s been a brilliant return on investment for me. So much is covered, from marketing to team building, hiring, vision and strategy and, yes, that one again: coping emotionally.

If it can raise your valuation by even 10% it will be the best return on a few thousand pounds investment you ever make" cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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FUTURE FOR FOOD AGRITECH

Catalyst speaks to Dr Belinda Clarke, director of Agri-Tech East, about how digital mapping is revolutionising the farming industry raditionally, farmers would walk their fields to see how the crops were doing, and if they saw issues like dry soil on the seedbed, weed black grass coming through the wheat or marks of a virus on the leaves, they would make a mental note and then consider the best action. But now, a smartphone is becoming a second set of eyes for the farmer, and we are seeing the wider use of drones and satellites to provide remote sensing of crops. Images of the crop are captured and processed by machine learning or AI software to determine areas of poor growth, and then the results are made available to the farmer on their smartphone or computer.

The exciting part is that this digital mapping can now be used to direct smart equipment, with benefits for the environment and the wider food system.

There is a small window of opportunity between spotting early signs of a problem and controlling it before it gets out of hand. All gardeners will recognise this: you see a few weeds before you go on holiday, but when you come home, it’s a jungle!

For farmers, a delay in action incurs a huge difference in cost. If you can target the problem while it is small and contain it, this reduces the need to spray the whole field. Not only is this better for the environment, but also cuts the cost of the herbicide or fungicide for the farmer.

With GPS-controlled tractors and sprayers, it is increasingly possible to use the information from the field maps to direct the sprayer. In the near future, it will be possible to direct a carefully targeted injection of chemical just to the affected area – and this might not

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even be a chemical. Laser weeders or natural predators such as nematodes (roundworms) applied to the whole field might be more effective.

Increasingly, the industry is looking at ways to weaken the weeds or diseases so that natural competition by beneficial organisms can help to maintain control, without the need for widespread use of chemicals.

Improving the balance in the biome in this way is also better for human health.

However, it does require consumers to have more tolerance of blemished and wonky vegetables.

In a more natural system, a certain proportion of the crop would be affected by insects and diseases – this type of damage is easily cut off, but there is still the public perception that food needs to be perfect.

Soil health is the key to good food.

Creating healthy soils is a top priority for farmers, particularly on the Fens, where it is literally blowing away. Nutrients in the soil are used by the plants and are then released when the food is eaten.

So if you have soil rich in nitrogen and micronutrients such as iron and selenium, which are important for human health, then higher levels are found in the plant.

Many of the microorganisms in the soil have evolved over millions of years to protect the plants they live with and also to make it easier for them to get nutrients from the soil. In return, the plants give them sugars made in their leaves from carbon dioxide and water. This system can also work in the farmer’s benefit.

By creating an environment that is beneficial for soil microbes, the plants will be more resilient to stress from water cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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AGRITECH

Agriculture is looking more and more at these types of circular solutions – we only have one planet and all our food is created from these resources" shortages and will also require fewer artificial fertilisers.

To help with this, we are seeing more farms using anaerobic digesters; these convert crop waste into biogas. A byproduct is a rich digestate, which can be used instead of fertiliser on the soil.

These systems are a win-win.

Nothing goes to waste on the farm, the energy is very ‘green’ and the soil benefits from what is left over. Agriculture is looking more and more at these types of circular solutions – we only have one planet and all our food is created from these resources.

It is often not realised that the majority of the British landscape has evolved from interaction over thousands of years between man and nature; the two are mutually dependent. The meadows around Cambridge are cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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maintained by grazing, the Fens created by draining.

We need to move away from considering agriculture as something separate from the natural environment and look more closely at how nutrients flow through the food system. Living systems provide many opportunities for capturing and using greenhouse gases, for example, we just need to think about the challenges in new ways.

Innovative thinking is needed and creating solutions is a huge market opportunity. Members of Agri-Tech East are leading the development of this rapidly growing sector.

One Agriculture is the theme of Agri-Tech East’s REAP conference being held during November at Rowley Mile Conference Centre, Newmarket CB8 0TF. For more info on this annual event, visit reapconference.co.uk

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WORDS MATTHEW GOODING

TECH BYTES

The latest news and updates from the Cambridge Cluster

A fast-growing Cambridge life science start-up developing technology that can transform human cells into younger versions of themselves has raised $16m (£12.5m). Mogrify has raised the cash to accelerate the development of its novel platform, which could be a game changer for life-saving cell therapies. Led by existing investor Ahren Innovation Capital, the new funding marks the close of Mogrify’s initial Series A round and takes the total amount invested in the company to $20m (£15.5m).

The firm’s technology makes it possible to transform, or transmogrify, any mature human cell type into any other. So, for example, you might take a damaged or dying cell and transform it into a younger version of itself so it can be treated. It is deploying this platform to develop novel cell therapies addressing musculoskeletal, autoimmune, cancer immunotherapy, ocular and respiratory diseases.

Mogrify has grown rapidly since appointing Dr Darrin Disley, the former chief executive of Horizon Discovery Group and one of the best-known

© PHIL MYNOTT

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BELOW The Mogrify management team outside Cambridge Science Park HQ

faces on the Cambridge life science scene, as its CEO earlier this year. The new funding will help it increase the headcount at its Cambridge Science Park headquarters from 20 to 60.

Dr Disley said: “I am delighted we have been able to make an initial close of this fundraising round, with the backing of both existing and new investors. Due to the significant interest, we have been able to secure this growth funding without engaging in a protracted and distracting fundraising process.

“Having now raised over $20m, we can focus on delivery of our business strategy with the support of an aligned investor group. We will continue to engage with high-calibre investors with computational biology and cell therapy domain expertise as part of our ongoing investor relations and capital markets strategy.”

Ahren is a fund started by a group of leading scientific entrepreneurs, including several with strong links to Cambridge, to back breakthroughs in life science and deep tech.

Alice Newcombe-Ellis, founder and managing partner at Ahren, said: “Mogrify’s technology is well positioned to disrupt the global cell therapy market. It’s grown rapidly since February, appointing a world-class management team and delivering strongly against its business plans. We look forward to supporting Mogrify as it goes from strength to strength.”

Parkwalk, 24Haymarket and the University of Bristol Enterprise Fund also contributed to the funding round. Newcombe-Ellis and Alastair Kilgour, the chief investment officer at Parkwalk, have joined Mogrify’s board of directors with Dr Karin Schmitt, the company’s chief business officer. cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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TECH BYTES

RIGHT Rob Percival was a Maths teacher for ten years before founding Blutik

Mogrify is using its technology to develop novel cell therapies addressing musculoskeletal, autoimmune, cancer immunotherapy, ocular and respiratory diseases"

cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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A teacher turned entrepreneur has created an innovative maths learning system powered by artificial intelligence to free up teachers from routine teaching and marking tasks so they can spend more time on tailored, individual tuition.

Rob Percival hopes Blutick will bring the benefits of private tuition to all secondary school pupils. The system gives students intelligent, line-by-line feedback in real time as they work through Maths questions. Every line of working is checked and, as well as correcting mistakes, it gives advice – for example, highlighting if there is a better way of doing a calculation – just like a personal tutor.

Backed by the Cambridge Angels investor group, it has been developed over the last two years in collaboration with The Perse School in Cambridge to ensure the platform and its content helps to build students’ understanding and confidence in Maths.

“As a teacher, it was always a challenge to give pupils enough individual attention in class – there were never enough hours in the day,” said Rob.

“Blutick is designed to take the pressure off by distilling the techniques of the best teachers into an AI system that can help share the load in the classroom. It can also be used at home to give every child their own personal tutor at a fraction of the usual cost – it’s cheaper than a Netflix subscription.”

Blutick covers the full UK 11 to 16 Maths curriculum, aligned to all major exam boards.

Find out more at blutick.com

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TECH BYTES

Cambridge Design Partnership has created a groundbreaking ‘smart pill’ to gather crucial nutritional information to help develop innovative new pet foods.

CDP scientists and engineers worked with the world-renowned Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition on the electronic pill, which can collect food samples inside the canine gut and analyse how various ingredients are digested.

“It was certainly an unusual request and a major challenge,” said Will Bradley, who led the project for CDP. Work has started on Apple’s new Cambridge research base.

The new building at 30 Station Road is due to be completed in summer 2021, and will have space for up to 800 employees.

Apple joined the Cambridge Cluster in 2015 when it acquired Cambridge University voice recognition spin-out VocalIQ. It currently has an office on Hills Road, where its team works on the Siri personal assistant software.

The move to Station Road will see it sitting alongside other global big names such as Amazon and Microsoft Research.

Struggling software company Brady Plc will soon be under new ownership.

The Cambridge-based developer of risk software is set to be acquired by Hanover Bidco in a deal worth £8.3m.

In September, Brady announced it needed to raise £1.5m to keep going until the end of November, with a further £15m required over the long term. Global financier Hanover plans to modernise the company’s software portfolio, which is used by traders in the energy and commodities markets to minimise risk.

Azuri Technologies, a leader in payas-you-go solar home technology in Africa, has opened a new off-grid energy centre in Kenya. The Milton firm believes the centre in Kisumu County will bring affordable clean energy to the many thousands across the county who lack access to mains electricity. More than 600

The launch of Azuri's Off-grid Solar Centre brings modern devices and services to our residents"

ABOVE Only46% of Kenyans are connected to the grid. Azuri is trying to change this with its pay-as-you-go solar home technology providing affordable clean energy

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million people in sub-Saharan Africa continue to struggle without reliable power, and only 46% of Kenyans are connected to the grid.

Using an innovative application of solar power combined with mobile payment technology and energyefficient appliances, Azuri says its technology is enabling off-grid African families to experience modern digital technologies, such as clean, powerful LED lighting appliances and satellite TV, for the first time.

“Kenya’s agenda is to provide universal access to electricity by 2022, and we are delighted Azuri shares and supports this vision and journey. The launch of Azuri’s Off-grid Solar Centre in Kisumu brings modern devices and services to our residents while addressing the challenge of energy access,” said Daniel Okia, chief officer in the Ministry of Energy and Industrialisation, Kisumu County.

The Off-grid Solar Centre features the latest solar home solutions from Azuri, which local consumers can see and try. The centre also provides face-to-face customer support in addition to servicing and repairs.

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SPACE EXPLORATION

We explore Cambridgeshire’s top business spaces, from co-working hubs and start-up incubators to conference venues and meeting rooms

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WHAT’S IT GOT? 48 serviced offices suitable for two to 16 people, four meeting rooms, six kitchen points, breakout areas and six acres of land.

IS IT FOR ME? Whether you’re a one-man band or an established firm, this historic building, set in lush grounds with state-of-the-art facilities, has a lot to tempt.

Virtual office services and meeting room hire are also available.

MILTON HALL If identikit office spaces aren’t for you, check out Milton Hall, an impressive Grade II listed manor house with 48 offices in the village of Milton, just north of Cambridge. Set in six acres of lush landscaped gardens, the building is rich in history; it’s mentioned in the Domesday Book, and previous guises have seen it serve as the Eastern Electricity HQ and a development lab for Sinclair Research. It was reconstructed in the 18th century into the Georgian house you see today, and now, after an extensive refurbishment in 2013, the classic façade belies a contemporary design inside, where you can find top-of-the-range tech facilities, spacious office accommodation and stylish Ahrend office furniture, along with kitchen space and breakout areas.

A variety of office sizes are available with flexible lease options – ideal for companies of all sizes, from one-person start-ups to larger organisations with sizeable teams – and there’s a real mix of tenants within the building. Included with the office spaces are monthly business rates, utility bills, cleaning, security and free parking, as well as DDI and mail handling. cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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Users also have full access to the grounds, kitchens, breakout areas and meeting rooms.

If you don’t require physical space for your company, Milton Hall can also offer virtual office services, providing you with a registered Cambridge office address, mail handling and call answering. This can be a perfect solution for international companies, freelancers and entrepreneurs keen for a presence in the Cambridge Cluster without the cost and commitment of leasing office space.

Also available for booking are four meeting rooms in various sizes, hireable by the hour, half day and full day, for both internal and external companies.

Each comes equipped with AV equipment, plasma projection screen, conference call facilities and highspeed Wi-Fi, and the site has ample free parking for delegates.

“We’re a well-established team,” says Tanya Price from Milton Hall.

“And we pride ourselves on creating a good rapport with our customers so that we become an invaluable part of their team.” miltonhallcambridge.com

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ALLIA FUTURE BUSINESS CENTRE Allia Future Business Centre on King’s Hedges Road is focused on supporting small businesses that create solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges. The purposebuilt centre provides flexible workspace, private offices and co-working, plus event and meeting rooms at affordable rates, as well as offering specialist venture support programmes for earlystage start-ups to help them to grow and scale.

“We know that by supporting these businesses they can do their work better, more effectively, and create more jobs as they grow,” explains Sally Bain from the Allia team. “Also, being part of our centre plugs them into a community of like-minded companies who can become customers, partners, mentors, investors and friends.”

The centre opened its doors in 2013: a bright, colourful space with an open central atrium encircled by three floors of offices and workshops that boasts great eco credentials, with features such as solar panels and rainwater collection (that flushes the loos!). But the sustainability philosophy extends far beyond the building’s design. From day one, the centre has been a hub of the city’s cleantech community, with an active cluster of businesses focused on renewable energy and sustainable solutions. “We’re happy to be the home for social innovation and tech for good,” says Sally. “If you pay us a visit, you’ll find a friendly, entrepreneurial vibe from our community of tenants, who are focused on everything from agritech and assistive technology to fostering and wellbeing.”

“Cambridge has one of the strongest entrepreneurial ecosystems in the world,” she continues. “It works because there is a fantastic mix of people with ideas, plus networks, support and spaces to enable them to flourish. We see our space as key in this support infrastructure,

If you pay us a visit, you’ll find a friendly, entrepreneurial vibe from our community of tenants" 38

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to enable and help future-focused businesses to thrive.”

Although the centre opened six years ago, Allia, the parent company, has been around for more than 20 years, having started life in Cambridge in 1999.

Back then, its focus was mostly social finance, with projects that stretched the length and breadth of the UK, including working with the Scottish government for housing association funding so that they could develop more social housing, and enterprise programmes in the North East helping long-term unemployed people into work.

Since its launch, Allia has supported 2,099 ventures, charities and small businesses, with the Future Business Centre supporting 790 tenants and ventures since it opened.

Through these businesses growing, plus the enterprise projects the team has worked on, over 4,640 jobs have been created, and the finance that they have issued has raised over £333 million so that these businesses can develop and deliver more impact for others.

And as for the future of the Future Business Centre? “We want to do more of what we have been doing!” enthuses Sally. “Supporting these brilliant and innovative small businesses so that they can make greater positive impact – for people, for communities, and for the planet. We have plans to expand into other cities (we already have a Future Business Centre in East London and another in Peterborough), so that we can continue to provide our combination of strategic support and practical business advice to even more start-ups in different regions.

“We’re passionate about protecting the future,” she adds. “We can’t solve all the world’s problems ourselves, but by supporting others who are tackling the most urgent environmental and social challenges, we can help to make this change happen. And that’s got to be good news for everyone.” futurebusinesscentre.co.uk

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INCUBYTESPACE EXPANDS Earlier this year, we introduced readers to IncubyteSpace, a relatively new co-working space from Incubyte located at Cambridge Innovation Park, six miles from Cambridge city centre. Since its launch last winter, the permanent offices have taken occupancy with companies spanning a variety of sectors such as edtech, software technology and cloud-based platforms. But Incubyte is certainly not sitting still, with founder Rob Precious recently announcing the addition of a further 1800 sq ft of dedicated, flexible term, scale-up office space at Stirling House. Building works are in full swing and interested companies are encouraged to drop Rob an email so that early plans and layouts can be explored.

“We’ve had the freedom to grow organically because we are a private incubator,” explains Rob. “So we don’t rely on any external funding or grants.”

The planned office space extension has coincided with an 86,000 sq ft planning application which has recently been submitted by Cambridge Innovation Parks Ltd. This is for three new buildings at Cambridge Innovation Park North, including a day

WHAT’S IT GOT? Fully furnished and air-conditioned facilities.  F ree, on-site gym access, cafe and bistro facilities, electric car charging pods.  High-tech meeting room bookable by the hour, half day or day.  Nursery (coming soon).  Flexible membership terms.  D iscounted IPSE (association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed) membership. 

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nursery, meeting and conferencing areas, mini offices, scale-up space and prestigious office suites from 1,000 sq ft up to an entire 40,000 sq ft building. This development is part of a larger strategic plan to provide ten new buildings in the north, west and south of Cambridge.

Incubyte’s partners have been busy as well: Agri-Tech East ran its first Ag 101 course in September, aimed at newcomers to the industry who want to understand more about market dynamics, routes to market and business opportunities. “Our flagship REAP Conference on 6 November takes the theme of One Agriculture and highlights include insights into emerging agritech and our ever popular Start-Up Showcase,” says Becky Dodds from Agri-Tech East.

Allia Future Business Centre has also been busy, launching its new flagship programme, The Future 20. “The idea behind the programme is to support 20 of the UK’s most innovative start-ups to address the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals as effectively as possible, and to create maximum impact,” explains James Gotz, director of ventures at Allia. “Our start-ups will receive a 12 to 18 month bespoke package of strategic support and workspace from Allia Future Business Centres, as well as access to a wide network of impressive partners.” incubyte.biz

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SOCIAL VENTURES

WORDS MATTHEW GOODING

Providing a crucial link between education and the world of work, Form the Future is flying high. CEO Anne Bailey explains where the business is going next In partnership with

here is a ‘new term’ feel at Form the Future, the Cambridge business on a mission to help young people in the city’s schools and colleges fulfil their potential.

A glut of new starters have recently joined the team at the company’s headquarters in Norfolk Street, working across a variety of roles, from marketing and events to careers advice. Charged with integrating this class of 2019 into an established and successful organisation is CEO and co-founder, Anne Bailey, who is characteristically enthusiastic about her firm’s future.

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IMAGES Form the Future is addressing the skills gap, seen particularly in STEM industries

“It’s been four years since we founded Form the Future and when I look back I realise we’ve come a long way,” she says. “This year, we’re delivering a new apprenticeship programme for the Greater Cambridge Partnership, and we’re expanding into Norfolk and Suffolk, so we’ve had to recruit several new faces. It’s exciting to reflect on how our team is growing as we take on more projects.”

Form the Future bridges the gap between education and employment, working with schools, colleges and businesses to deliver events and programmes that open the eyes of young people to the career opportunities around them.

It is helping to address the skills gap, which is particularly prevalent in STEM – science, technology, engineering and

We've seen an increased number of people looking at apprenticeships and technical routes into work"

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SOCIAL VENTURES

maths – industries. While Anne believes progress has been made, she says there is still a way to go when it comes to getting the workforce of the future ready for the roles that will be vitally important to the industries of the future.

“I don’t think the gap has closed, but there are a lot of factors working in our favour,” she says. “A new strategy for schools came in December 2017, placing greater focus on skills and how they develop. And we’ve seen an increased number of people looking at apprenticeships and technical routes into work,” says Anne.

“From the perspective of the employers, I think Brexit has caused a lot of them to consider what they will do in the future if they don’t have as much access to talent as they do now.

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equipping local young people with the skills that businesses are looking for.”

Form the Future was founded

by Anne, alongside Michaela Eschbach, in 2015. Since then, it has forged strong links with the city’s business community with the help of initiatives like Launchpad, a free STEM programme. It sees schools partner up with businesses who allow students access to their facilities for a range of hands-on activities. Initially founded by Cambridge engineering firm Marshall, Anne’s team has been running the scheme for the past two years. It has the backing of big names in tech such as Arm, Amazon and TTP. “Launchpad has been transformational for us,” Anne says.

“Marshall got in touch with us to ask if we could take it to the next level and it’s

Form the Future was launched at Allia Future Business Centre, which offers flexible workspace, business support and a vibrant community for those creating change. Its four centres – spread between Cambridge, London and Peterborough – are dedicated to supporting businesses that have a positive impact on people and the planet, offering a place to start, develop and scale. Find out more at futurebusinesscentre.co.uk

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given us a whole new programme. It’s open to children in school years four to 12, so we’ve been working with primary school children for the first time.”

Expansion is the name of the game for Form the Future over the next few months. It is halfway through a fundraising drive where it hopes to raise £20,000, and having established itself in Cambridge, it is now looking further afield, signing deals to deliver programmes in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Anne says: “The plan was to see if we could make it work here, then move into other areas. We’ll be tailoring our approach, but my view is the challenges facing young people are not massively different in other locations – they still need to know about their

Nothing breaks my heart more than seeing a young person not able to fulfil their potential, because they don't know about the opportunities available" options and sometimes it’s about raising people’s aspirations.”

After starting out at the Future Business Centre on Kings Hedges Road, Form the Future is now settled into a new home at Allia’s Norfolk Street site. While there have been plenty of arrivals this year, there has also been one notable departure, with Michaela, who was the company’s joint CEO, leaving to pursue other opportunities, meaning Anne is now in sole charge.

“It’s a big change, because we had a really close partnership,” she says.

“But I’m very lucky to have a network of people to bounce ideas off and ask questions – Christopher Walkinshaw at Marshall has been so supportive.

“We still have a lot of work to do.

Nothing breaks my heart more than seeing a young person not able to fulfil their potential, because they don’t know about the opportunities that are available to them,” says Anne.

Find out more at formthefuture.org.uk

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IMAGES A partnership with Launchpad has enabled Form the Future to work with primary school children for the first time

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WORDS CHARLOTTE GRIFFITHS IMAGES HARRISON BUNNING

Catalyst meets Grain Culture’s Luca Fiorio to find out the story behind his flourishing bakery in Ely cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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ntil recently, there was little to note about Saturday mornings on St Mary’s Street in Ely. Now, however, you can tell when the weekend’s begun, because of the long line of people – come rain or shine – queuing outside a stylish sage green store that’s become the public face of Grain Culture: the bakery everyone’s talking about.

Expect rough-hewn sourdough loaves big enough to feed entire families, wire baskets of toothsome baguettes, a wall piled high with bread of every shape and colour – and tray after tray of tempting pastries, glossed to a shine, waiting to be thrust into a paper bag, torn into hunks and enjoyed greedily before you’ve even bustled out of the Bake Shop.

Luca Fiorio is the baker and brains behind this latest addition to Cambridgeshire’s food scene, but it’s not even 12 months since he was scooping ice cream at Jack’s Gelato, where he worked after moving to Cambridgeshire from London.

“It feels like ages ago – but I only stopped working for Jack at the end of December last year,” Luca says.

Prior to landing in Ely, Luca and his wife Robyn had been living in London.

Robyn worked (and still does) for the NHS across Islington and Camden, while Luca was earning his keep in restaurant kitchens, where he’d been cheffing since he was 15 years old.

“I didn’t want to go to school – I had no interest whatsoever in that,” Luca says of his childhood. “After many fights with my dad, I said, ‘That’s it. I just want to cook’. My dad said, ‘Fine – I’ll sort something out’ – and he found me an internship at Combal.Zero, a restaurant in a castle just outside Turin.”

Led by Italian chef Davide Scabin, Combal.Zero is still regularly listed as one of the 100 best restaurants in the world, and has a strong reputation for innovative and extremely creative eating experiences. It’s quite the place to start your career. “I did that for six months – I didn’t get paid, but my dad was happy to give me money for fuel

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for my Vespa,” Luca grins. “It was fun.

When you’re 15, you just feel like you’re part of something. At the end of that, I got my first tattoo – and then... I was a chef.”

The young chef worked his way around Italy: he spent winters in kitchens in the north west of the country, cut off by mountains. Then in cosmopolitan Milan, climbing his way up the ladder one rung at a time. Then Greece for a year, where he became a sous chef and met the friends who first encouraged him to move to London.

After a brief, unsuccessful return to Italy, which led Luca to swear never to live in the country again, he drove his van across Europe to Blackheath, London, where he made a home on four wheels – then, eventually, he gave in to his friends’ badgering and moved to their sofa in Stoke Newington. Luca met his wife around the same time: “She moved in, and then we just... stayed together,” he laughs. “When I met her she was working in Medway, in Kent – she started as a locum where she is now, and just climbed up the ranks. It’s a totally different world,” he acknowledges.

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IMAGES Some of the baked goods available at the Grain Culture Bake Shop, including sourdough and focaccia bread

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Throughout his career, Luca has had an obsession with bread. “People overlook it,” he says, when asked why it matters. He always knew a breadbased business was in his future, and the young couple had this in the back of their minds while searching for a place outside the capital to call home.

They found Ely by chance, and fell in love with the perfect commuter town, deciding to invest in a home rather than building a business – in part because Luca was ready for a break from kitchens: “I worked right until the day the removal guys came to pack up.”

Once settled in Cambridgeshire, Luca started working a few days a week with Jack, which – along with caring for his children and supporting his commuting wife – filled up a great deal of the young chef’s time. But eventually an opportunity presented itself: like many of Cambridge’s food businesses, Grain Culture started life in a garage. “Imagine just a standard, new-build garage – that was the bakery,” he grins. “I had a double-door fridge for the dough, basically the size of the shutter, and then I had two tiny mixers, 25 litres each, and two tiny ovens. I had a door, and a bench, and a strip about two metres long and one metre wide where I could walk. People would say: ‘Can I come have a look?’ but… there was no space,” he laughs.

Luca set up the business to sell his bread wholesale and at farmers’ markets twice a month. “And then slowly, slowly I added on to that,” he says. “Eventually, I stopped working for Jack when I picked up a big customer, Provenance Kitchen – that was perfect timing. I had a steady income when I was delivering to them, and I added on various smaller customers in Ely – just slow, steady, at the right pace.”

This calm and careful growth meant Luca was able to take opportunities when they presented themselves: a cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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It’s not just about selling to a community, it’s a relationship.

It’s a two-way thing. Imagine if you had interesting stuff to do right on your doorstep – it makes you feel part of something" chance to take over a professional catering unit meant the business could move out of the garage and step up to the next level.

“It’s so weird,” he laughs. “I honestly thought I’d be in the garage for a year.

I’d been in there, what, two – three months? And now I’m in this unit in Witchford, ten minutes away. There was always a plan, but the time frame was nothing like what it turned out to be. It just all fell into place.”

Interestingly, the shop that’s now the site of such bustling weekend trade – repeated on Wednesdays for a new midweek bake – wasn’t in that plan.

“Originally, I didn’t even want a shop; I was working two Saturdays a month, earning pocket money – the wholesale business was taking care of itself – and I was living on the money, having a good lifestyle,” he says. “And then the opportunity of the shop came along: the building was awesome, and it was on the right side of town.”

The friendships Luca made while selling bread at Ely Market have relocated to the shop, where he now spends a great deal of his Saturdays in conversation with customers, greeting familiar faces and making new connections. This community feeling is something he’s extremely proud of, and which he hopes the local inhabitants also value.

“I know most people already: I might not remember all their names – but I know them,” he laughs. “It’s not just about selling to a community, it’s a relationship. It’s a two-way thing.

Imagine if you had interesting stuff to do right on your doorstep – it makes you feel part of something. That’s what my favourite thing about the shop is: it’s all about the community, these people who might have seen each other at schools, at supermarkets – but now they meet at the shop as well. Ely’s dying for more businesses like this.

You’ve got such a mix of people here:

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it’s the perfect commuter town, and it’s so pretty.”

Luca talks fondly about the groups of people who would come to his farmers’ market pitch and stock up on bread. “People would walk out laden,” he says. “And now they come to the shop – and they stop coming to Ely only twice a month, they now come to Ely regularly, and they say they can’t wait for me to open on more days, because they’ll come in then, too. You see all those articles about shops shutting down in Ely – but you just have to come up with something that

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You have to build that relationship. There’s a number of people who, though they might not need bread or pastry that week, they come because they want to support you" people want, and build that relationship.

There’s a number of people who, though they might not need bread or pastry that week, they come because they want to support you.”

Luca’s schedule and the fact that all his bakes are started two days in advance means he doesn’t currently get a full day off in the week. He’s been known to leave social events early to refresh the leaven and, after his children go to bed, will regularly head back to the unit to check on the loaves’ progress. “It’s constant,” he admits.

“But I enjoy that, I really do – it’s a living thing, it’s part of what I do. And with bread, there is a degree of flexibility: I can manage my own time. It’s all about temperature: I just have to start stuff sooner and let it prove longer, colder…”

Like many chefs, he’s not a fan of shortcuts. “I mean – why? There are so many other people taking shortcuts with bread, because they want to produce more, spend less time at work and make it more convenient so they can achieve a decent lifestyle – and I think that’s what ruins it,” he says. “It annoys me. These ‘artisans’. What’s the point? Why are you sending out

bread you baked yesterday afternoon?

It’s like restaurants: if you don’t want to work evenings or work weekends – do something else! This is what it takes.”

For now, Luca is happy with where he is. He’s stepping back from selling bread on the market to focus on sales through the shop, and adding a midweek bake to the schedule will see even more queues of keen breadheads lining up to purchase pastries.

Collaborative projects are always high on his wish list, and he’s regularly found sliding into the DMs of chefs to suggest they work together. “What is it going to

IMAGES Luca recently added a midweek bake to his shop, so his bread is now available to buy twice a week from Ely

bring me financially? I’m not going to live on that order – it’d just be a cool thing to do,” Luca smiles. “We all value what we’re doing. Let’s do it together.”

But if the last year has taught him anything, it’s that change is inevitable.

So what developments would the baker like to see happen next? “I just want a tight operation, producing the best we can possibly produce. We’ve got a great shop; I’m not planning on changing that. Maybe it would be cool to do something similar in Cambridge: one room, stuff gets baked and delivered within half an hour; open two days a week only – when it’s there, it’s there, and you need to queue up to get it,” he says.

“The dream for the Ely shop is to have enough people that every Saturday – and I’m happy to do the bake, to wake up at 2am – I’ll drop the bread off, and then, I’ve got this bench outside the shop, to sit, have a coffee and a chat for a couple of hours, then start my weekend,” he grins at the thought. “Even as a baker or a business person, I never thought I could do this.

It’s great. The amount of friendships that have come about through the business, just because of... bread.”

Luca bakes twice a week from 9am on Saturday and Wednesday, 30a St Mary’s Street, Ely CB7 4ES, @grainculturehq

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GIFT GUIDE

Blitz your gift list this Christmas at these innovative and interesting Cambridge shops

CAMBRIDGE SATCHEL COMPANY

Local entrepreneur Julie Deane started Cambridge Satchel Company at her kitchen table in 2008, with the modest goal of raising some extra cash to send her son to a better school. The idea – to make traditional satchels inspired by leather school bags of years gone by – was simple enough, but the response was nothing short of incredible. Within weeks they were featured in The Guardian, Vogue Italia and on the arm of every fashion influencer worth their salt, with The New York Times adding to the cacophony of praise by calling the company’s fluoro satchel the ‘Brit IT bag’. Timeless, brilliantly durable and beautifully made, these Cambridgegrown bags have only become more sought after in the years since, and we think they’d make an excellent Christmas present for a person in your life you’d like to treat. As well as the traditional satchels, the company now sells work bags, handbags, totes and backpacks, as well as more pocket-friendly gifts such as notebooks and purses.  cambridgesatchel.com

DRESSCODE SHIRTS Tech meets fashion with Dresscode: a collection of unique shirts adorned with intricate patterns that take inspiration from the digital world, featuring cursors, binary code, pixels, glitches and other coding icons. Earlier this year, Dresscode’s Cambridge-based designer Andy Boothman revealed the company’s latest innovation, the ‘cash cuff’, which enables wearers to pay for items with a swipe of their cuff via a contactless payment module that’s controlled with an online app. It’s a simple user interface that allows people to allocate specific amounts of money to the virtual credit card, which can be monitored or switched on and off at will. Impressively, it’s the first time that contactless payment has been used in clothing, and we think they’d make the perfect Christmas gift for the stylesavvy tech nerd in your life.  dresscodeshirts.co.uk

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GIFT GUIDE

AERIAL COLLECTIVE Take to the skies this Christmas with Aerial Collective, a company that offers flying experiences in iconic vintage aircraft. Based out of the Aircraft Restoration Company’s hangars at Duxford Airfield, flights are offered on Supermarine Spitfires, as well as other warbirds including a P-51 Mustang, sharing with passengers their beauty and power. As well as a once-in-a-lifetime flight, experiences include a gift bag containing a logbook and souvenir flight suit patch, plus free entry to IWM Duxford, Britain's largest aviation museum.

Aerial Collective will also send a personalised boarding pass-style voucher, creating a memento of the day.  aerialcollective.co.uk

LUMIE Looking for a gift for someone who struggles to get up in the morning or suffers from winter blues? Check out Lumie, a Cambridge-based firm that makes a variety of light therapy products designed to help users sleep better and wake brighter. The company was founded in 1991 by sun-loving soul Steve Hayes, who identified the need for light therapy products in the UK and developed a box to increase the body’s natural production of mood- and energy-boosting hormones, like serotonin, to treat SAD, a type of depression caused by not getting enough exposure to bright daylight. In 1993, on the back of some early research into the effect of dawn simulation on alleviating symptoms of SAD,

Lumie (then known as ‘Outside In’) brought out its first Bodyclock dawn simulator, an alarm that wakes you up with increasing levels of light. It was the world’s first wakeup light and brought light therapy into the mainstream. Current Lumie CEO, Jonathan Cridland, continues to grow the company, exploring new markets and delivering on the company’s mission of a ‘life made bright’ by showcasing Lumie lights as modern tools for self-care. Products to check out include the Lumie Bodyclock Glow 150 (£99), an alarm clock that mimics the light and colour of a real sunrise, so when you open your eyes, you feel properly awake and refreshed.  lumie.com

LOVE CAMBRIDGE GIFT CARD There’s always one giftee who’s impossible to buy for, and Love Cambridge has a handy solution with its gift card. Accepted by almost 200 traders across the city, the card can be spent at both high street and independent retailers, restaurants, cafes, and leisure and entertainment venues in Cambridge. You can top up the card online with as little as £10 or as much as £500, and the credit will be valid for 12 months. As well as taking the guesswork out of gifting, this initiative has the added bonus of supporting Cambridge businesses and the local economy. Win-win!  love-cambridgegiftcard.com

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GIFT GUIDE

CAMBRIDGE GIN From small beginnings distilling gin in their living room in Histon, Will and Lucy Lowe have built up a brand known around the world for its innovative creations. Cambridge Gin is distilled using a vacuum rather than hot copper stills, giving a much greater degree of control over the process and extracting maximum flavour, even from the most delicate of botanicals. Be it plant, spice or flower, each botanical is distilled individually to achieve the perfect result and blended together to create a harmonious whole. Not the quickest method of gin production, but it does create something rather special, as the slew of awards Cambridge Gin has picked up over the years attests to. Possible gifts for the gin-lover in your life this Christmas include the truffle gin (from £80), a decadent digestif made with white truffle from Alba, Piedmont (worth more than gold per gram, if you’re interested), and the beautifully packaged 12 Days Of Gin calendar, which includes a selection of 5cl gins, plus a limitededition glass and serving suggestions. Or if you want to really spoil somebody, you could purchase a voucher for a gin tailoring experience, allowing your giftee to spend the afternoon with the master distiller, working together to create a completely bespoke gin to their individual specifications.  cambridgedistillery.co.uk

RASPBERRY PI A Cambridge company that needs no introduction, Raspberry Pi has now sold more than 25 million units worldwide, with the company opening the doors to its first bricks-and-mortar shop right here in Cambridge earlier this year.

Responsible for sparking nothing short of a revolution in computer programming, the company’s super affordable, credit-card sized computers plug into a computer monitor or TV, opening up a world of programming possibilities for both kids and grown-ups. Gift ideas include the fourth-gen model, released earlier this year, which offers a complete desktop computer for less than £30. You can also add in an optional desktop kit, which comes fully equipped with a Pi 4, mouse, keyboard, SD card, power supply, cables and case – all you need for a fully-functioning PC is a monitor.

As with all Pi units, the product comes with a range of programming languages, from Scratch to Python and C++, giving users the tools they need to become developers.  raspberrypi.org

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GIFT GUIDE

SAFFRON GRANGE A family-run vineyard on the outskirts of Saffron Walden, Saffron Grange makes a range of premium English sparkling wines. With 15 acres of planted vines (and plans for significant further expansion), the vineyard is a labour of love for the Edwards family, who have spent nearly a decade perfecting the vines, terroir and techniques to achieve exceptionalquality grapes, which are winning praise from wine experts and locals alike. The range includes classic cuvée, a blend of 50% pinot noir, 35% chardonnay and 15% pinot meunier, which has notes of strawberries and cream, a hint of brioche and a long, refined finish (£32), and a sparkling rosé, with a delicate, salmon pink colour with vibrant red fruits on the nose (£30). All wines are available to buy at saffrongrange.com and other local suppliers, including Grape Britannia in Cambridge.

BEAUCROFT WATCHES If you’re looking to impress somebody this Christmas, check out the recently unveiled launch range from new Cambridge brand Beaucroft.

An independent designer and producer of watches, the company was started by Matt Herd and Karim Faisali, a pair of watch lovers with a desire to create products and experiences that connect people and spark joy. It’s hard not to fall for their beautiful timepieces, which balance craftsmanship and classic design with a fresh, modern style and small details to delight.

The first watch to go on sale (‘Senate’) is now available for pre-order, ready for delivery in early spring at a cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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discounted price of £279. Colour options include rose gold and Cambridge blue, and at the heart of every Senate is the beautiful Miyota caliber 9039, one of Japan’s finest automatic watch movements.

As an added incentive, Beaucroft is offering readers of Cambridge Catalyst a further 10% discount on all watch purchases at beaucroftwatches.com – just use the promotion code CamCat10 at checkout. And don’t worry, your giftee won’t be left empty-handed at Christmas, as all customers will receive a welcome pack sharing details of the gorgeous watch that will soon be theirs.  beaucroftwatches.com

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OUT OF OFFICE

Catalyst visits a manor reborn in the heart of the north Norfolk countryside he phrase hidden gem is bandied around a lot, but you really do have to know where you’re going if you’ve got any hope at all of finding The White House.

Our satnav gives up the ghost a good few miles before we reach our intended destination, leaving us to chug cluelessly along winding Norfolk roads until finally, somewhere between Burnham Market and Brancaster Beach, buried deep within an estate, the hotel rises up out of the surrounding scenery; greeting us with a picture of pristine country house charm.

Framed by lush countryside, this Georgian manor makes an immediate impression with its immaculate whitewashed frontage and handsome turret – but it wasn’t always so grand. Rewind a couple of years and the house was almost derelict; brought back to life by an ambitious renovation project overseen by owner Alison Thompson, who dreamed of transforming it into a luxurious boutique hotel and wedding venue.

The rooms Our visit begins with a welcome tour which takes us around the communal rooms, through a cosy lounge with

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BELOW The restful bedrooms feature contour-hugging mattresses, Nespresso machines and 100 Acres toiletries

roaring fire, merlot-red walls, velvet sofas and board games, and past a well-stocked honesty bar “with all the makings of a perfect old fashioned” according to my approving partner.

In total there are 12 bedrooms, with ours (number 5) continuing the impeccable interiors of downstairs, but switching to a colour scheme of cloudy greys and sage greens. The overall effect is restful, which might explain why I quickly found myself sinking into the enormous bed, discovering it to be so ludicrously contour-hugging and comfortable that I was compelled to whip off the corner of the sheet so I could make a note of the brand and model with a view to purchasing my own (it’s a 1600 pocket sprung, cashmere Hypnos Super King Size, for any interested parties).

Elsewhere, there are lots of touches to delight, from the large (freestanding bathtub, impressive rain shower and winged armchair), to the small (Roberts Radio, Nespresso machine, 100 Acres toiletries), and the thoughtful, like the

bottle of wine with a handwritten welcome note from the management.

Even the hardbacks supplied on the bedside table match the decor in this tasteful abode. An oak desk, framed by curved sash windows which look out on to the paddocks below, completes the picture, and make it the kind of room you want to escape to – perhaps to finish writing that novel? – cocooned in luxurious solitude.

What to do There’s plenty to explore in the surrounding area, and you’ll want to acquaint yourself with the charming towns and beaches that populate this part of Norfolk. Burnham Market, known locally as ‘Chelsea on Sea’, is around a 20-minute drive, offering chichi independent gift shops, galleries and smart pubs, while at Drove Orchards, a quirky collection of traders gather in a rural setting. There’s a restaurant in a yurt, a glamping retreat, a fishmonger’s and homewares shop, as well as the orchard itself, where you can forage cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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Rewind a couple of years and the house was almost derelict; brought back to life by an ambitious renovation project overseen by owner Alison Thompson, who dreamed of transforming it into a luxurious boutique hotel" your own apples to take home. This spot is also home to Norfolk’s probably most famous chip shop, Eric’s, which recently opened a branch in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, and puts a modern spin on the traditional chippie with Japanese-style fish burgers, deep-fried jam sandwiches and battered king prawns. Hot tip: the gherkin fritters are a revelation. A windswept walk along the wild beaches of Holkham or Brancaster will work up an appetite for dinner: both are a short drive away.

Where to eat This part of Norfolk has a deserved reputation as a gourmet destination.

Its abundant coastline yields excellent seafood especially, but from gastro pubs to microbreweries and patisseries, there’s excellent eating options in all directions. One of the best pubs in the area, the multi-award-winning Duck Inn, is handily located around ten minutes away from The White House (in Stanhoe). A friendly atmosphere and polished interiors, combined with cambridgecatalyst.co.uk

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great Full English, fluffy pancakes, and smashed avo and poached eggs on sourdough, all cooked to perfection and served in the beautiful, light-filled breakfast room.

exquisite pub grub and local ales, make it a must-visit. We also tried The Hero in Burnham Overy, which is equally smart.

City dwellers: be aware that Uber has definitely not yet found its way to this corner of deepest East Anglia, and you’ll need to get organised and pre-book taxis, or run the risk of getting stranded at your dining venue (although many do have lovely bedrooms, so perhaps not a huge disaster).

Breakfast is the one meal of the day served at The White House, and they make sure it’s perfect, offering a

ABOVE Breakfast at The White House is served in a beautiful, light-filled room overlooking the gardens

The verdict Despite the fact that the hotel is almost full on our visit, it never once feels busy, in fact, it feels very much like you’re swanning about in your very own glamorous country estate: a giddily enjoyed novelty which lasts the whole weekend. There’s no shortage of lovely places to stay in north Norfolk, but The White House team has created something truly special in its offering, combining the relaxed atmosphere of an Airbnb rental with the luxuries of a five-star hotel. It’s also worth noting that the whole house can be hired out for group gatherings, creating a private party pad with serious wow factor.

The White House, 3-7 Sussex Farm, Burnham Market, King's Lynn PE31 8JY stayatthewhitehouse.co.uk

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OUT & ABOUT

What’s hot and happening in the local events calendar

ICE, ICE BABY

JAZZ FUSION

The city’s outdoor ice rink and alpinethemed attraction has popped up on Parker’s Piece – a sure sign that Christmas is on the way. Opening on 16 November for a seven-week stint, the new-look North Pole Cambridge is no longer exposed to the elements, featuring an all-weather, undercover rink, so you can glide around come rain or shine. Once you’ve had your fun on the ice, head to the Alpine Cabin to warm up with a mulled wine or hot chocolate, or grab a bratwurst sausage from the authentic German swing grill. Also, there will be gourmet burgers, crepes and vegetarian options available. The attraction runs from 16 November until 5 January, open daily except for Christmas Day. Tickets are £10.50 for kids and £12.50 for adults and teens.

The genre-bending Cambridge International Jazz Festival returns to the city with more than 70 gigs from 13 to 24 November. Featuring musical heavyweights from the UK and beyond, it’s a celebration of the best of this diverse scene, from modern jazz to Acid Jazz, spread across 28 venues, mostly close to the heart of the city.

More than 500 musicians will perform in total, with acts including Brand New Heavies, Black Voices Quintet, Mercury Prize-nominees Seed Ensemble and Cambridge’s own Brass Funkeys taking to stages across Cambridge. There are also films, workshops and talks about the roots of jazz, live painting, jams, fringe events and much, much more. cambridgejazzfestival.info

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RETRO GAMING NIGHT Relive a misspent youth at the Centre for Computing History, which is hosting a special edition of its retro gaming night on 6 December. Featuring a bar from Lord Conrad’s Brewery and more vintage consoles and arcade fun than you can shake a joystick at, it runs from 7pm to 11pm, with a few special festive-themed games from the archive to enjoy. If you need a bit of sustenance to keep you going, the organisers invite you to order a Deliveroo to the centre. So, if takeaway, beer and videogames sounds up your street – get involved!

THE BIG SWITCH ON Cambridge’s Christmas lights switch-on takes place on Sunday 17 November, when the city centre is hosting all kinds of festive fun to celebrate the illuminations being unveiled.

Expect a lively line-up of music and performances in market square and in the Grand Arcade. This year, CB1 is getting its own switch-on as well: pop by on 14 November for tunes, mulled wine and food stalls by the train station – the lights are being turned on at around 6pm.

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