"Half the technologies we are going to need if we are to meet our net-zero goals are still in the lab," says Chris Gibbs, Investment Director at Cambridge Enterprise.
"As part of the University's net-zero commitments, we have invested over £7 million in new companies that will get those ideas out of our labs and into the real world."
The result is a portfolio of new ventures already worth more than £500 million, all based on Cambridge research and all with the potential to make a huge contribution to addressing the climate emergency.
Barocal
Barocal is developing breakthrough technologies to decarbonise the cooling and heating sector, which accounts for 40% of global energy consumption.
Cambridge Electric Cement
Cambridge Electric Cement (CEC) has developed a technology for recycling cement from demolition waste, making zero-carbon cement a possibility.
Cambridge GaN Devices
GaN-powered devices offer significantly higher performance than their silicon-based counterparts, enabling radical improvements in energy efficiency and compactness in the sustainable electronics field.
Colorifix
Industrial textile dyeing consumes massive amounts of water and energy and has an enormous carbon footprint. Colorifix has pioneered the first entirely biological process to produce, deposit and fix pigments onto textiles.
DeepForm
Around 44% of metal used to make the body of a car is trimmed off and scrapped. DeepForm is pioneering production processes for car - and other manufacturers - that are more efficient and more environmentally friendly.
Echion Technologies
Echion has devised and patented new materials that enable lithium-ion batteries to charge safely in less than 10 minutes with a long cycle life, ensuring extended use.
Materials Nexus
Material extraction and processing is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. This is especially true for materials which underpin the technologies we rely on to green our economy, including electric vehicles, and wind turbines. Materials Nexus is able to rapidly design and create new materials that solve performance, cost, and environmental issues.
Nyobolt
Nyobolt has created ultra-fast charging battery solutions that drastically decrease charge time from hours to minutes, driving electrification in power-hungry industries such as heavy-duty trucking and warehouse robotics.
Seprify
Seprify manufactures cellulose ingredients, which provide safer, eco-friendly alternatives to traditional materials, resulting in fewer harmful chemicals in everyday items.
Xampla
Xampla creates Morro™ materials which are natural, biodegradable, recyclable and compostable materials made from plants, designed to eliminate the most polluting plastics.
Read the full University of Cambridge article