Global technology giants have turned to a Cambridge UK deep learning pioneer to help steer a world first AI and ML collaboration.

myrtle.ai has assembled a globally renowned team of experts with expertise in producing low power inference circuits and already works with quoted businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

Now it has been chosen to develop a Speech Recognition benchmark for MLPerf – a new Machine Learning (ML) benchmarking competition backed by Google, Baidu, Intel and AMD.

MLPerf, a collaboration of tech giants and researchers from numerous universities including Harvard, Stanford and the University of California Berkeley, is aspiring to drive progress in ML by developing a suite of fair and reliable benchmarks for emerging artificial intelligence hardware and software platforms.

myrtle.ai has been selected to provide the computer code that will be the benchmark standard for the Speech Recognition division. The code is a new implementation of two AI models known as DeepSpeech 1 and DeepSpeech 2, building on models originally developed by Baidu.

CEO Peter Baldwin (pictured) said: “We are honoured to be providing the reference implementations for the Speech to Text category of MLPerf. Myrtle has a world-class machine learning group and we are pleased to be able to provide the code as open source so that everyone can benefit from it.” 

Baldwin says this is the first time the AI community has come together to try to develop a series of reliable, transparent and vendor-neutral ML benchmarks to highlight performance differences between different ML algorithms and cloud configurations. 

The new benchmarking suite will be used to test and measure training speeds and inference times for a range of ML tasks.

myrtle ai’s Speech Recognition benchmark is based on proven experience in this field. Its core R & D team has speeded up Mozilla’s DeepSpeech implementations 100-fold when training on Librispeech, demonstrating their practical experience of training and deploying AI and ML algorithms.

Myrtle was founded to develop software and services for public and private data centres. Originally specialising in image processing and large scale simulation Myrtle helped produce computer generated content for over 20 major Hollywood blockbusters.

Clients have included NYSE and NASDAQ listed companies in LA, Vancouver and London as well as a major automotive OEM and a government department. 

The company is currently targeting its technology at inference workloads in data centres and is involved in a major collaboration to address the safety and verification challenges that currently preventing sophisticated deep learning networks being used in road vehicles.

Peter Baldwin has run Myrtle since founding it. He has a pure mathematics PhD from Cambridge University and a special interest in the mathematical foundations of deep learning.

He wrote and licensed Myrtle’s first commercially available software: a suite of simulation tools that ran at huge scale in private data centres. The first commercial software he ever wrote was used to help produce the chocolate river in Tim Burton’s film ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’.

The celebrated founder of Cambridge Angels, Robert Sansom, is a director while another angel and entrepreneur Robert Swann, who was a first mover in the enterprise, is also on the board; two other companies that benefit from his advice are Audio Analytic and Undo Software – both global leaders in their fields of tech specialism.

From world-changing self-driving car projects to reducing the power consumption of global data centres, myrtle.ai strives to use its engineering expertise to transform the world today by making tomorrow’s AI run with unsurpassed efficiency on low power hardware.

Global technology giants have turned to a Cambridge UK deep learning pioneer to help steer a world first AI and ML collaboration.

myrtle.ai has assembled a globally renowned team of experts with expertise in producing low power inference circuits and already works with quoted businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

Now it has been chosen to develop a Speech Recognition benchmark for MLPerf – a new Machine Learning (ML) benchmarking competition backed by Google, Baidu, Intel and AMD.

MLPerf, a collaboration of tech giants and researchers from numerous universities including Harvard, Stanford and the University of California Berkeley, is aspiring to drive progress in ML by developing a suite of fair and reliable benchmarks for emerging artificial intelligence hardware and software platforms.

myrtle.ai has been selected to provide the computer code that will be the benchmark standard for the Speech Recognition division. The code is a new implementation of two AI models known as DeepSpeech 1 and DeepSpeech 2, building on models originally developed by Baidu.

CEO Peter Baldwin (pictured) said: “We are honoured to be providing the reference implementations for the Speech to Text category of MLPerf. Myrtle has a world-class machine learning group and we are pleased to be able to provide the code as open source so that everyone can benefit from it.” 

Baldwin says this is the first time the AI community has come together to try to develop a series of reliable, transparent and vendor-neutral ML benchmarks to highlight performance differences between different ML algorithms and cloud configurations. 

The new benchmarking suite will be used to test and measure training speeds and inference times for a range of ML tasks.

myrtle ai’s Speech Recognition benchmark is based on proven experience in this field. Its core R & D team has speeded up Mozilla’s DeepSpeech implementations 100-fold when training on Librispeech, demonstrating their practical experience of training and deploying AI and ML algorithms.

Myrtle was founded to develop software and services for public and private data centres. Originally specialising in image processing and large scale simulation Myrtle helped produce computer generated content for over 20 major Hollywood blockbusters.

Clients have included NYSE and NASDAQ listed companies in LA, Vancouver and London as well as a major automotive OEM and a government department. 

The company is currently targeting its technology at inference workloads in data centres and is involved in a major collaboration to address the safety and verification challenges that currently preventing sophisticated deep learning networks being used in road vehicles.

Peter Baldwin has run Myrtle since founding it. He has a pure mathematics PhD from Cambridge University and a special interest in the mathematical foundations of deep learning.

He wrote and licensed Myrtle’s first commercially available software: a suite of simulation tools that ran at huge scale in private data centres. The first commercial software he ever wrote was used to help produce the chocolate river in Tim Burton’s film ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’.

The celebrated founder of Cambridge Angels, Robert Sansom, is a director while another angel and entrepreneur Robert Swann, who was a first mover in the enterprise, is also on the board; two other companies that benefit from his advice are Audio Analytic and Undo Software – both global leaders in their fields of tech specialism.

From world-changing self-driving car projects to reducing the power consumption of global data centres, myrtle.ai strives to use its engineering expertise to transform the world today by making tomorrow’s AI run with unsurpassed efficiency on low power hardware.

Global technology giants have turned to a Cambridge UK deep learning pioneer to help steer a world first AI and ML collaboration.

myrtle.ai has assembled a globally renowned team of experts with expertise in producing low power inference circuits and already works with quoted businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

Now it has been chosen to develop a Speech Recognition benchmark for MLPerf – a new Machine Learning (ML) benchmarking competition backed by Google, Baidu, Intel and AMD.

MLPerf, a collaboration of tech giants and researchers from numerous universities including Harvard, Stanford and the University of California Berkeley, is aspiring to drive progress in ML by developing a suite of fair and reliable benchmarks for emerging artificial intelligence hardware and software platforms.

myrtle.ai has been selected to provide the computer code that will be the benchmark standard for the Speech Recognition division. The code is a new implementation of two AI models known as DeepSpeech 1 and DeepSpeech 2, building on models originally developed by Baidu.

CEO Peter Baldwin (pictured) said: “We are honoured to be providing the reference implementations for the Speech to Text category of MLPerf. Myrtle has a world-class machine learning group and we are pleased to be able to provide the code as open source so that everyone can benefit from it.” 

Baldwin says this is the first time the AI community has come together to try to develop a series of reliable, transparent and vendor-neutral ML benchmarks to highlight performance differences between different ML algorithms and cloud configurations. 

The new benchmarking suite will be used to test and measure training speeds and inference times for a range of ML tasks.

myrtle ai’s Speech Recognition benchmark is based on proven experience in this field. Its core R & D team has speeded up Mozilla’s DeepSpeech implementations 100-fold when training on Librispeech, demonstrating their practical experience of training and deploying AI and ML algorithms.

Myrtle was founded to develop software and services for public and private data centres. Originally specialising in image processing and large scale simulation Myrtle helped produce computer generated content for over 20 major Hollywood blockbusters.

Clients have included NYSE and NASDAQ listed companies in LA, Vancouver and London as well as a major automotive OEM and a government department. 

The company is currently targeting its technology at inference workloads in data centres and is involved in a major collaboration to address the safety and verification challenges that currently preventing sophisticated deep learning networks being used in road vehicles.

Peter Baldwin has run Myrtle since founding it. He has a pure mathematics PhD from Cambridge University and a special interest in the mathematical foundations of deep learning.

He wrote and licensed Myrtle’s first commercially available software: a suite of simulation tools that ran at huge scale in private data centres. The first commercial software he ever wrote was used to help produce the chocolate river in Tim Burton’s film ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’.

The celebrated founder of Cambridge Angels, Robert Sansom, is a director while another angel and entrepreneur Robert Swann, who was a first mover in the enterprise, is also on the board; two other companies that benefit from his advice are Audio Analytic and Undo Software – both global leaders in their fields of tech specialism.

From world-changing self-driving car projects to reducing the power consumption of global data centres, myrtle.ai strives to use its engineering expertise to transform the world today by making tomorrow’s AI run with unsurpassed efficiency on low power hardware.

Global technology giants have turned to a Cambridge UK deep learning pioneer to help steer a world first AI and ML collaboration.

myrtle.ai has assembled a globally renowned team of experts with expertise in producing low power inference circuits and already works with quoted businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

Now it has been chosen to develop a Speech Recognition benchmark for MLPerf – a new Machine Learning (ML) benchmarking competition backed by Google, Baidu, Intel and AMD.

MLPerf, a collaboration of tech giants and researchers from numerous universities including Harvard, Stanford and the University of California Berkeley, is aspiring to drive progress in ML by developing a suite of fair and reliable benchmarks for emerging artificial intelligence hardware and software platforms.

myrtle.ai has been selected to provide the computer code that will be the benchmark standard for the Speech Recognition division. The code is a new implementation of two AI models known as DeepSpeech 1 and DeepSpeech 2, building on models originally developed by Baidu.

CEO Peter Baldwin (pictured) said: “We are honoured to be providing the reference implementations for the Speech to Text category of MLPerf. Myrtle has a world-class machine learning group and we are pleased to be able to provide the code as open source so that everyone can benefit from it.” 

Baldwin says this is the first time the AI community has come together to try to develop a series of reliable, transparent and vendor-neutral ML benchmarks to highlight performance differences between different ML algorithms and cloud configurations. 

The new benchmarking suite will be used to test and measure training speeds and inference times for a range of ML tasks.

myrtle ai’s Speech Recognition benchmark is based on proven experience in this field. Its core R & D team has speeded up Mozilla’s DeepSpeech implementations 100-fold when training on Librispeech, demonstrating their practical experience of training and deploying AI and ML algorithms.

Myrtle was founded to develop software and services for public and private data centres. Originally specialising in image processing and large scale simulation Myrtle helped produce computer generated content for over 20 major Hollywood blockbusters.

Clients have included NYSE and NASDAQ listed companies in LA, Vancouver and London as well as a major automotive OEM and a government department. 

The company is currently targeting its technology at inference workloads in data centres and is involved in a major collaboration to address the safety and verification challenges that currently preventing sophisticated deep learning networks being used in road vehicles.

Peter Baldwin has run Myrtle since founding it. He has a pure mathematics PhD from Cambridge University and a special interest in the mathematical foundations of deep learning.

He wrote and licensed Myrtle’s first commercially available software: a suite of simulation tools that ran at huge scale in private data centres. The first commercial software he ever wrote was used to help produce the chocolate river in Tim Burton’s film ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’.

The celebrated founder of Cambridge Angels, Robert Sansom, is a director while another angel and entrepreneur Robert Swann, who was a first mover in the enterprise, is also on the board; two other companies that benefit from his advice are Audio Analytic and Undo Software – both global leaders in their fields of tech specialism.

From world-changing self-driving car projects to reducing the power consumption of global data centres, myrtle.ai strives to use its engineering expertise to transform the world today by making tomorrow’s AI run with unsurpassed efficiency on low power hardware.

CamBioScience Ltd, an innovator in advanced training and machine learning systems, has clinched around £1.1 million of funding from global backers, led by an early stage investment house, Beaubridge (UK) Ltd.

The money will fuel the global scale-up of OBRIZUM®, a transformative learning platform that incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) to maximise and quicken individual employee learning and training processes—ultimately enhancing their company’s operations and development.

In leading the round, Beaubridge (UK joins an investor base that includes Cambridge Capital Group, Angels in MedCity, Henley’s Business Angels and private investors from the UK, Dubai, and Germany.

OBRIZUM® leverages powerful AI algorithms to continually personalise and enhance each employee’s learning experience. It also automates data organisation and transfer and generates deep, real-time analytical reports that quantify a company’s return on learning investment for businesses.

Businesses face an unrelenting challenge when it comes to employee empowerment via learning and training. They must evolve and maximise their processes or face extinction.

Dr Chibeza C. Agley, CEO and co-founder of CamBioScience, said: “OBRIZUM transforms E-Learning into AI-Learning and takes personalised learning to another level.

“This latest financing from Beaubridge will help us realise OBRIZUM’s full global potential and bring powerful learning and training benefits to business and individuals alike—just when they need it most.”

CamBioScience’s leading AI specialists have built OBRIZUM® to make this transformation a reality by specifically addressing the three greatest challenges confronting digital learning – automation, personalisation and analytics.

“Businesses and individuals need to evolve from traditional static training processes to life- long learning. It is not an option but a requirement”, said Derk Ohler, Investment Director at Beaubridge (UK) Ltd. “We are investing in OBRIZUM because it is helping professionals and businesses meet this necessity.”

CamBioScience brings together cutting-edge technologists, leading academics, software developers and business visionaries to make deep data more user friendly; offer advanced life science training courses; and develop AI learning platforms that help transform the way people and businesses operate.

• PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS: Dr Chibeza C. Agley

‘Bring back National Service’ is the oft repeated cry of the older generation when the current crop of youth seems particularly feckless.

The idea being that a spot of square and spud bashing will instil some much-needed discipline and moral fibre in the degenerate bunch.

So, it’s somewhat surprising that a new ad campaign just launched by the Army is seeking to enlist recruits from, quote ‘snowflakes’, ‘phone zombies’, ‘selfie addicts’, ‘class clowns’ and ‘me, me, me, millennials’. 

You are much misunderstood the ads claim. We appreciate your hidden talents and want to put them to use.

The ads, which are a spoof of the old Lord Kitchener ‘Your Country Needs You’ poster, promise snowflakes that the Army needs their compassion, assure Phone Zombies that they need their focus, and tell Millennials that they value their self-belief.

You must admit that appealing to their vanity rather than their public spirit or patriotism is a clever ploy, even if it does involve a certain sleight of hand. I mean, can you imagine a Sergeant Major addressing Snowflake squaddies in a gentle, non-judgement way? Or tolerating the Class Clown wearing his forage cap back to front?

I’m reminded of that comic song, popular during the last war, ‘Kiss Me Goodnight, Sergeant Major’ which includes the verse: ‘Don’t forget to wake me in the morning / With a nice hot cup of tea / Kiss me goodnight Sergeant Major / Sergeant Major be a mother to me.’

Well, reality will hit soon enough, but by then they’ll have them by the short and curlies, soon to become a short back and sides! And who knows, perhaps the army will succeed in making men (and women) of Generation Z.

The TV ads that support the poster campaign make a rather more convincing case that they can. Cleverly intercut between scenes of the candidates’ humdrum daily lives and their active role in the forces, they make the point that what seems like a negative in civvy life can be a positive advantage in the army.  

Thus obsession (video gamer) becomes stamina (front line serviceman), slowness (supermarket trolley stacker) becomes patience and thoroughness (field nurse), and larkiness (class clown) becomes inspiration (morale building comrade).

As an ad campaign its clever and creative and like all good ad campaigns its built around a strong promise (in this case that the army will validate and transform you as a person).  Whether it makes good on that promise is another matter.

But if it succeeds in reversing the Army’s drastically declining numbers, we may not have to reintroduce National Service after all!

simpsonscreative.co.uk

Transformative Cambridge technology is in the vanguard of an unprecedented trial to detect multiple types of cancer.

The Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre is running the ‘PAN Cancer trial for Early Detection of Cancer in Breath’ in collaboration with Owlstone Medical to test the company’s Breath Biopsy® technology.

The disease breathalyser analyses molecules that could indicate the presence of cancer at an early stage to improve the prospect of cures. It is the first test of its kind to investigate multiple cancer types.

Breath samples from people will be collected in the clinical trial to see if odorous molecules called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be detected.

Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, lead trial investigator at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre, said: “We urgently need to develop new tools, like this breath test, which could help to detect and diagnose cancer earlier, giving patients the best chance of surviving their disease.

“Through this clinical trial we hope to find signatures in breath needed to detect cancers earlier – it’s the crucial next step in developing this technology. Owlstone Medical’s Breath Biopsy® technology is the first to test across multiple cancer types, potentially paving the way for a universal breath test.”

When cells carry out biochemical reactions as part of their metabolism they produce a range of VOCs. If their metabolism becomes altered, such as in cancer and various other conditions, cells can release a different pattern of VOCs. The researchers aim to identify these patterns using Owlstone’s technology.

Researchers will collect samples from 1,500 people, including healthy people as trial controls, to analyse VOCs in the breath to see if they can detect signals of different cancer types.

The clinical trial will start with patients with suspected oesophageal and stomach cancers and then expand to prostate, kidney, bladder, liver and pancreatic cancers in the coming months.

The trial is recruiting patients to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge who have been referred from their GP with these specific types of suspected cancer. They will be given the breath test prior to other diagnostic tests.

Patients will breathe into the test for 10 minutes to collect a sample, which will then be processed in Owlstone Medical’s Breath Biopsy laboratory in Cambridge.

By looking across cancer types, this trial will help unpick if cancer signals are similar or different, and how early it’s possible to pick these signals up. Some people will go on to be diagnosed with cancer, and their samples will be compared to those who don’t develop the disease.

If the technology proves to accurately identify cancer, the team hope that breath biopsies could in future be used in GP practices to determine whether to refer patients for further diagnostic tests.

Billy Boyle, co-founder and CEO at Owlstone Medical, said: “There is increasing potential for breath-based tests to aid diagnosis, sitting alongside blood and urine tests in an effort to help doctors detect and treat disease.

“The concept of providing a whole-body snapshot in a completely non-invasive way is very powerful and could reduce harm by sparing patients from more invasive tests that they don’t need.

“Our technology has proven to be extremely effective at detecting VOCs in the breath, and we are proud to be working with Cancer Research UK as we look to apply it towards the incredibly important area of detecting early-stage disease in a range of cancers in patients.”

Almost half of cancers are diagnosed at a late stage in England. This highlights the importance of early detection, particularly for diseases like oesophageal cancer where only 12 per cent of oesophageal cancer patients survive their disease for 10 years or more.

Dr David Crosby, head of early detection research at Cancer Research UK, said: “Technologies such as this breath test have the potential to revolutionise the way we detect and diagnose cancer in the future.

“Early detection research has faced an historic lack of funding and industry interest, and this work is a shining example of Cancer Research UK’s commitment to reverse that trend and drive vital progress in shifting cancer diagnosis towards earlier stages.”

Sometimes the structure of how a company is run needs changing when success is achieved, writes Dominic Anthony, Business Services Partner at BKL.

This may seem counterintuitive. Why alter a winning formula, after all? But the qualities of organisation and leadership needed to create a business are often different to those required to help it grow further.

The next stage in developing a successful company depends on three central factors: Having the right people on board; developing the finance function; and looking at how best to raise funds.

Investing in your human resources function will not just help to manage growing staffing levels, but also to help ensure that the best people are recruited. Your people proposition will be key to the journey ahead.

Good financial information is also now even more vital. You should think about the internal and external finance functions, which may involve hiring an interim chief finance officer and, ultimately, even a permanent finance director.

As for raising money, this requires especially careful planning. Every avenue that brings outside investment comes with obligations as well as opportunities.

Recently I worked closely on a crowdfunding campaign for Cambscuisine, an expanding restaurant, pub and catering business. This work brought in investment, but also attracted a key investor with a track record of success in the same area. He has taken a place on the company board and brings invaluable experience as the company expands.

But for some businesses, existing shareholder funds or traditional bank loans are more appropriate. Every option needs to be weighed up, carefully taking into account not just the financial aspects, but also the extra reporting and compliance obligations that can follow from widening the investor base.

There is also the potentially awkward question of who should be leading the business in its next phase and the team they will need around them. There may come a time when it’s essential to take a look at who is around the table and what the business needs to drive it forward. A founder is not always the best leader.

One of the difficulties is recognising when the moment to reassess has arrived: what needs to happen will depend on how the question ‘what is success?’ is answered.

Founders do need to try and agree a response. If that proves impossible, it may be the sign to rearrange executive structures and responsibilities.
The divisions that can occur in a founding team when the initial common purpose is achieved emerge for all sorts of reasons, none of which are to do with cashflow or technical issues. 

There can be disagreements about future direction, for example, concerned with whether to consolidate around stability or to push for further growth. The attempt to agree a long-term vision may also be complicated by individual desires to step back or to realise an equity stake.

The key lesson from success when it arrives for a new enterprise is to recognise that it is not the end of the process, but a new beginning. It is a fork in the road, never a dead end.

Whether you’re a business owner, entrepreneur, or private equity backed management team, having a business strategy is key to supporting the growth plan of turning a business generating £10 million of revenue into a business generating over £100m of revenue, writes Nick Gomer, head of EY in Cambridge.

If you asked the majority of business owners across the East, most would say they are looking to grow their business. However, many miss one simple thing – a ‘business strategy’ to support the growth plan on which the management team and company are aligned, i.e. how do I get from where I am now to where I want to be? And most importantly, how do I measure and track this strategy?

With any business strategy, having a competitive advantage gives the business a head start. But to continue growing, this competitive advantage needs to be maintained. 

As such, businesses need to be prepared to be a disruptor in their sector, always pushing new ideas, and innovating their offering whatever the product or service.

Typically businesses generating revenue of £10m will have already overcome past challenges and therefore understand their capabilities, competitors and customers. However, they often don’t consider the importance of creating and fostering an effective business strategy; starting at the board and management level, and filtering through the company.

EY’s 7 Drivers of Growth is a framework designed to help companies align their capabilities with their growth strategies. These drivers help leaders of aspiring companies to think differently, by assessing where they are today and planning the right path forward to accelerate growth.

1 People management
A business is only as good as the people working for it. How can a business stand out to attract and win the war for talent? Leading businesses build an environment that values diversity and attracts and retains the right people to help them grow – this is becoming increasingly important and starts from the top. A desired company culture that is implemented at the top quickly perforates into the whole business and can deliver incredible results.

2 Getting the right customers
Leading companies make customers their focal point and consistently invest to build and develop these relationships. After all, businesses are providing a solution to a customer’s issue or problem. Business leaders should use customer feedback to drive innovation; thinking like their customers and understanding what really drives their decision-making will help to achieve competitive advantage.

3 Digital, technology and analytics
Digital technologies are fundamentally changing the ways consumers interact with each other, while also opening up new business models. Organisations harnessing the power of IT can create a strategic and competitive advantage. However, this must be balanced with direct face-to-face meetings with customers to preserve the original relationship. 

4 Streamlined operational model
An operating model is the link between the business strategy and the ability of the organisation to deliver on that strategy. Having a clear approach that aligns operations with strategy will increase the ability to achieve success. Market leaders understand that every aspect of their business must hold up to scrutiny and be constantly improved to stay ahead of the pack.

5 Funding and cash flow management
How a business manages its money and investors determines its course for the future. Leading companies determine the best mix of finance for them and derive maximum benefits from their management of available funds. Decision-makers should be open to different sources of finance and understand the benefits of each. 

6 Growth by acquisition vs. organic growth
Market-leading companies rarely evolve by organic growth alone. To rise to the top they seek successful partnerships and strategic acquisitions capable of enhancing their growth, competitiveness and profitability. Leading businesses make a concerted effort to remain alert to transactions, including those of their competitors, to build a profile in their markets and to ensure that they are well positioned to seize an opportunity as soon as it arises to help the company grow.

7 Embracing yet minimising risk
Fast growing businesses often struggle to keep their risk management processes up to the same speed as the exciting growth they are experiencing. Having a risk management strategy that allows you to scale confidently and quickly will save untold time, expense and worry later down the line. This can be most clearly seen in the back office functions – inadequate accounting systems can mean no access to timely and bespoke management information, delaying strategic decisions being made on the basis of unreliable data.

• EY supports businesses in the East to realise their growth potential through our Entrepreneur Of The Year programme.

With Brexit decisions just around the corner several questions have been raised regarding the future of the UK as a global business location, writes Rob Sadler, head of Savills’ Cambridge office. 

There remains little indication of what a deal might look like at this stage, however despite uncertainty Cambridge’s future remains brighter than ever before. 

The ecosystem that serves Cambridge’s 1,000 plus technology and life sciences companies, which connects entrepreneurs, investors and academics, has been developed over many decades, fostered by strong links to the world famous university as well as a number of high profile medical facilities.

As a result, a number of international and European businesses have made the city their home and while Brexit negotiations have undoubtedly caused unease, several larger firms including AstraZeneca and Arm Holdings have confirmed their long term commitment to Cambridge since the 2016 referendum. 

Crucially they aren’t the only ones. At present, Savills is tracking more than a quarter of a million sq ft of requirements from businesses looking to expand within Cambridge, despite what the future may hold.  

The amount of corporate investment into the city, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital funding, also paints a promising picture. 

Since the referendum, the ‘Cambridge Phenomenon’ has driven capital growth value by an average of 7.3 per cent, far exceeding other key regional cities. With £35.43 billion invested in 2016 and 2017 alone, Brexit has clearly had little impact on investor confidence. 

Looking forward, Cambridge is also well placed to nurture emerging sectors such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). Samsung, Microsoft and local success story Darktrace have already gone some way to create a growing cluster of both mature and start-up AI developers. 

What’s more, with a limited supply of AI experts across the UK, the talent coming out of the University of Cambridge will prove invaluable. For this reason the city is in a good position to take advantage of the Government’s AI Deal, which is set to be worth more than £1 billion. 

Overall, Cambridge’s growth prospects remain strong and the fact that the city is not overly reliant on the financial services sector also insulates it from some of the problems impacting other key business centres across the UK. 

In order to sustain this growth, Cambridge will need to maintain the delivery of commercial space as well as improving residential affordability. Business expansion is all well and good, but if these businesses have nowhere to go, and their employees have nowhere to live, then it is likely to falter with or without Brexit. 

However, with a commitment from central Government and a more localised City Deal in place to try and solve some of these issues, Cambridge is well placed to capitalise – deal or no deal.