As the economy looks to reopen and the Government’s updated support packages come into force, business leaders are rethinking the future of their workforce, writes Gary Hanson, Audit Partner at BDO Cambridge. 

BDO’s latest monthly Rethinking the Economy poll of 500 mid-sized businesses leaders shows that, with so much to consider and implement, only one third of businesses placed “adapting my business for Brexit” as their top immediate concern and instead are focused on making loan repayments (37 per cent) and managing redundancies (36 per cent). 

More locally, our surveys have indicated that East Anglia’s mid-market businesses are bouncing back following the disruption, with 27 per cent of businesses owners claiming to be succeeding in the post-pandemic economy which most will admit is still burgeoning. 

Business leaders in East Anglia appear to have moved quickly to adapt to the new reality:- 

• 37 per cent of businesses have improved automation
• 23 per cent have invested more in operations
• 23 per cent have allowed more flexible working
• 20 per cent have put investment plans on hold

Read BDO’s full Rethinking the Regions analysis for a regional snapshot of businesses’ priorities at www.bdo.co.uk/rethinking-the-regions

One of the biggest challenges facing many businesses has been the speed at which they could adapt, with agility in decision-making and ability to drive changes being two key factors. 

Many businesses have started to transform the way they do business by revisiting operations, identifying efficiencies, adapting product lines and finding new ways of working. 

As has always been the case, economic downturns are accelerators for change. The most resilient businesses are those that have adapted already, with many reporting benefits and accelerated growth. 

A priority for many businesses is how to retain a resilient workforce and look beyond the immediate future to a hopefully prosperous and successful 2021.

Protecting jobs, and cash, through the winter

In a previous survey, less than 10 per cent of businesses stated that they have no plans for any job cuts throughout the winter months. In order to combat this, the Chancellor unveiled the Government’s Winter Economy Plan last month to protect jobs and support employment following the end of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).

The new Job Support Scheme (JSS) will operate for six months from  November 1 to April 30, 2021. 

The JSS will be open to all employers with a UK PAYE scheme and bank account but, to be eligible, large companies must be able to prove that they are still suffering a significant drop in turnover because of the pandemic. 
It is a stand-alone scheme and there is no requirement for the employer or employee to have participated in the CJRS. 

All employers can claim under both the JSS and the Job Retention Bonus Scheme and as this is a new scheme, all employees on the payroll at 23 September 2020 can qualify for JSS.

The subsidy from the Government will be up to 33 per cent of the employee’s usual wages for the contractual hours not worked during the claim period. 

Employers will be required to match this payment in percentage terms as well as pay employers’ NIC and pension contributions on the total salary payment. In total, this will guarantee employees a minimum income of 77 per cent of their normal earnings during the claim period.

The Chancellor also announced:-

• Changes to the Bounce Back Loan and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan schemes, including extended repayment terms and application deadlines
• The option for taxpayers that deferred VAT payments between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020 to spread their payments over 11 interest free payments in the financial year 2021-2022; and
• Extension of the temporary reduced rate of VAT (5%) to 31 March 2021 for the hospitality and tourism sector.

Maintaining a focus on risk

Our focus is to ensure organisations are resilient for what the immediate future may bring, but also that they have assessed their ongoing risk. The CJRS was implemented in a very short timeframe and the mechanism for claiming was very complex.

Understandably, many businesses focused on cash flow and securing a grant rather than the detail of their claim.  

HMRC is now starting to review claims to ensure they were accurate and is pursuing the large number of CJRS claims thought to be incorrect or fraudulent. It has also introduced a penalty regime that will apply where corrections to a claim have not been made in the allowable period (the later of 90 days from the claim or 20 October 2020). 

Now is the time to consider whether the process you used to make your claim is accurate – BDO can support you with our CJRS Process Risk Review Tool.

Do get in touch with me if you would like to discuss your risk exposure. Aspects to consider include payroll frequency, salary sacrifice arrangements, types of employees and flexi-furlough claims to help you decide whether any further action is required or alternatively give you the peace of mind that your claim was correct. 

• Gary Hanson is available on 01223 535000 or 01223 266350 or via email: gary.hanson [at] bdo.co.uk

For the most part, a legal interest in land can only be transferred or created by deed. A deed must be in writing, and to be validly executed by an individual, they must sign in the presence of a witness. 

The witness must be physically present when the deed is signed. Only then and once completed can it be registered with HM Land Registry (HMLR), writes Jacqueline Jones, Solicitor with Birketts LLP.

The current climate

As 2020 has progressed we have seen two main problems with the valid execution of deeds: the ability to put a traditional manuscript (‘wet’) signature on a deed; and the availability of appropriate witnesses.

The emergence of COVID-19 – and consequent ‘lockdowns’ – has impacted on people’s ability to attend their usual workplace, have access to printing or scanning facilities and even the ability to be in proximity to others so that the requirement for a physically present witness can be met.

Witnesses

Even in these times it remains a requirement for a witness to be physically present during the signing of a deed. While the law does not prevent a spouse, civil partner or co-habitee from being a witness (so long as they are not also a party to the deed) it is best avoided. 

But that is easier said than done where an individual’s ability to see anyone, other than the immediate family with whom they live, is restricted. It is acceptable for a signatory and witness to have some physical distance between them (they can be separated by a window), so long as the signatory can clearly be seen signing the deed.

While the logistics of organising a witness in a way so as to satisfy safety needs (and whatever law/rules/guidance around social distancing may be imposed by government at the time) are achievable, the more difficult aspect of the process must be the conveyancer’s ability to obtain a validly executed deed so as to satisfy HMLR’s registration requirements.

Electronic signatures

HMLR have recently changed their practice guidance to allow certain deeds (such as transfers) to be signed electronically. By ‘electronic’ signature we mean one that is applied via recognised electronic signature software. 
HMLR requires that all parties must agree to the use of electronic signatures, and the platform to be used. Save in limited circumstances all parties must have a conveyancer acting for them. 

A conveyancer must be responsible for setting up and controlling the signing process. The conveyancer with such responsibility must (1) upload the final agreed version of the deed on to the agreed platform; (2) insert the name, email address and mobile phone number of the signatories and witnesses; and (3) highlight the fields that need completing within the deed and indicate by whom they are to be completed and in what order.

The platform then emails the signatories to let them know the deed is ready to sign. The signatories will use a password sent to them by text message to gain access to the deed where they must then sign (electronically) in the presence of a witness. 

The witness will receive an email asking them to sign in (using a password sent by text by the platform) and add their details. The controlling conveyancer then dates the deed within the platform and submits their application for registration to HMLR with a prescribed certification.

The difficulty is that many conveyancers do not subscribe to an appropriate platform, or do not subscribe to the extent that they may use the platform in the manner strictly prescribed by HMLR. What is the alternative?

Scanned manuscript signatures

HMLR will, for the purposes of a registration of a transfer and certain other deeds, currently accept a scanned manuscript signature being added to the final version of the deed. The process for obtaining a validly executed deed by this method will look something like this.

• Final copies of the transfer will be emailed to each party by their conveyancer
• Each party prints the signature page and signs in the physical presence of a witness
• The witness signs the signature page; and
• Each party sends a single email to their conveyancer attaching the final agreed copy of the transfer and a PDF/JPEG of the signed signature page.

The conveyancer may then complete the transaction and apply to register it by sending to HMLR the appropriate application form, the final agreed transfer and the signed signature page.

While this is currently likely to be the preferred method for execution of deeds it does presuppose that the signatory has access to email and a printer/scanner. 

Quite often there is an element of urgency in getting deeds executed – once they are in agreed and final form – so as not to jeopardise a transaction or agreed completion dates.

Our recommendation is, in any event, that matters are discussed early on so that for each transaction the conveyancers and their clients know sooner rather than later what hurdles there might be to obtaining witnessed signatures and so that those issues can be addressed before they become a potentially insurmountable last minute problem.

• You can call Jacqueline Jones on 01473 921739 or email her at: jacqueline-jones [at] birketts.co.uk

Four Cambridge companies have been hand-picked for an elite UK programme designed to propel scaleups in the Artificial Intelligence sector to potential unicorn status accorded to private companies valued at more than $1 billion.

Cambridge hogs 12.5 per cent of the 32-strong cohort chosen by Tech Nation for its Applied AI Growth programme. It forms part of the Government’s AI Sector Deal, supported by the Office for AI, to champion and support the UK’s leading AI scaleups through peer2peer learning.

The Cambridge quartet are Conundrum, RoboK, SATAVIA and techspert.io; one of the broader successes of this particular programme is that 44 per cent of joining founders are women – almost double the representation of female tech directors (23 per cent) in UK tech.

Also, 59 per cent of the chosen companies are based outside of London with the  South East, East of England and Scotland leading the way.

Tech Nation also reveals new data which shows that the UK is leading Europe and is third in the entire world for VC investment into AI in 2020 (behind only the US and China), while demand for AI skills continues to rise – up 111 per cent from 2017 to 2019.

Executives from the chosen Cambridge four say they are determined to make the most of the opportunity to leverage their participation.

Conundrum, based in Merlin Place, uses AI-driven technologies to address personal data management, quality control and optimisation. The company oversees a whole production process and assists factory engineers in decision making, helping to reduce waste and downtime, and prevent defects and unexpected shutdowns.

Konstantin Kiselev, CEO of Conundrum, says: “We are happy to be chosen for Applied AI 2.0, among so many outstanding businesses. Being recognised by Tech Nation is a solid stamp of approval, and a vote of confidence that helps Conundrum accelerate its business development and opens new opportunities for business in terms of new clients and new funding. We look forward to leveraging all the opportunities that lie ahead.” 

RoboK, based in Chesterton Road, is using new techniques in computer vision and deep learning to build optimised 3D sensing and perception software solutions for low-power computing platforms. 

It’s enabling cars and machines to ‘see’ and ‘understand’ the implications of changes to their environment. They obtain 3D information efficiently from a combination of sensors (primarily cameras) and enable object detection, classification, localisation and depth estimation on low-power embedded systems. 

Hao Zheng, CEO of RoboK, says: “We’re looking forward to being part of a like-minded cohort and surrounded by support to accelerate the growth journey of RoboK.”  

SATAVIA, based at Castle Park, is helping to make flying smarter and greener. SATAVIA is regarded as the only solution delivering actionable insight in aviation which is able to combine and validate multiple environmental, weather, aircraft and maintenance datasets. 

Its technology is credited with making aircraft condition monitoring 20 per cent more accurate while delivering fuel savings and emission reductions.   
CEO Dr Adam Durant said: “Tech Nation has a fantastic global reputation for selecting and scaling high-calibre, cutting-edge companies. 

“Participation in the programme provides our growing team with world-leading mentorship, networking and visibility. We look forward to being part of, and contributing to this high-calibre community.” 

techspert.io, located in Burleigh Street, maps the world’s expertise by using AI to match experts to business customer needs. Its platform provides an efficient and convenient interface for customers to engage in primary research and gain insight through calls and surveys with precisely matched experts, as well as efficiently handling payments to experts for their time. 

David Holden-White, the company’s co-founder and managing director, said: “We’re really excited to be on board with Tech Nation. The growth of the alumni speaks for itself and we look forward to working with Tech Nation to boost our growth trajectory.” 

Tech Nation says that 34 per cent of deep tech UK companies are applying AI to the construction industry, while 28 per cent are using AI to solve healthcare challenges. 

The UK leads Europe in AI investment, having raised $1.48 billion in 2020 so far; that is way out in front of France ($538.83 million) and Germany ($400.25m). The UK is currently third in the world for VC investment in AI after the US ($17.94bn) and China ($9.55bn). 

Looking into sub-sectors, the majority of AI investment so far this year flows into Big Data ($872.42m), TMT ($712.96m), SaaS ($588.39m), and Fintech ($474.65m). AI investment in Mobility Tech has already surpassed 2019 levels by 240 per cent, whilst FinTech is already up by 120 per cent, SAAS by 36 per cent and Cyber Security by 10 per cent.

Demand for AI skills is continuing to rise in the UK, with an increase of 111 per cent between 2017 and 2019. A quarter of all data scientist roles advertised in 2019 required AI as a skill; this was the highest proportion seen amongst digital tech roles in 2019.

AI is already a strategic strength to the UK economy, with 1,344 AI companies and a number of well-known and established AI unicorns, including Cambridge’s Darktrace, Benevolent AI and Graphcore.

The US government is laying out around $1/2 billion in new funding for a rapidly advanced antibody drug combination from Cambridge UK Big Bio business AstraZeneca.

This deal for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 Long-Acting AntiBody (LAAB) combination AZD7442 follows the treatment’s surge into Phase III clinical trials.

It is worth around $486 million but, as Business Weekly previously reported, the Cambridge company had previously earned $25m from US government agencies BARDA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for the discovery and evaluation of the monoclonal antibodies, as well as the Phase I clinical trial started in August to assess safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of AZD7442 in healthy individuals. That takes the US government haul for AZ to $511m.

AstraZeneca reveals that two Phase III clinical trials of AZD7442 will start in the next few weeks. One will enrol over 6,000 adults for the prevention of COVID-19 with additional trials enrolling around 4,000 adults for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infections.

The LAABs have been engineered with AstraZeneca’s proprietary half-life extension technology to increase the durability of the therapy for six to 12 months following a single dose. 

The combination of two LAABs is also designed to reduce the risk of resistance developed by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

AstraZeneca plans to supply up to 100,000 doses starting towards the end of 2020 and the US Government can acquire up to an additional one million doses in 2021 under a separate agreement.

Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s chief executive officer, said: “This agreement with the US Government will help accelerate the development of our long-acting antibody combination which has the potential to provide immediate and long-lasting effect in both preventing and treating COVID-19 infections. 

“We will be evaluating the LAAB combination in different settings from prophylaxis, to outpatient treatment to hospitalisation, with a focus on helping the most vulnerable people.”

LAABs mimic natural antibodies and have the potential to treat and prevent disease progression in patients already infected with the virus, as well as to be given as a preventative intervention prior to exposure to the virus. 

A LAAB combination could be complementary to vaccines as a prophylactic agent, e.g. for people for whom a vaccine may not be appropriate or to provide added protection for high-risk populations. It could also be used to treat people who have been infected.

The fresh US government agreement is not anticipated to impact AstraZeneca’s financial guidance for 2020 as the US Government funding is being offset by expenses to progress the clinical trials of AZD7442 as well as manufacturing process and upscaling costs. 

Should the Phase III trials prove successful and AZD7442 become an approved medicine the company anticipates providing doses at commercial terms during and after the current coronavirus pandemic.

AZD7442 is a combination of two LAABs derived from convalescent patients after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Discovered by Vanderbilt University Medical Center and licensed to AstraZeneca in June, the LAABs were optimised by AstraZeneca with half-life extension and reduced Fc receptor binding.
The half-life extended LAABs should afford six to 12 months of protection from COVID-19.

The reduced Fc receptor binding aims to minimise the risk of antibody-dependent enhancement of disease – a phenomenon in which virus-specific antibodies promote, rather than inhibit, infection and/or disease.

In a recent Nature publication, the LAABs were shown in pre-clinical experiments to block the binding of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to host cells and protect against infection in cell and animal models of disease.

Cash rich Cambridge UK life science business Abzena has invested $60 million into a new manufacturing nervecentre at its site in San Diego in the US. The move has already created 125 additional jobs.

Business Weekly recently announced that the company had received $10m growth capital from New York investment firm Biospring Partners to accelerate its worldwide expansion plans.

Babraham-based Abzena is a leading contract provider of integrated discovery, development and manufacturing services for biologics and bioconjugates. It says the new facility is designated for late phase and commercial cGMP manufacturing. cGMP refers to the Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations enforced by the US FDA.

The new circa 50,000 sq ft facility houses a process development laboratory and two new cGMP manufacturing cleanrooms for 500L and 2,000L scale in Sartorius single use bioreactors. 

The facility also houses a GMP warehouse and analytical development and quality control laboratories.

Matt LeClair, senior VP and site head of Abzena’s San Diego operations said: “Until now our other San Diego site has been focused primarily on development and manufacture of Phase I and II clinical trial materials. 

“This expansion will allow us to provide seamless project integration for our customers as they move into Phase III and ultimately commercial manufacture.

“This investment has been driven by both existing customer requirements and by wider market demand for our services. The facility will enable the company to deliver Phase I to commercial manufacturing services for biologic projects.

“At Abzena we’re dedicated to delivering an end-to-end service offering that supports our customers from concept to clinic and beyond. This latest investment is testament to our commitment to developing our offering in line with the needs of our current customers and the rest of the market.”

To date the San Diego facility has completed hundreds of projects and has had more than 40 successful audits carried out by key customers. The new facility has also received its manufacturing licence from the California Food and Drug Branch.

• Photograph courtesy of Abzena

Marshall of Cambridge has signed a long-term option on land at Cranfield University’s massive site in the event of moving its Aerospace and Defence business there.

But the company insists it does not mean that a move to RAF Wyton – the only other option now Duxford has been ruled out – has been erased from the relocation equation.

The official line is that Marshall is thinking long-term in securing Cranfield space while it makes a final decision on whether to stay in Cambridge or move thousands of jobs and a world-leading ADG group 40 miles down the road to Bedfordshire.

Marshall confirms that it has signed an Option Agreement for a 150-year lease on a parcel of land on Cranfield University’s proposed Air Park development.

ADG interim chief executive Gary Moynehan, said: “Whilst it is important to note that the signing of the Option Agreement does not represent a final decision to relocate Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group to Cranfield, we are pleased to have reached an agreement which provides us with a credible relocation option.

“We are very excited by Cranfield’s ambitions to create a Global Research Airport and are already collaborating closely with them on a number of R & D projects. 

“As such, the signing of this Option Agreement represents a further strengthening of a valuable relationship that I am sure will deliver significant benefits to all parties over the years ahead, irrespective of where we ultimately make our new home.

“However, there are still a wide number of factors that we need to take into account before making any definitive decision about the best location or locations for the MADG business when we ultimately relocate by 2030.”

Professor Sir Peter Gregson, vice-chancellor and chief executive at Cranfield University added:“We are delighted to be progressing our talks with Marshall through the signing of this Option Agreement.

“Located at the heart of the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, Cranfield with its Global Research Airport and MADG would provide a vibrant ecosystem of research, technology demonstration and innovation in aerospace that is unrivalled in the UK.

“We believe the relocation of MADG to Cranfield would further strengthen the partnership between one of the UK’s leading privately-owned aerospace and defence companies and one of the UK’s leading aerospace and defence universities.”

A new state-of-the-art lab, a major recruitment drive and further R & D for quantum photonics technologies have been triggered by a £2.1 million seed funding round by Cambridge University spin-out Nu Quantum.

Amadeus Capital Partners led the round while Ahren Innovation Capital, IQ Capital, Cambridge Enterprise and Martlet Capital also followed on from the pre-seed investment round last September. Seraphim Capital has joined as a new investor. 

The funding will go towards a state-of-the-art photonics lab in Cambridge and a strong recruitment push for scientists, product team members and business functions as the company approaches the launch of its first commercial technology demonstration.

Nu Quantum brings together a portfolio of intellectual property combining quantum optics, semiconductor photonics and information theory, spun out of the University of Cambridge after eight years of research at the Cavendish Laboratory. 

The business is developing high-performance light-emitting and light-detecting components, which operate at the single-photon level and at ambient temperature. 

Nu Quantum is one of a handful of companies in the world developing this kind of technology. The components could become an integral part of larger quantum photonics systems – which will employ this kind of technology in the thousands – enabling applications such as quantum cryptography and simulation. 

The startup’s first commercial deliverable will use quantum photonic technology and proprietary algorithms to generate random numbers extracted from quantum-level effects, giving the highest confidence in the quality of these numbers which are ubiquitously used as cryptographic keys to secure data. 

Nu Quantum is a partner in the consortium led by the National Physical Laboratory, developing the UK standard for quantum random number generation, a project which was awarded £2.8m from the Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. 

Dr Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, CEO of Nu Quantum, said: “Our aim is to enable the potential of quantum mechanics using quantum photonics hardware. 

“This funding will allow us to do just that – a world-class multidisciplinary team and our new laboratories will give Nu Quantum the ability to deliver meaningful demonstrations of our technology into the hands of customers and partners for the first time.”

Professor Sir Peter Knight, chair of the UK Quantum Technology Initiative Strategy Advisory Board and former chief scientific adviser at the UK National Physical Laboratory is excited by the company’s potential.

He said: “I’m delighted to see Nu Quantum, one of the UK’s leading quantum photonics companies, achieve this investment milestone to enable the translation of its founders’ world-class academic research into the commercial world. This is further validation of the quality of the UK capability in this critical area of technological innovation.”

Cambridge based extreme data analyser GeoSpock has taken its funding to date to $32 million following a new $5.4m Series A round which underpins further global expansion for the business.

GeoSpock, which has just won the Business Weekly Disruptive Technology Award, is making huge strides in Asia and elsewhere on the global map.

The latest funding round was led by nChain and Cambridge Innovation Capital and joined by NTT DoCoMo Ventures – the investment arm of Japan’s premier provider of telecoms and ICT services – plus existing investors Global Brain, Parkwalk, KDDI Innovation Fund, 31 Ventures and Meltwind.

GeoSpock is using the new money to invest in its product and technical capabilities and accelerate the development and adoption of the fastest, most scalable database on the market. 

A world of opportunity is opening up for GeoSpock. With the emergence of connected vehicles, smart cities, and the deployment of IoT sensors, the amount of data produced globally has exploded. 

Traditional databases have proven too slow and cumbersome to provide genuine, real-time insights or be the basis for next-generation artificial intelligence and machine learning use cases. 

GeoSpock is disrupting the big data analytics market by producing a uniquely cost-efficient, scalable, and fast database that takes advantage of parallelism and distributed compute architectures.  

Dr Steve Marsh, founder and CTO said: “Businesses have realised that advanced analytics and rapid innovation is the key to building competitive advantage in a data-driven world, so where billion row queries that took hours were once acceptable, the market now demands trillions of rows and speed-of-thought results. 

“Aside from performance and scale, database technology needs to be built with the future of the connected world in mind – providing flexibility and cost predictability, even as the demands for big data continues to grow.

“Through the combination of connected-device data and advanced analytics we believe that planetary optimisation is possible. 

“We are excited to welcome our new strategic investors, and look forward to establishing key partnerships with global industry leaders in order to help improve the way we live, the way we move, and the way we consume.

“Over the past 12 months we have seen a lot of momentum picking up in the telco IoT space, with a growing emphasis on device intelligence and analytics combined with 5G connectivity in order to power next-generation use cases such as Smart Cities, Asset & Supply Chains, Connected & Autonomous Vehicles and long-term, to help measure and correct the root causes of climate change. 

“We believe that carrier service providers are the natural providers of connectivity for IoT. Having KDDI, and now NTT Docomo, two of Asia’s biggest telcos, backing the strategic value of GeoSpock’s analytics technology is a great validation point. 

“Adding to this is nChain – a world leader in distributed ledger technology, which could be a critical component in the cross-vendor monetisation of IoT, shows the strength of the partner ecosystem GeoSpock is assembling.

“Businesses have realised that advanced analytics and rapid innovation is the key to building competitive advantage in a data-driven world, so we know for certain that the demand for contextual intelligence is only going to increase over time. 

“Handling the scales of data that are now being generated is a huge problem for many industries, but one which we believe GeoSpock is in a very strong position to solve.

“The key takeaway is that GeoSpock DB is a cost-efficient, hyper performance analytics database solution which uses unique technology to overcome the speed, scale and siloing restrictions of existing databases.”

GeoSpock CEO Richard Baker added: “Our database is able to disrupt the $386 billion IoT Big Data Analytics market. We expect to become central to the companies and nations across the globe, transforming their legacy data infrastructures and building agile logical data warehouses. 

“Versus existing competitors our platform is the best performing solution on the market – it is faster, more flexible, and drives cost predictability for connected everything workloads where location, time, and device analytics underpins autonomous decision making.”

NASDAQ-listed Altair has acquired Cambridge UK software firm Ellexus for an undisclosed sum.

Michigan-headquartered Altair is a global technology company providing solutions in data analytics, product development, and high-performance computing (HPC). Its acquisition of Ellexus will provide the company with additional storage functionality for high-performing computer solutions.

Ellexus, based at St John’s Innovation Centre in Cambridge, created a leading input/output (I/O) analysis tool, which helps customers find and address issues quickly, improving speed accuracy and cloud readiness. 

Its software products, Mistral and Breeze, are used for I/O diagnostics, optimisation, and dependency detection by HPC administrators of large enterprises. Altair plans to integrate them into the storage aware scheduling functionality of Altair PBS Works™.

“Altair continues to expand its reach and capabilities for HPC environments to support important modern workloads including for data analytics, AI and ADAS,” said James Scapa, Altair’s chief executive officer and founder. “The acquisition of Ellexus is particularly relevant in these domains as storage aware scheduling for big data applications is critical.”

Ellexus founder Dr Rosemary Francis said: “There is no better place for Ellexus’ products to get into the hands of global customers who can immediately benefit. Altair’s growing leadership in HPC is exciting and exactly where I want to be to help grow the business and stretch technology to its limits.”

Cambridge Science Park server architecture specialist Bamboo Systems has closed a $7 million funding round to take its Arm-based technology proposition to greater global heights in an $80 billion global market.

The new money will drive expansion in Research & Development and the company’s go-to-market strategy.

The round has been led by existing investors Seraphim Capital and Opea Holding with support from the UK’s £1.25 billion Future Fund – a UK government funding package designed to support startups driving innovation and development through the coronavirus outbreak. 

Cambridge is home to Bamboo’s European office while its US operations are anchored in San Jose, California.

Arm-based compute platforms have been gaining traction, from AWS expanding its Graviton offerings to Apple’s announcement to switch from Intel to Arm chips for all its Macs. The world’s fastest supercomputer, Fugaku, is also based on Arm. 

Now, with NVIDIA’s recent announcement that it plans to acquire the company, Arm architecture is poised to further and massively disrupt the status quo in compute.

Bamboo Systems chief executive Tony Craythorne believes the fiunding and the growth strategy will help Arm revolutionise the world of compute. He said: “We are so pleased that Seraphim Capital and Opea Holdings are continuing to invest in Bamboo with another strong show of support for our unique server architecture. 

“We’re also delighted that the UK Future Fund has invested in us as well. These investments underscore the value of our technology that is about to fundamentally change the concept of compute in the data centre.”

Earlier this year, Bamboo announced  its ground breaking B1000N Series of servers. A fully configured B1008N consists of eight servers providing 128 cores, 16 DDR4 memory channels to 512GB DRAM, 24GB/s to 64TB of NVMe storage, fed through 160Gb/s network bandwidth. 

This is delivered in a single rack unit (1U) at approximately 50 per cent of the cost of a legacy Intel-based server, 25 per cent of the energy consumption and 20 per cent of the rack space.

James Bruegger, managing partner of Seraphim Capital said: “We are delighted to continue to support Bamboo Systems at a time when interest in Arm servers has never been higher. 

“With the likes of AWS, Apple and now NVIDIA betting big on Arm, we believe now is the moment for Arm servers to make a major impact on the $80 billion server market.

“Bamboo’s revolutionary server architecture holds the key to delivering the massive space, cost and energy savings that the server market desperately needs.”