One hundred leading tech entrepreneurs, investors and operators will advise and coach startup founders, as part of a Cambridge University initiative. 

The Founders initiative aims to accelerate Cambridge alumni tech spinoffs by bringing together the resources to champion disruptive technologies and new ventures. 

The initiative’s experts will draw on their industry knowledge to help shape the success of Cambridge’s emerging technology startups. 

Of the first 100 experts joining the community, almost half are entrepreneurs, a third are investors and a quarter are industry leaders.

Experts from companies including Stripe, Graphcore, ARM and Google have joined the initiative.

Between 2022 and 2023, Cambridge tech companies have raised $1.3bn in funding.

According to Cambridge University, 289 alumni-founded startups have raised pre-seed funding in the past two years.

Gerard Grech, managing director at Founders at the University of Cambridge, said: “We’re delighted to announce the first 100 experts that will be a part of the Founders at the University of Cambridge community and that our first pre-seed accelerator is open for applications. 

“This group has unrivalled experience building, scaling and supporting world-changing tech companies which will be invaluable to help unlock the potential of our new generation of founders building companies that will solve humanity’s growing challenges.