Celebrating the Winners of the Trinity Bradfield Prize 2025/26

The Trinity Bradfield Prize 2025/26 culminated in a standout final at The Bradfield Centre, bringing together an exceptional group of student- and researcher-led ventures from across the University of Cambridge. With a packed audience and a high calibre of pitches on display, the evening was a powerful showcase of the innovation, ambition and commercial potential emerging from the Cambridge ecosystem.

This year’s competition awarded £30,000 in prizes, recognising ventures tackling some of the most pressing challenges across technology, life sciences and sustainability. After a closely fought final, GreenMixes secured the £10,000 first prize for its carbon-negative concrete technology. Founded by Callon Peate and Dr Dushanth Seevaratnam, GreenMixes has developed a proprietary drop-in biochar composite that can replace up to 15% of cement while maintaining full industrial strength—turning concrete into a carbon sink with no capital expenditure or workflow disruption. Judges were particularly impressed by the team’s technical depth, strong commercial prospects and the scale of impact their solution could deliver in addressing the climate crisis.

Dr Dushanth Seevaratnam said:

"We’re very grateful to Trinity College, the Bradfield Centre, and the selection team for giving us the opportunity to take part in the Trinity Bradfield Prize. It’s rare to have a competition that is so inclusive and nurturing, and based on the quality of this year’s alumni pitches, it’s clear the Cambridge ecosystem will continue to grow stronger because of it. For GreenMixes, winning the Trinity Bradfield Prize is a huge vote of confidence in our approach to decarbonising concrete. It validates that scalable, non-disruptive solutions can play a real role in tackling one of the world’s hardest-to-abate industries. Concrete is everywhere, and that’s exactly why solving its carbon problem matters. This support allows us to move faster, help us get GreenMixes into the hands of engineers, builders, and communities, and start showing what carbon-negative construction can really look like."

Two £5,000 runner-up prizes were awarded to Maricene and Phaseshift. Maricene, founded by Keshav Todi, is developing low-carbon bioethanol using a bioengineered marine yeast strain that converts seaweed into fuel, offering a crop-free alternative to traditional bioethanol production. Phaseshift, led by Phillip Cloud, received the Hellings Prize for its material-agnostic metasurface platform, which addresses critical challenges around miniaturisation and scalability in quantum technologies.

The evening also saw the return of previous finalists competing for the £10,000 Angel Prize, awarded to the team that has made the most commercial progress since the previous year’s final. Following impressive updates from Healthspan Biotics, Remedium and PinePeak, PinePeak emerged as this year’s Angel Prize winner, demonstrating significant traction and momentum over the past 12 months.

James Parton, Managing Director of The Bradfield Centre, and organiser of the competition, said:

“The 2026 final was our biggest and best yet, with 18 University of Cambridge Departments and 19 Colleges represented in our applications. In addition to the cash prizes and exposure they gain from participating in the competition, all of our finalists benefit from subject matter expert mentoring, introductions to investors, and complementary membership of The Bradfield Centre to help grow their ventures. Congratulations to GreenMixes, Maricene ,Phaseshift, and PinePeak and I look forward to tracking and supporting their onward journeys.”

Beyond the prizes, all finalists will now benefit from expert mentoring, investor introductions and complementary access to The Bradfield Centre, supporting the next stage of their growth. Now in its seventh edition, the Trinity Bradfield Prize has received over 500 applications and awarded £155,000 in cash prizes, with alumni collectively raising millions in follow-on funding—underscoring the Prize’s role as a catalyst for early-stage commercial success.

Congratulations to all of the winners and finalists. We look forward to following and supporting their journeys as they continue to turn world-leading research into impactful ventures.