Owen Thompson

CEO and Co-Founder, Cambridge Future Tech

Owen is CEO and Co-Founder of Cambridge Future Tech, a technology-first venture builder based on the Cambridge Science Park working with top-tier UK universities to spin-out the most promising deep technologies into commercial ventures with global impact.

In the last year, Owen has successfully shaped multiple start-up funding rounds, including taking six portfolio companies through their pre-seed rounds, as well as support to multiple external fundraising engagements.

Under his leadership, CFT’s portfolio continues to grow at pace – it has created over 66 highly skilled jobs, raising over $8.7m in external funding. CFT’s ventures have been awarded over $3.8m in grant funding, and their aggregate valuation exceeds $30m at pre-seed. It continues to expand its venture-building activities, with an ambition to co-found over 40 tech-first companies in the next five years.

In his role as CEO of CFT, Owen has recent experience of effective B2B licensing and legal contract negotiations on a national scale, start-up team building, management & leadership, IP protection, and many other facets of early-stage business growth.

Owen is also a Board Director at Capital Enterprise, a London-based not-for-profit company dedicated to facilitating the growth and success of the UK’s start-up ecosystem. Plus, in the last x years, he has been a dedicated mentor to many programs in the Cambridge area, such as Impulse and CJBS EnterpriseTech.

Prior to his role at CFT, Owen was a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force for over a decade, and then subsequently General Manager for Advanced Technologies at BAE Systems, which included running multiple R&D sites with technology focus areas such as microwave materials, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), printed electronics, and additive manufacturing.