The #21toWatch 2026 winners have been announced at an awards ceremony at The Glasshouse innovation hub in Cambridge, with one company based at Norwich Research Park being named as one of the winners (top seven) in the ‘Things’ (Innovations) category.
HotHouse Therapeutics is rewriting nature’s chemistry by uniquely combining AI and plant synthetic biology to industrialise complex natural product chemistry that is inaccessible to traditional synthesis or extraction. Its BotanAI platform designs the ‘genetic recipes’ for novel and complex molecules, while its BotanBio platform delivers reliable, scalable production.
David Sheppard, CEO, HotHouse Therapeutics, said, “We’re incredibly proud that HotHouse Therapeutics has been named as one of the #21toWatch for 2026. We’re making drugs from plants, air, sunlight and water, and being recognised among such an outstanding group is a huge honour and a real testament to our team, our science and our ambition that drives what we’re building here at Norwich Research Park.”
The annual awards showcase the next generation of high-potential founders and technically ambitious ventures emerging from Cambridge and the East of England in three categories – People, Companies and Things (seven winners in each category).
Now in its eighth year, the #21toWatch awards are widely recognised as a credible marker of entrepreneurial excellence, identifying the innovators and companies set to define the future. Organised by technology communications agency, cofinitive, part of international consulting firm Cambridge Management Consulting, the programme is designed to identify early-stage companies and technologies with genuine potential to scale and deliver long-term impact.
Tim Passingham, Chairman, Cambridge Management Consulting, said: “Each year, #21toWatch gives us a vantage point across the region’s most technically ambitious early-stage companies. We are now seeing founders advancing frontier science design companies, not just technologies, and doing so with real-world deployment in mind from day one. “
Roz Bird, CEO of Anglia Innovation Partnership, the campus management company for Norwich Research Park, said, “It is fantastic to see that one of Norwich Research Park’s spinout companies has been recognised by the judges of #21toWatch as an innovator that is going place. We are proud to be part of their initial success stories; supporting them through our campus incubation programme and looking forward to supporting them to achieve further success as they develop their proposition.”
