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By Dan MacNeill, Director, Gillamor Stephens
When you speak to Giorgia Longobardi, the first thing you realise is that she enjoys taking on a challenge. Indeed, she ascribes her entire business career to this. As with so many deep tech startup founders in the Cambridge area, Longobardi entered the business world after an impressive academic career during which she began working with gallium nitride power transistors as part of her PhD thesis.
“I had the option to choose between a project that was very well known or a new topic that nobody had worked on before, but which had the potential to increase energy efficiency and cut losses massively,” Longobardi explains. “As per my character, I jumped into the area that nobody knew.”
Fast forward six years to today, and Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD) has launched its first commercial product, raised series B funding of $19 million, and employs 40 people.
Dan MacNeill recently visited Ms Longobardi at CGD’s new offices in Cambridge to discuss the growth of the business, its recent successful series B funding round, and how to solve the challenge of getting more women into the deep tech sector.
Q: In recent years with the rise of the Tech for Good movement, we’ve seen a lot more job candidates wanting to work for companies committed to giving something back rather than just focusing on profits. How important is that for you?
Having a positive wider impact on society motivates me and many of the people working for Cambridge GaN Devices. After all, when I decided to build a business in GaN, it was due to a combination of my deep knowledge of the technology, an awareness of its potential applications in the market, and the opportunity to bring to market a technology that can reduce energy losses and have a wider impact on society.
Sustainability is one of our key values – not just in terms of the product, but with everything we do. If you asked many of our recent joiners why they were attracted to work for us, they will answer that working on a technology with the potential to help the environment is a key reason.
Q: You’ve grown as a business and been hiring over the last 12 months. Your series A funding came in last year, which is great news too. What’s the business going to look like in 12-24 months from now?
As we speak – we haven’t publicised this yet, so you’re getting this first – we recently closed our series B. We had a significant investment of $19 million backed by our current investors, who believe very much in the technology, the market, and the company overall, plus Cambridge Innovation Capital.
Now we’re looking at the scale-up phase, where we move from proof of concept to first product to high-volume production; and expanding into other countries from China to the US and Europe.
Q: The markets seem trickier this year than last. How have you found the whole process with the new round?
It’s always challenging to fundraise and it was challenging for us, but we were – and are – lucky to have the support of our current investors. This is essential during the scale-up phase for any business.
One thing we had on our side was the huge growth of the gallium nitride market. They used to forecast a market value of $1bn – $1.2bn by 2026. Now the forecasts for 2027 are $2bn, so it has almost doubled.
As well as a growing market, investors want to see a strong team. We needed to show that we had the knowledge, that our technology works, and that there was product-market fit with customers looking to use our technology.
Q: You launched your first commercial product in March this year. How was that received?
There are always barriers to entry for new companies launching a product to market for the first time. No one really knew who we were at that point. Customers want to trust their suppliers’ technology and their ability to deliver high volumes. As a new player that’s difficult to prove, but we demonstrated it thanks to the commitment and hard work of the people in the business.
We also have a strong value proposition. Customers could see that we were bringing a GaN product that was easier to use and would allow them to be much more energy efficient. So, the response from the market was overwhelmingly positive.
Q: One thing I’ve noticed working in technology for 12 years now is the relative lack of female candidates in the talent market, particularly in deep tech and at senior levels. Only 15% of deep tech startups are founded or co-founded by women. Do you have a view on why that is?
There’s been lots of talk about this issue and how to improve the situation. There is a lack of role models for women in the industry to show what’s possible. Plus, it can be challenging in a male-dominated environment to feel at ease.
Things have been changing, but we do still need more women in senior roles, partly to act as role models but also to help talk about important issues. One of these is the career-family situation. It is challenging to be an entrepreneur and start a family. What’s the best approach? The more we talk about these things, the more women will see they are not alone – and the more likely it is that the industry might find solutions.
Q: The lack of young women studying engineering is often pointed to as an underlying reason for the lack of female founders or senior leaders in tech. Is there a reason why more young women aren’t choosing to study engineering?
It’s the stereotype. When you’re young and you hear about engineering you think about the stereotypical person in a lab coat doing uninteresting work. One of the things to do is to show the impact that doing something in engineering can have.
When young women relate a career in science with helping the environment, or helping to solve the next societal challenge, I’m sure more of them will become interested. It’s about making the whole industry more relatable.
Q: What was it that attracted you to technology at a young age?
I always loved the challenge of science. I didn’t know what electronics engineering was when I started but I wanted to do something that was applied physics and mathematics and which could one day have an impact.
The Royal Academy of Engineering is doing a great job trying to promote engineering. Their ‘This is Engineering’ campaign shows what the potential real-world impact of engineering can be. And, by the way, the CEO of the Royal Academy is a woman, so maybe those two things are linked?
Q: Statistically, female-founded or mixed teams outperform male-only teams, yet across Europe only 2% of VC funding goes to female or mixed-founder teams. Why is this?
There is a lot of research out there saying that women tend to undersell themselves. That goes back to the issue of confidence and the way they approach pitching their company or idea.
This same idea goes for senior leadership teams more broadly. One reason we need more women in senior roles is to increase diversity of thought. But I see so many profiles and CVs, and I can see that women aren’t applying for jobs unless they feel they fit a job description perfectly, whereas men are much more likely to do so.
I recently had to convince a friend of mine to apply for jobs where she would be a perfect fit, but it was very hard to convince her because she thought she didn’t fit the job descriptions well enough. Yet, as I know well, companies are looking for diversity, different experiences, and different ways of doing things.
Q: What can companies do to communicate this more effectively?
Well, it’s partly about action. The UK is one of the worst countries in Europe regarding mandated maternity policies. But one of the things you need to support a gender-diverse team is a strong maternity policy.
To have women in senior roles, they need experience. For that, you need to hire them in more junior positions. But they need to have the possibility of having a family if they want as they become more experienced. If you don’t support that, you lose that diversity.
So we’ve worked a lot on changing our maternity policy. We see it as an investment in the company as a means of maintaining the diversity we have created. By the way, it’s also important to support fathers with good paternity leave policies too. If you assume it’s always the mother who needs to look after the child, then there will always be that imbalance, so having a supportive paternity leave policy is important too.
When we proposed it, the board of directors was extremely supportive, and that is incredibly helpful. Strengthening parental leave policies is one thing we’re doing, alongside changing the wording of job ads so they do not exclude women. And we’re also looking at how to promote diversity not just in terms of gender but also many other ways. We have a team of 40 people with 21 different nationalities, so that’s quite a lot of diversity!
Q: What advice would you give to women who want to be successful in the deep tech industry?
Look for like-minded people. There are lots of events in which these topics are discussed. There are lots of communities willing to help and support – helping you to network with experienced people and role models.
I have my role models, for example, including Jodi Shelton, the CEO of Global Semiconductor Alliance and the CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Not to mention my mother. She was always doing stuff and fixing things around the house.
It’s also important to believe in yourself and work on your confidence. I have seen plenty of confident women in my career, so I don’t want to generalise. But sometimes I see a lack of confidence, so it’s important to believe in oneself and dream big.
We’re going in the right direction to change things. One of the key things, perhaps, is to recognise that diversity means having different leaders. Own your own diversity. That’s the most important thing that will lead a person to become a different leader.
