Deep Rack Venture Studio aims to apply breakthrough science to challenges in global computer infrastructure.
Cambridge Future Tech (CFT), the UK’s leading scientific venture builder and global built environment consultancy Arup, have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the creation of the Deep Rack Venture Studio, an initiative targeting the creation of 16 new startups addressing critical challenges in global data centre infrastructure.
The studio will aim to build ventures tackling system-level bottlenecks in data centre performance, resilience, efficiency and sustainability. Focus areas will include cooling, energy, density and circularity, key challenges delaying or derailing the expansion of this critical infrastructure.
New data centres encounter planning roadblocks, water consumption concerns, grid capacity shortfalls and rising pressure to cut energy and material waste. Meanwhile, existing sites are straining under surging demand and impeded by outdated cooling, tight power budgets and rigid infrastructure. The studio is targeting commencement in 2026.
Steve Raffe, commercial director at Cambridge Future Tech, said: “Without breakthroughs in infrastructure, the expansion of rack-scale compute will hit real-world limits across power, heat and space. Much of the science we need to solve these problems already exists but rarely escapes the lab without intervention. By combining CFT’s model for uncovering and commercialising radical science with Arup’s ability to shape real-world systems, we can create ventures that are ambitious, practical and designed to scale globally.”
CFT and Arup bring complementary capabilities to the venture studio model. CFT identifies breakthrough academic research and builds companies around it using a structured process developed across its portfolio of spinouts. Arup brings decades of global experience designing and delivering high-performance data centres for global cloud and colocation providers – expertise that ensures new technologies are resilient, scalable and sustainable in practice.
Gareth Williams, Arup UKIMEA technology leader, said: “Meeting the soaring demand for digital infrastructure requires tackling power, cooling and carbon challenges head-on. Through the Deep Rack Venture Studio, Arup will help bring breakthrough science into real-world data centres – solutions that are scalable, sustainable, and engineered for deployment from day one.”
The Deep Rack Venture Studio will apply CFT’s Scientific Venture Creation process, which has produced startups such as Literal Labs (developing logic-based AI models 54x faster and 52x more energy efficient than neural networks) and Dew Point Systems (an evaporative cooling technology that achieved 3x higher efficiency than advanced hybrids during data centre pilot testing).
Arup’s expertise will ensure technologies are selected and developed for more than disruption – focusing on resilience, scalability and sustainability in operational data centres.
