Covid-19 doesn't dampen investor appetite for Oxford University spin outs

By Nicky Godding

13 July 2020

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Spin out companies from Oxford University raised £365.8 million during the second quarter of 2020, across 21 deals. This follows a strong Q1 performance, despite the pandemic, which saw Oxford companies raise £180 million in March alone.

Oxford University Innovation (OUI), which drives the spin out of ideas and innovation from the University of Oxford, launched five companies during the second quarter, two startups, two spinouts and one social enterprise. They are:

Deep Edit – a startup developing a photo enhancer for professional photographers
Oxsed – a social enterprise developing a rapid COVID-19 test
OxEd – a standardisation platform for assessment in children’s education
Bloomd – a startup giving younger generations access to knowledge from older ones.
Qdot – High heat flux technology

Matt Perkins, CEO,at Oxford University Innovation, said: “I continue to both be amazed by, and immensely proud of my colleagues at OUI. Despite the challenges 2020 has presented, we have risen to the challenge and continue to achieve well beyond our initial COVID-impacted forecasts. Our staff are supporting colleagues across the University on COVID technologies, including assistance with the AstraZeneca vaccine deal, forming new companies to develop COVID tech, and licensing out Oxford ideas at pace to combat the disease. Meanwhile, our business support teams continue to deal with higher than expected deal flow.”

Over the second quarter of 2020, OUI’s Licencing & Ventures signed 76 deals, filed 35 new patents and received 121 new disclosures from Oxford University academics. OUI’s Consulting Services signed 101 deals overall and provided 114 clients with consultancy advice.

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.