OXFO IMPACT REPORT 2018-19

OXFORD FOUNDRY ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTRE

The University of Oxford: breaking boundaries since 1096

2018/19 IMPACT REPORT

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Introduction and welcome AN ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTRE AT THE HEART OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

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An ecosystem of entrepreneurship in Oxford

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The opportunity

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What makes us different?

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Building an entrepreneurial ecosystem

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Our methodology

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OXFO community around the world

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Our beliefs

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OXFO in the news

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EMBEDDING SKILLS IN CRITICAL THINKING, LEADERSHIP AND TECHNOLOGY

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Building creative mindsets and crucial skills

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OXFO student advisory board (SAB)

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Knowledge exchange and peer-led learning

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Ideation and creative problem-solving: All-Innovate

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Technology with built-in ethics: AI Impact Weekend

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Prototyping and designing: L.E.V8 Women

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VENTURE ACCELERATION AND GROWTH

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The L.E.V8 Accelerator

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Foundry ventures and impact

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OUR 2020 VISION

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OXFO timeline – past and future highlights

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Our champions, leadership and governance

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Thank you

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Become a supporter of the Oxford Foundry

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Oxford Foundry

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www.oxfordfoundry.ox.ac.uk

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@oxfoundry

@oxfound

@oxfordfoundry

@oxfordfoundry

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BUILDING A NEW GENERATION OF VENTURES.

Edwin Hubble, Rhodes Scholar at The Queen’s College: pioneering astronomer, discovered galaxies beyond the Milky Way

Ivy Williams, St Anne’s College: the first woman to be called to the English bar, in 1922

Oxford’s first women students at Lady Margaret Hall, 1878

Dorothy Hodgkin, Somerville College: won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964 for her groundbreaking work in protein crystallography

Sir Roger Bannister, Merton College: the first person to run a mile in under four minutes (Oxford, 1954)

Ana Bakshi, Director, Oxford Foundry

45% 3000 members

6

103

nationalities

38

colleges

4

divisions

55%

70+

jobs created by our ventures

welcome

In a world which seems increasingly polarised, it is more important than ever that we invest in future generations. With approximately 2.4 million students currently at university in the UK alone, the role that higher education institutions play in improving society is clear. There is huge potential for problem-solving, venture creation and growth at universities outside of conventional commercialisation activities, and we have a unique ability – and responsibility – to effect true systems change, ensuring that talented people have equal and unimpeded access to the opportunities, networks, and resources that will empower them to build strong ventures.

In the past year, we’ve seen Foundry membership increase to over 3000 members, with engagement across the entire collegiate University. We’ve welcomed our second cohort of ten talented venture teams on to the OXFO L.E.V8 Accelerator programme, who are tackling big challenges like disease diagnostics, climate change and sustainable energy – you can read more about them and the global impact they’re already achieving on page 54. Significantly, this cohort included a marked increase in female founders: 50% of the teams included women, as opposed to just 20% in cohort one, and we are committed to building on this in the years ahead.

Oxford University has produced more founders of billion-dollar start-ups than any other institution in Europe.* We have an incredible talent pool of entrepreneurial students and alumni. By harnessing and nurturing their talent, building strong networks of support, and embedding principles of cross-disciplinary knowledge exchange and local and global collaboration alongside academic expertise, we can support them to rapidly build sustainable and impactful businesses. We have a duty and an accountability to actively change the face of the future workforce. We are democratising entrepreneurship, and building a new generation of ventures. This, in essence, is our Foundry mission.

More than anything, our mission this year has been to raise our sights, look beyond geographical boundaries, and to broaden our horizons, so that we can say that we are truly global in our outlook and our ambition. We work on foundations of transparency and inclusion. We are demonstrating this not only through our partnerships with international industry and academia, but also through the positive difference that our ventures are making in social, economic and environmental impact.

We are a start-up within ourselves, and as we scale, so do our ambitions. Year one at the Foundry was about understanding the needs of our students and alumni, developing and testing our programmes, and building our team. Year two has been about growing our global community, and refining and scaling up our initiatives. By leveraging on Oxford’s intellectual capital with entrepreneurs, investors, industry experts and our alumni networks, we are building more ethical leaders, who put people and society first.

As a well-known proverb states, “The one who plants trees knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life.”

It’s our intention to extend the reach of Oxford’s entrepreneurial resources, networks and opportunities to the communities and groups that most need them today, empowering them to build the solutions that will improve all of our tomorrows.

“We are democratising entrepreneurship, and building a new generation of ventures.

This, in essence, is our Foundry mission.”

*Sage UK report, 2017

Oxford Foundry

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PROFESSOR L OU I SE R I C HA R DSON VICE-CHANCELLOR UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

The University of Oxford is very old, but it is also very good - and you don’t get to be this good if you don’t change. This University has evolved throughout history, and there’s no greater example of that change than the Oxford Foundry.

Over the past two years, under the leadership of Ana Bakshi, we have firmly established the Oxford Foundry as a unique UK centre for innovation, embedded in the University’s culture. We have created a forum for students to work across disciplines, learn from each other and be guided and inspired by world-leading entrepreneurs and industrialists. You can’t help but be optimistic for the future when you see the wealth of talent that’s already emerging through its initiatives.

The Foundry means business: the 19 ventures it has supported through the OXFO L.E.V8 Accelerator have already raised over £8m in funding, have a collective valuation of £40m, and have created over 70 new jobs globally. From entrepreneurial learning experiences such as the All-Innovate student ideas competition and the AI Impact Challenge, through to the L.E.V8 Women programme for women founders, the Foundry is providing a platform for Oxford’s talented students and alumni to collaborate, skill-up on new technologies, create and grow ventures, and use their creativity to solve real-world problems.

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The Foundry has been instrumental in harnessing multidisciplinary talent from across the University by leveraging the vast intellectual capital from Oxford’s faculty, students and alumni, and connecting it with strong industry partners to create solutions collectively to the global challenges of today and of the future.

We have harnessed wise mentors and global advisors including Reid Hoffman CBE, Co-founder of LinkedIn, and Mohamed Amersi, philanthropist, founder and Chairman of the Inclusive Ventures Group. The Foundry’s entrepreneurship ecosystem is accomplished and diverse with strong ties to other leading entrepreneurship centres and networks around the world.

As well as nurturing talent in our students and alumni, the Foundry is upholding the University’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, with a community drawn from all across Oxford’s four divisions, 38 colleges and six private halls. To date, the Foundry has supported 3000+ Oxford students and alumni to generate ideas, build entrepreneurial skills, and address global challenges through new venture creation and growth.

With a 55/45 male/female gender split, and with 103 nationalities represented, the Foundry’s membership is truly diverse.

The Oxford Foundry is providing students and alumni with the structure and support they need to create global impact and world-changing ventures that will uplift us all. We invite you to join us in this exciting enterprise.

P R O F E S S O R P E T E R T U FA N O PETER MOORES DEAN SAID BUSINESS SCHOOL

Entrepreneurs come from everywhere – from all backgrounds and academic disciplines. At the Foundry we’re enabling people from across the University of Oxford to achieve their dreams. The Foundry is where broad needs meet deep creativity. In the two short years since its launch, the Foundry has captured the imagination of Oxford’s students and alumni. It’s a home where people can come together to be

The Foundry is building on Oxford’s strong position as a world-leading university to harness the talent and the appetite for entrepreneurship amongst its students and alumni, enabling them to create purpose-focused ventures that will positively impact on the world and society. It is truly impressive to see how the Foundry is directly feeding into the start-up and scale-up culture in the UK and Europe.

Now, more than ever before, it is crucial that we build this kind of entrepreneurial culture, embed it within the DNA of our future leaders, and support it through strong networks.

I believe that all universities can – and indeed should – be doing such work, and I’m proud to be part of this important movement that will have a profound and far-reaching effect on all of us, and on our future generations.

inspired by each other and to discover their entrepreneurial spirit: whether they are freshers or doctoral students, whether they’re studying engineering or humanities, all are welcome. But more than this, the Foundry connects Oxford’s considerable young talent to the opportunities, networks and practical skills that will enable them to build and grow strong creative ventures and to make a real difference in the world.

The Foundry, under the brilliant leadership of Ana, has rapidly engaged the whole of the Oxford ecosystem (students, alumni, senior academics, the University’s tech transfer group and translational fund, departments, divisions and colleges) and world-leading entrepreneurs, industrialists and investors, to catalyse the creation of several student- and alumni-led companies. Their successes in such a short period of time have been remarkable. I am especially excited by the support that the Foundry has provided to female entrepreneurs. It is already arguably the hub for student enterprise in the UK. PROFESSOR CHAS BOUNTRA P R O - V I C E - C H A N C E L L O R F O R I N N O VAT I O N

REID HOFFMAN CBE CO-FOUNDER, LINKEDIN BOARD MEMBER, MICROSOFT FOUNDING DONOR TO THE OXFORD FOUNDRY

Oxford Foundry

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Constructed in 1903, the Oxford Foundry building originally housed the Oxford Cold Storage and Ice Company

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an entrepreneurship centre at the heart of the University of Oxford nurturing talent and building ventures

Oxford Foundry

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an ecosystem of entrepreneurship in Oxford

The Foundry is embedded in the University of Oxford’s expanding entrepreneurial ecosystem, which includes many initiatives that encourage, support and promote entrepreneurial activity.

CDL-Oxford, the first expansion of the Creative Destruction Lab programme outside of North America, supported by the Entrepreneurship Centre at Saïd Business School

The Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School

Begbroke Science Park with its Centre for Innovation and Enterprise

The Innovation Building, The Old Road Campus

The OUI start-up incubator

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Enterprising Oxford’s online portal and activities

Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI)

The Oxford Foundry: a two-storey building, with a footprint of 2755 square feet

Oxford Foundry

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the opportunity

These are challenging times, and the challenges are everywhere: to our society, our economies, our ecology and more. But where there are great challenges, there are also great opportunities. At the Foundry, we are harnessing the incredible, untapped talent from across our multidisciplinary community, and empowering our students and alumni to come together to build venture solutions to the world’s most complex problems.

GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHANGE

With the right ecosystem in place, hundreds of students and alumni could be supported to grow their amazing ideas into strong commercial companies.

By enabling students, industry and academia to connect and collaboratively build strong commercial solutions, we can address some of the biggest societal and industrial challenges today - such as our aging society, mobility, climate change, clean growth and data and artificial intelligence.**

We can fill the global tech talent gap that currently exists across all industries by growing our students’ skillsets in technology and entrepreneurship. In 2019/20, our goal is to upskill 1000 students in emerging technologies.

By improving support for ventures to scale up, we can grow job creation significantly - even a 1% increase in scale-ups could result in 238,000 more people on the payroll in the UK.*

We can grow diversity - and thereby improve global prosperity - by extending valuable opportunities, networks and resources to groups that are currently underrepresented as founders and business leaders, such as women and people of colour.

*The Scale-up Report, RBS, 2014 **The UK’s Industrial Strategy, gov.uk, 2018

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2.34m students currently studying at UK universities

We are governed by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs. This ensures that our programming and offering reflects societal and commercial needs.

24,000

350,000

students at the University of Oxford

Oxford alumni around the world, with 66% of them choosing to work in fields not directly related to academia

what makes us different?

We are building a diverse community. This is reflected in everything from our Student Advisory Board to the ventures we support. We are committed to connecting talented people from all backgrounds to our amazing resources, networks and opportunities.

We are a central network hub in a world-leading institution, with access to exceptional alumni, industry leaders, students and broader resources. We have been able to build networks of multipurpose, multi-value communities that empower one another.

We are building best-practice frameworks for enterprise education, and investing in our future generations for the betterment of society. Key contributors include our peers in higher education, commercial counterparts, policy-makers, students, academics and entrepreneurs from all backgrounds and disciplines.

We are a start-up within ourselves. As a team and a centre, we are agile and we listen to our community. We test, learn, improve and evolve fast.

We are underpinned by multidisciplinary academic expertise, leveraging on research and thought-leadership from across the whole University.

We are building a globally competitive accelerator programme that presently takes no IP or equity from the ventures it supports. It focuses on nurturing socially responsible and ethical leaders, alongside venture growth.

our five phases of building an entrepreneurial ecosystem Building entrepreneurial mindsets Creativity Series | Design Thinking | OXFO Booster Grants | Freshers Festival | Speaker Series

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Ideation and creative problem-solving AI Impact Weekend | All-Innovate | Tech Talent Series | Entrepreneurship Library | PhD to Start-up

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Prototyping and designing L.E.V8 Women | Pre-accelerator start-up programme

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Venture acceleration L.E.V8 Accelerator

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Alumni and community Student Advisory Board | Experts in Residence | Mentors | Network and introductions

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1

3

5

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Mohamed Amersi, Chairman of the Amersi Foundation, Foundry Advisory Board Member

“Government, business and civil society all have roles to play in building a safer, more inclusive and prosperous world.

But universities have an equally important role, in connecting and empowering their talented students and academics to approach challenges with an entrepreneurial mindset, to build viable commercial ventures, and positively shape our societies. The Oxford Foundry’s impact is global, and we are so proud to support it!”

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1

Arlan Hamilton, Founder and Managing Partner, Backstage Capital, L.E.V8 Women Ambassador, Honorary Foundry Advisory Board Member

“For me, it’s simple: I want people of every gender and color to see themselves represented in the world of startups. I believe that you have to be your biggest champion, you have to be a hero for yourself.

You can’t leave it up to others to do so.”

Patrick Pichette, General Partner, Inovia Capital, former Chief Financial Officer, Google, Chairman, Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI)

“The Foundry is actively demonstrating the positive impact that can be achieved when universities take a central role in nurturing ventures outside of research. By connecting Oxford’s budding innovators to impressive entrepreneurial networks and resources, the Foundry is opening up many more pathways and possibilities.

I am delighted that OSI has committed to support the Foundry and the All-Innovate ideas competition in the year ahead.”

our methodology

Our phases are underpinned by our five-step process for experiential learning:

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Peer-to-peer learning is key to our activities – we have created an environment for knowledge exchange and collaboration amongst students and alumni entrepreneurs.

We follow the theory of the Zone of Proximal Development, which suggests that learning is most effective when a person is taught by someone who is a few steps ahead on their entrepreneurial journey.

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We draw on our strong network of academic champions from across the University of Oxford, and successful entrepreneurs and business leaders to deliver 1:1 advice, introductions and new partnerships.

We showcase inspirational leaders to fill us with hope, perseverance, optimism and resilience, such as Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, who opened the Foundry in 2017.

Our broad network of established industry experts, experienced facilitators and talented mentors provide our students and ventures with excellent programmes and experiences.

45%

38

colleges

3000 members

103

nationalities

6

private halls

4

55%

divisions

19

70+

ÂŁ8m

17

high-growth ventures supported through our accelerator so far

jobs created by our ventures

raised in venture funding

female-founded ventures supported through our womenfocused pre-accelerator

a snapshot of our OXFO community around the world our ventures and their impact our partners and supporters our advisory board our OXFO student community our knowledge exchange partners and visitors

LONDON, UK L.E.V8 alumni venture Veratrak is based in London, UK, along with fellow Foundry portfolio ventures Util, Scoodle, SociAbility and Infogrid.

SAN FRANCISCO, USA Many of our respected advisors and supporters are based in Silicon Valley, including Srin Madipalli of Airbnb, Reid Hoffman CBE, Co-founder of LinkedIn, and Helen Riley, CFO of X.

LOS ANGELES, USA Arlan Hamilton, Founder of Backstage Capital based in LA is an Ambassador for our L.E.V8 Women programme, and an Honorary Foundry Advisory Board Member.

KARACHI, PAKISTAN L.E.V8 cohort two venture Nye Health are working with a team of developers based in Karachi to develop their platform.

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL Isadora Oliveira is a Brazilian MBA student from Somerville College, whose venture SeaStrong reached the final of our All-Innovate ideas competition in 2019.

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KIEV, UKRAINE AND CLUJ, ROMANIA Infogrid and Oxwash are working with tech developers in Ukraine and Romania.

MUNICH, GERMANY L.E.V8 cohort two company ScaleWork, which focuses on sourcing and connecting talent in the field of big data management, has its HQ in Munich, Germany.

ODISHA, INDIA Empower Energy from L.E.V8 cohort two is enabling longer study times and increased incomes in rural villages in India.

KAMPALA, UGANDA Boresha, from cohort one of our L.E.V8 Accelerator, is making huge strides in connecting independent farmers in Uganda with access to finance and smart supply chain logistics for their produce.

MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE Nando’s Founder Robbie Brozin is a Foundry champion. This year, OXFO Director Ana Bakshi took a trip with him to Mozambique, to see first-hand how the Nando’s malaria prevention programme is making a difference to communities locally and globally through entrepreneurial means.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA Swirlit from cohort one of our L.E.V8 Women pre-accelerator produces an oral and gut health drink, now sold in outlets across Australia. The company is currently valued at $3m.

DEMOCRATISING ENTREPRENEURSHIP We believe that entrepreneurship is for everyone. We are redefining and democratising entrepreneurship and are committed to ensuring that talented people have equal and unimpeded access to the opportunities, networks, and resources that will empower them to build strong ventures.

THE POWER OF PEER-TO-PEER AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING Learning happens best from those people who are just one or two steps ahead in their journey. We facilitate opportunities for our community to learn from each other and through practical application of acquired skills.

we believe in...

EXCELLENCE We are supported by a world-leading Business School, within the world’s topranked university. We adhere to principles of excellence, best practice and evidencebased research in everything we do.

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PEOPLE FIRST We are ensuring our future generations are equipped with the skills and resources to be emotionally intelligent, resilient and creative leaders. We embed an entrepreneurial mindset and cross-disciplinary approach to build solutions to complex challenges – whether this be as an employee or employer.​

COLLABORATION Entrepreneurship doesn’t happen in isolation. It depends on connectivity, and we build and sustain thriving networks and means of knowledge exchange.

TECH FOR GOOD The world is changing fast. We give our community tech skills to help them succeed and create positive change in a technological, globalised world, whilst ensuring they always put ethics and people first.

STRENGTH IN DIVERSITY The most successful ventures are diverse in thought and diverse in their teams. We are committed to building a more diverse pool of entrepreneurial founders, leaders and changemakers.

GIVING BACK We believe in sharing our resources and networks to help make the world a better place. Our ventures are doing just that and tackling some of the world’s most complex challenges. Our network of entrepreneurial experts are investing their time, resources and experience back into our community.

OXFO in the news Britain’s Best Universities for Female Founders 25 October 2019 “Female graduates of British universities are going on to achieve significant success as entrepreneurs.

University of Oxford graduates have raised £582m of capital.”

The rise of student entrepreneurs at British universities 18 August 2019 “There’s a growing demand to learn more about entrepreneurship wherever you’re from, whatever you’re doing, whatever your interests are.”

Innovation Primer - How Oxford University Is Preparing Students For Entrepreneurial Life 16 August 2019 “A space where students from all disciplines can come together to collaborate, work on ideas, take part in competitive challenges, acquire new skills and - ultimately create businesses.”

Wanted: donors to leave mark on Oxford Foundry start-ups 15 September 2019 “Prospective donors have been offered an opportunity to make their mark on Oxford’s evolving history, by funding the Foundry’s core activities through philanthropy.”

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With gratitude to the media publications that have covered our evolving story.

Oxford University’s newest start-up accelerator welcomes its first cohort 2 May 2018 “The ten teams selected for the L.E.V8 programme comprise 30 entrepreneurs, from 11 different nationalities. They will benefit from a range of support including bespoke masterclasses, practical advice and support to develop and scale their businesses, and access to advisors, industry experts and investors.”

Oxford University looks to raise its game with a start-up hub 22 October 2017 “Students who establish commercial ventures that are judged to have exceptional growth prospects can join the Foundry’s accelerator programme, where they can be mentored by experienced entrepreneurs and meet potential investors.”

Apple boss Tim Cook opens The Oxford Foundry 11 October 2017 “Find people who are different from you, where the common thread is that they want to change the world.”

Oxford Foundry plans to help student entrepreneurs 21 December 2017 “The director of a new entrepreneurial hub for students at Oxford University said she aims to create a diverse community where people with different perceptions can come together.”

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embedding skills in critical thinking, leadership and technology building an entrepreneurial mindset

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A student team working on their solution to combat bias in people selection and recruitment, AI Impact Weekend 2019

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building creative mindsets and crucial skills

Creative problem-solving, entrepreneurial thinking and Emotional Intelligence or ‘EQ’ are just some of the ‘gaps’ in the skillsets of recent graduates entering the workforce, as identified by recent reports from the World Economic Forum, Deloitte and Accenture* amongst others. And as new technologies such as AI, blockchain and machine learning continue to permeate the infrastructure of our everyday lives, it’s crucial that we provide students with the means to acquire hands-on skills in these areas, and the understanding of how they can be applied.

Through our experiential learning programmes, we support and inspire our students to build a creative mindset, explore alternative career pathways, acquire core tech skills, and get comfortable with applying them across multiple settings. In 2018-19, the Foundry provided a variety of experiential learning opportunities for all University of Oxford students.

88

workshops and events delivered in 18/19

7490

experiential learning hours delivered in total since 2017

2200+

students engaged in our events and programmes

*Closing the Skills Gap Project – World Economic Forum The Skills Gap and the Future of Work in Manufacturing – Deloitte, 2018 Closing the Skills Gap and the Future Workforce – Accenture, 2018

Our tech workshops covered coding with Python, machine learning, blockchain and AI.

96%

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of participants improved their ability to negotiate

Our Idea Exploration workshops covered themes such as marketing strategy, branding, business modelling, product design, finance, pitching and more.

100%

of participants gained a strong understanding of how to apply Python coding to future projects

Our leadership and EQ workshops gave students the opportunity to look at effective communication, negotiation skills and more.

90%

We held workshops on Design Thinking and rapid prototyping.

Our tech talent networking event in February 2019 was attended by 100+ students and 20 companies.

of participants increased their understanding of the steps required to raise investment

Our public speaking masterclasses with expert coach David Nihill were attended by 169 students, and 145 staff and faculty.

Gill Aitken, Registrar, University of Oxford

“The Foundry is making huge strides in instilling an entrepreneurial mindset in students from all academic disciplines. Through encouragement and support the Foundry equips and inspires our young people at the start of their careers, so that they can thrive through their creativity.”

Peter Evans, Enterprise Editor, The Sunday Times

Laura White, MBA student, Green Templeton College

“The technology workshops at the Foundry have given me the skills and confidence to work on tech innovation. I particularly appreciated that the workshops were designed for beginners, but also allowed you to progress as you skilled-up. I’m now applying what I learned about technology to advance the field of early childhood education.”

“It is exciting to see the Oxford Foundry pioneering the creation of a global innovation ecosystem which stands to rival that of the most prominent US institutions. By focusing on developing strong leaders and ventures, and leveraging the University of Oxford’s considerable entrepreneurial networks and resources, the Foundry is opening up pathways for positive change, both in business and society.

From a journalistic perspective, this is both timely and newsworthy. I look forward to watching the Foundry scale as it pursues these ambitions.”

Thomas Hellmann, DP World Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Saïd Business School

“With the Oxford Foundry scaling up, and now that Oxford is partnering with The Creative Destruction Lab through the Entrepreneurship Centre at Oxford Saïd, our students have an education experience which combines the essential elements of hands-on learning with academic studies and research. This means that there is more impetus and opportunity than ever to draw together entrepreneurial talent from across the University, and build strong, impactful commercial ideas.”

Isabella Deutsch, Master’s student, Statistical Science, St Peter’s College

“The EQuip Yourself workshops enabled me to take a break from my hectic academic schedule to reflect on the way we think, and act, in our daily lives. I really appreciated the open workshop style and the handson mentality that encouraged me to take the content from the series and put it to use in an academic, professional or even personal setting.”

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David Nihill, bestselling author and coach, leading a public speaking masterclass in the Foundry

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OXFO student advisory board (SAB)

38

members, each from a different student society

50% female

50% male

The 38 societies represented on the SAB cover a huge range of disciplines, from Blockchain and AI, to Finance, Climate Change, Drone Technology, Women in Computer Science, Biotech, and African and Caribbean Society:

50%

undergrads

50% postgrads

Our SAB members at Facebook’s London HQ

11% sports

11%

26%

science

technology

13%

21%

medicine

18%

creative

business

In 2018/19, we welcomed 38 Foundry Student Advisory Board (SAB) members, all leaders of diverse student societies at Oxford.

Throughout the year, we’ve given them valuable experiences such as a curated tour of the London innovation ecosystem, with visits to Airbnb, Wayra Telefonica and Facebook. They’ve also participated in a leadership development day, where professional coaches and industry experts worked with them on focus areas such as leading strong teams, attracting sponsorship, and negotiation skills.

Through the SAB and its activities, we empower students to:

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engage in knowledge exchange and peer-led learning

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develop crucial skills such as teamwork, communication and creative problem-solving

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build their understanding of entrepreneurial leadership

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consider alternative career pathways such as venture creation and venture capital investing

Maggie Chen, MA in French Literature, St Edmund Hall, Head of PR for OxAI Society, Co-founder of Girls in Charge Initiative

“Being involved with the Foundry’s SAB has allowed me to meet people from all walks of life and degree backgrounds. The training and platform that the SAB provides has been amazing - I’ve met the Global Head of Public Policy at Google X, and participated in a roundtable discussion with the CIO of EY ­- both wonderful opportunities. Plus I’ve built valuable skills and confidence to take my own initiative forward.”

Serban Slincu, DPhil candidate, Computer Science, St Catherine’s College, participated in the Women in Computer Science Society’s OxfordHack event

In 2018 we introduced the OXFO Booster Grants: competitive grants of up to £2000 each, which enable society leaders to deliver key events focusing on entrepreneurial learning.

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2784

student societies were awarded

students were reached through grant-enabled

grants for 2018/19

activities

388

1460

students were supported in improving their skills in emerging technologies

407

students were supported in developing an entrepreneurial mindset

students were supported in developing their entrepreneurial skillsets

“OxfordHack 2018 was one of the most exciting events I have ever taken part in. It showed me that presenting and promoting your product is as interesting as creating it, and this encourages me to continue developing my entrepreneurial mindset.”

Martin Williams, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education

“Via the Foundry, we can enable students to make entrepreneurship an embedded part of their Oxford education, and to carry that rich experience forward into their futures, whatever they wish to do or achieve post-University.”

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student teams were supported in developing business ideas

DOMINIKA BAKALARZ, MMATH IN STATISTICS, THE QUEEN’S COLLEGE, VP OF PARTNERSHIPS AT OXFORD ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SOCIETY (OXAI) The Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society (OxAI) used their OXFO Booster Grant to deliver a variety of student initiatives in 2018/19, including a lecture on the Governance of AI by Dr Alan Dafoe, an emerging technologies party and the OxAI Lab’s Demo Day. “We were very excited to start a partnership with the Future of Humanity Institute (FHI), with whom we jointly delivered a lecture on the Governance of AI. The funding allowed us to secure an impressive lecture theatre at the Mathematical Institute and the talk was attended by around 50 students from across the University.

The FHI then collaborated with us on further events, including the emerging technologies party, which was one of the most successful events we organised this year. We collaborated with seven other technological societies at Oxford, and attracted technology enthusiasts from all across the University of Oxford.

All of these events have contributed to strengthening our community of AI enthusiasts in Oxford, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with the Oxford Foundry in the future.”

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knowledge exchange and peer-led learning

ELLIE HOLTON, PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY STUDENT, NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD CLIMATE SOCIETY (OCS) An OXFO Booster Grant enabled Oxford Climate Society to show a screening of the ‘Watt If’ documentary series, which tells the story of six entrepreneurial pioneers who reinvent the way energy is produced or consumed through projects around the world.

“The ‘Watt If’ documentary screening was an inspiring event, attended by over 60 Oxford students from diverse disciplines and backgrounds.

While most shared an interest in climate-related issues, many also came from an interest in business and international development.

Bringing together these different groups and interests sparked great discussion about how entrepreneurship could be aligned with sustainability.

The event grew out of collaboration between the Ashoka Changemakers network, OCS and the Common Ground Café, all supported by the Oxford Foundry’s Booster Grant. This backdrop of cooperation between different sustainable initiatives in Oxford set the scene for a night of uplifting tales, dynamic conversation, and a new lens through which to view entrepreneurship.”

“Bringing together these different groups and interests sparked great discussion about how entrepreneurship could be aligned with sustainability.”

JANNES KLAAS, MFE STUDENT, SAID BUSINESS SCHOOL, VP OF EDUCATION AT OXAI SOCIETY Jannes led a series of workshops on machine learning at the Foundry, as part of our wider tech series.

“The Foundry has been a big part of my Oxford experience as it has given me a space to experiment, create and connect outside of class. Teaching the course allowed me to connect to students and researchers from many different fields, from biology to philosophy, who all had different ideas and use-cases for machine learning. It really broadened my view, and allowed me to engage with fields outside of my own. The Foundry provided a valuable informal and entrepreneurial channel that reached across departments and was open to experiments.”

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Nwamaka Chidera Ogbonna, MPhil Student in Development Studies, Lady Margaret Hall, President of Oxford Africa Society

“We applied for an OXFO Booster Grant because we know there is strong interest in entrepreneurship amongst our members, many of whom are venture founders or aspiring entrepreneurs. The Booster Grant will enable us to bring some prominent African entrepreneurs to Oxford so that our members can engage with them and be inspired by their work. This would also be a way for non-Africans at Oxford to have a more nuanced understanding of the realities of entrepreneurship on the continent.”

Husayn Kassai, Co-founder and CEO, Onfido, Economics and Management alumnus, Keble College

“We launched Onfido when we were students at Oxford in 2012, and I know how enormously valuable we would have found a facility like the Foundry at that time. Since opening, it has not only become a place that supports entrepreneurial talent, but it is also connecting Oxford students to industry and empowering them to build venture solutions to realworld problems, which in turn shifts their perspective and lifts their ambitions.”

Isaac Kitchen-Smith, DPhil Clinical Medicine, Linacre College, attended talks arranged by Oxford University Athletics Society (OUAC)

“The talks were very helpful to me and other student athletes, as they covered different aspects including mental health, recovery from injuries and dealing with setbacks. I think learning from top-level athletes who have dealt with the problems we ourselves might go through is one of the best ways that we can safeguard our sporting interests whilst studying for a degree at Oxford.”

NATASHA COOKE, BIOCHEMISTRY MASTER’S STUDENT, ST EDMUND HALL Natasha participated in the Oxford University BioTech Society’s (OUBT) biohackathon, which was enabled by an OXFO Booster Grant.

“We had everything you could need: food, drinks, WiFi and ideas.

Whether you wanted to start a real business or just dip your toe into the world of biotech, OUBT and the Oxford Foundry generously supplied everything you could want and, most importantly, fostered the type of innovative atmosphere that Oxford needs. It was an eyeopening challenge: can you build a business in a weekend? You’d be surprised at how far you can get.

With help from the expert biotech mentors, we thought about which patient groups we would target, which markets to launch in, how we would market the product and even a ten-year timeline. The advice and gentle probing of people far more experienced than us was invaluable; pointing out flaws we couldn’t see and questioning things we hadn’t considered.

After two days working in our own little bubble, it was fantastic to be able to see the other teams’ ideas. We presented our work that evening. Having sat quietly in lectures for nearly two years, I had totally forgotten the rush of adrenaline you get from being the one presenting! As the cherry on top, we won the best business award, so this bunch of scientists definitely learnt some new skills over the weekend!”

“Can you build a business in a weekend?

You’d be surprised at how far you can get.”

ideation and creative problem-solving

What problem are you trying to solve with your idea? How big is the potential market for it? Who are your competitors, and what makes your solution better? Oxford students are bursting with entrepreneurial ideas.

By connecting them with experts and mentors from academia and industry, we enable them to map out their ideas, and to build transferable critical thinking skills that complement their academic learning, and that can be used in any setting.

Tapping into the enormous talent and appetite for innovation that exists across Oxford, we launched the AllInnovate student idea competition early in 2019, generously supported by Santander Universities. In this first year, 21 Oxford colleges opted in to participate, generating 100 ideas in total.

21

Oxford colleges

500+

4

students engaged

academic divisions

100

£20k

ideas submitted

in prizes

supported in 2018/19 by

OXFORD’S INTER-COLLEGE IDEA COMPETITION

3

winners selected

88%

88

nationalities represented

of participants met and worked with students from across the University that they hadn’t met before

48

% female

88%

male

increased their confidence in pitching their idea to an audience

The competing venture teams included students from Zoology, Linguistics, Mathematics, Anthropology, Medicine and more, many of whom had never met or worked with one another prior to the competition.

At the Grand Final of the competition, the ten final

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52%

24

workshops attended

19

mentors and judges, from academia and industry

63%

increased their knowledge of how to turn their idea into a potential venture

teams competed for one of three prizes on offer: £10k for the best overall idea, and £5k each for the best idea from undergraduate and postgraduate teams.

Our panel of expert judges heard each of the final pitches, and the winning ideas were chosen.

Karen O’Brien Head of the Humanities Division

“The Foundry has captured the imagination of students across the University. We’re seeing students of Philosophy, Modern Languages, English and History exploring entrepreneurial ideas and collaborating with others from nonhumanities backgrounds to come up with real solutions to big challenges.

Together, they are unlocking and exploring the possibilities that the Foundry’s hands-on learning programmes offer.”

Miles Young Warden of New College, Chair of the Conference of Colleges

“It is not always easy to make the leaps of faith which produce entrepreneurial ideas. I am enormously impressed at how the Oxford Foundry has provided students and alumni with a forum in which to do this, empowering them with both confidence and the courage to innovate, that can only come from thinking and working together in a multidisciplinary and supportive environment.”

Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever and Chair of the Board at Saïd Business School

Patrick Grant Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research

“Oxford already excels at translating research into commercial products and solutions. The Foundry is now providing valuable inspiration, expert guidance and practical pathways for students at all levels to explore what they could do with their ideas outside of research, in an environment that connects them to networks and opportunities where they can flourish.”

Oxford Foundry

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“Now more than ever, we need to create and support new ventures that will take on tough societal and environmental challenges around poverty, inequality and climate change. The Oxford Foundry is showing its value in this important work – working with industry and academia, it is creating an entrepreneurial centre that will benefit all society. The number of high-calibre and high-impact ventures it has already generated and supported is impressive.”

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ANNA JUNGBLUTH DPHIL CANDIDATE, CONDENSED MATTER AND MATERIALS PHYSICS, WOLFSON COLLEGE, CO-FOUNDER OF LIGHT MY WAY “I don’t think I can adequately describe how much value the Oxford Foundry has added to my experience as a postgraduate student. In addition to being able to hear incredible people speak about their journeys and career paths, the professional development workshops at the Foundry have helped me enhance my skillset beyond what I learn through my research.

Before I came to Oxford, I did not really consider becoming an entrepreneur and starting my own company. One of the best things about the Foundry, however, is that entrepreneurship becomes accessible to everyone, and it helps bridge the gap between Oxford’s departments and colleges like no other place in the University. Through the Foundry, I have met some incredible people, undergraduates and postgraduates from all sorts of departments, that I would have been unlikely to meet otherwise. I have continued to work on innovation projects with some of these people outside of the Foundry, and if I were to start a company after my PhD, it would most likely be with the people I met at the Foundry.”

Winners of the £5k prize for the best undergraduate idea

ALEX BARNES, DPHIL CANDIDATE, INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, PEMBROKE COLLEGE, CO-FOUNDER OF LANTERNE The Lanterne app helps international workers and organisations based in conflict zones to navigate safely, using open-source information, precision GPS technology and high-resolution satellite imaging.

Lanterne’s mission is to save lives and enable humanitarian aid and development in the world’s most dangerous places. Alex previously worked at the Australian Department of Defence as a strategic analyst, and deployed to Afghanistan on three occasions in support of Australia’s military operations between 2013 to 2015.

“The All-Innovate process was highly competitive, and it forced us to distil the essence of our idea into a compelling five-minute pitch, which was great discipline for us. The award gave Lanterne a huge boost, both in terms of a kickstart to funding and through the professional connections we made through the contest. Since winning at All-Innovate, we’ve gone on to secure grant funding from the European Union’s Big Data Corridor Programme, the European Space Agency’s business incubation programme, and the London School of Economics. We were also finalists for the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards for 2019.

In the next few months we will complete the pilot version of Lanterne, ahead of its full launch in 2020. The pilot will give us valuable feedback on Lanterne’s day-to-day utility to users, how security managers of international organisations view the product, and how our systems work in practice.”

Visit lanterne.ai for more information.

Winners of the £5k prize for the best postgraduate idea

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Brent Hoberman, Executive Chairman, Founders Factory, Founders Forum, firstminute capital, Foundry Advisory Board Member

The winning ideas

“The Oxford Foundry provides a space to bring passion and talent together, to empower individuals and set them on a course to success.

This is where ideas are nurtured and encouraged to grow into real commercial ventures that will benefit society. It is blazing a trail, and setting the standard for enterprise education across the board.”

The overall winner of the £10,000 prize for the best idea in the AllInnovate contest was DECancer.ai, developed by a team from Jesus College. Their personalised diagnostic platform uses AI to detect early cancer through analysis of an affordable blood test, combined with a personalised medical history of the patient, allowing early treatment and cure.

Jan Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, Principal of Somerville College

“The Oxford Foundry offers a place for students to gather with purpose, to grow their ideas with like-minded people, eager to apply their talents to enterprising initiatives. It has been wonderful to see so many Somervillians seize the chance to be a part of this entrepreneurial community, particularly through the Foundry’s first inter-college ideas competition, All-Innovate.”

Best postgraduate idea: Lanterne from Pembroke College, whose navigation app uses open-source information, precision GPS technology and high-resolution satellite images to help international workers and organisations based in conflict zones to navigate safely.

Lanterne’s mission is to save lives and enable humanitarian aid and development in the world’s most dangerous places.

Gavin Screaton, Head of the Medical Sciences Division

“As tech-based solutions become a prominent component of healthcare delivery around the world, our students in Medical Sciences need to skill-up in new technologies and their applications, and develop the ability to think in more creative, non-linear ways. The Foundry is creating a fantastic environment for our students to connect and collaborate with others from across the University, and get connected to networks and opportunities in the wider world, so that together they can build healthtech solutions that will benefit all society.”

Best undergraduate idea: Light My Way from Wadham College, whose map app helps users find the safest way home after a night out, enables the user to both share their location with family and friends, and give an indication of when they can be expected home.

Oxford Foundry

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PETER JIANRUI LIU, DPHIL CANDIDATE, CLINICAL MEDICINE, JESUS COLLEGE, CO-FOUNDER, DECANCER.AI

“Winning the All-Innovate competition has been a springboard, propelling DECancer.ai to further perfect our business, establish strategic clinical and scientific collaborations, and present on the international stage. Since our win, we have presented our business at Founders Forum HealthTech in London, where attendees included health innovation leaders such as Simon Stevens, CEO of NHS England, and the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. We have been establishing collaborations with the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and we are in the process of establishing further clinical and scientific partnerships, with experts both in the UK and North America. We now have a full-time research intern working for our business and are acquiring further seed funding so that we can establish a strong business structure with full-time employees.”

DECancer.ai won the £10k prize for the best overall idea

Sarah Whatmore Head of the Social Sciences Division

“Students from all across the Social Sciences Division are electing to grow their skills through the Foundry’s learning programmes. The opportunities that the Foundry offers for students to collaborate across disciplines and build solutions to real problems are unprecedented, and immensely valuable.”

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ISADORA OLIVEIRA, MBA STUDENT, SOMERVILLE COLLEGE, CO-FOUNDER, SEASTRONG

SeaStrong works to support disadvantaged women in southern India by buying and processing seaweed from them and then using it to manufacture high-valueadded products, such as seaweed seasoning. Profits are reinvested back in the community.

“Through All-Innovate at the Foundry, I had the opportunity to apply the business skills and learnings from my MBA course, and also to meet and interact with other amazing students from the wider University.

It was also a great chance to develop teamwork, as we basically assembled in less than a week and had to work on a full pitch.

I strongly believe that SeaStrong and the All-Innovate competition were an essential part of my Oxford experience. It was fun and it contributed a lot to my personal growth, plus exposed me to a lot of skills that will help me professionally too – like delivering a pitch in front of CEOs, lecturers and fellow students!”

SeaStrong was a finalist in the All-Innovate student ideas competition

Jim Wilkinson, Chief Financial Officer, Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI)

“OSI helps Oxford scientists to address some of the world’s toughest challenges, from infectious disease to sustainable energy, and helps them to fulfil their transformational potential. We value the key role that the Oxford Foundry now plays in surfacing fresh talent and nurturing new ventures for us to support as they develop into strong commercial businesses.”

Oxford Foundry

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@oxfordfoundry

powered by

technology with built-in ethics Demand for both technology skills and entrepreneurial skills is growing, and there is currently insufficient supply of such talent: UK job listings for AI-related roles have increased by 485% since 2014, yet globally there are only 22,000 highly skilled AI specialists. Universities have a duty to upskill students in their understanding of this technology, its mechanisms and its applications.

AI is already an integral part of the world around us: from our media to financial fraud detection, from optimising logistics to document translation. But how can we ensure that ethics is a built-in component of this technology? At Oxford, we believe the answer lies partly in bringing together students from diverse disciplines, connecting them with thought-leaders, academic experts and industry specialists to build their knowledge and skills, and letting them loose on a single AI-based challenge. This is the idea behind our annual AI Impact Weekend, delivered in collaboration with EY. For 2019, the challenge was to build tech solutions to prevent the perils of ‘bias in, bias out’ in AI-driven recruitment tools. This year, 70 Oxford students from a broad range of academic backgrounds took up the challenge, drawing on expertise from students and academics from the Oxford Internet Institute the Future of Humanity Institute, and the Blavatnik School of Government, as well as senior specialists from EY. The winning team included undergraduate and postgraduate students from subject areas including History, Philosophy, Physics and Computer Science.

As winners of the top prize, the team will attend the EY Strategic Growth Forum in Palm Springs in November.

Team Diversif:Hire, who won the prize for the best business solution, with Jeff Wong and Dawn Quinn of EY and Ana Bakshi, Director of the Oxford Foundry

Jeff Wong Global Chief Innovation Officer, EY

“Innovation requires a deep level of collaboration between universities, start-ups, governments and business communities. At EY, we believe that idea generation, experiential learning and the development of an entrepreneurial mindset are key to creating an innovation-friendly ecosystem.

We are proud to share these core tenets with the Oxford Foundry and support its efforts to foster an innovative spirit.”

Amy Kao, DPhil, Neurobiology and Experimental Therapeutics in Psychiatry, Wolfson College

Getting involved with the AI Impact Weekend gave me valuable skills and experience in creative problem-solving and effective teamwork. The Foundry has also connected me to an amazing group of fellow students, who have become both friends and innovation partners as we’ve travelled a new entrepreneurial path together. Upon graduating, I’ve taken up a Senior Associate role with EY Global in London, continuing and building on connections first made through the Foundry’s relationship with EY.”

“I’ve taken up a Senior Associate role with EY Global building on connections made through the Foundry’s relationship with EY.” Lionel Tarassenko CBE Professor of Electrical Engineering

“Through internships with its accelerator ventures and through wider industry partnerships, the Foundry provides impressive opportunities for our students to develop their skills in a commercial setting. It’s my belief that their programmes deliver valuable societal and economic benefits for both the students and our industrial partners.”

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ESTHER AGBOLADE PPE STUDENT, ORIEL COLLEGE As a member of our Student Advisory Board, Esther was invited to join the roundtable discussions that helped to shape our AI Impact Weekend focus for 2019.

90

students participated in the experiential learning workshops, focused on building AI knowledge

“I’d seen a lot of debate about AI on social media, but I hadn’t had a close look at the topic before. Participating in the AI Impact Weekend Working Group got me thinking more about this technology and its impact on society.

The topic that stood out the most to me was recruitment: what are the inherent biases that could be involved when using AI for recruitment purposes, and can we use AI to solve these? As the President of Oxford African and Caribbean Society, access to careers and higher education is a big part of our focus. I believe the first step in solving this problem is to increase awareness of the potential biases that exist, and the different stages at which this can occur. It was great to see so many diverse teams take on this challenge during the weekend – it brings hope for the future, that we can all work together to fix these fundamental things and ensure that bias is left out of the hiring equation in many more cases.”

70

students participated in actively building solutions

92% of participants increased their understanding of AI

94%

of participants improved their understanding of technology ethics

14

Dawn Quinn Director at EY, OXFO Ambassador

teams were formed

“We’re thrilled to collaborate with the Foundry team to deliver their annual AI Impact Weekend challenge. Oxford students from across the University are bursting with innovative ideas, and it has been a privilege for members of the EY team of global business and tech experts to get directly involved and play a part in nurturing and feeding this incredible talent.”

82%

3

winning ideas chosen by a panel of tech and business experts

improved their ability to develop a business plan from an idea

RALPH ABBOUD DPHIL IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, GOOGLE DEEPMIND SCHOLAR AND ALUN HUGHES SCHOLAR, JESUS COLLEGE Ralph helped lead the roundtable discussion with a diverse group of students to select the theme and topic for the AI Impact Weekend, and he led on the write-up of the report which helped shape the event for 2019.

“Since I approach AI exclusively from a technical standpoint in my studies, I saw this as a great opportunity to hear how other students and leaders from different backgrounds perceive AI. In the lead-up to the weekend, I attended multiple student roundtable discussions with peers, and used what I learned from them to write a report describing the overall topic. We then used this to define the final weekend task, and it was very fulfilling to see the teams enjoying tackling the problem over the course of the weekend. When helping with the Impact Weekend, I got the chance to collaborate with high-ranking employees at EY and I was also exposed to a more multidisciplinary view of AI, which I would have not otherwise seen in my technical work.”

Oxford Foundry

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expert mentors, from University faculty (Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford Internet Institute, Computer Science), L.E.V8 entrepreneurs, EY, and other companies

8

student mentors from a variety of disciplines supported the teams

@oxfound

@oxfordfoundry

@oxfordfoundry

prototyping and designing MEET THE L.E.V8 WOMEN VENTURES ON A MISSION TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE:

Fewer than two in ten ventures globally are currently founded or led by women, and as of 2018, women held only 21% of the board seats at the world’s 1000 largest companies.

Universities are critical to building more women founders and encouraging more women to take leadership roles.

More than 11,000 women are currently studying at Oxford, and several thousand more are alumnae of the University.

At the Foundry, we are determined to increase the number of female founders in the UK and Europe. Our L.E.V8 Women pre-accelerator supports women-led ventures, engages team members of all genders, and includes masterclasses, workshops and one-toone mentoring sessions with the L.E.V8 Women Ambassadors and industryleading facilitators. The programme focuses on both personal development and business development, so that participants leave the programme with an actionable business plan to take their venture forward with confidence and purpose. As the Foundry scales up, our ambition is to grow this programme, and to extend our opportunities and resources to support more founders from underrepresented groups, empowering them to make a real difference in the world.

This year, we welcomed our second cohort of nine ventures on to the programme.

FIVO

CARNTROL

Enabling alumni-crowdsourced student loans for international students, using AI to match alumni lenders with student borrowers, with an affordable repayment scheme.

Developing a supplement to delay and reduce the complications of diabetes, and dramatically improve patient health.

THAT OXFORD GIRL

BEEYOND

Encouraging young people from ALL backgrounds to consider applying to the University of Oxford, bringing access and participation into the 21st century through authentic student voices and experiences.

Creating products and services that enhance biodiversity and support all insect pollinators.

RESET YOUR GUT, RESET YOUR HEALTH

GO_GIRL: CODE+CREATE

An online programme for individuals and health professionals to produce personalised recipes for particular gut health challenges and food preferences.

A community outreach project that combines technical skills with social, emotional and psychological development to help empower highly disadvantaged young women in Oxfordshire.

DEVIE

QUALIDA

A trusted virtual coach that supports every parent to be their child’s best first teacher through daily 5-to-10 minute instant-message conversations.

Removing biases and simplifying data analysis steps in the biotech and medical fields, to aid the design of new ground-breaking technologies and increase the prevention and treatment of common diseases.

PALATE GENIE The first ever restaurant look-up and booking app based on Artificial Intelligence, which taps into your realtime choice of cuisine, diet, ambience, occasion and mood.

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Participants in the L.E.V8 Women pre-accelerator programme 2019, with Arlan Hamilton, Founder of Backstage Capital and Honorary Foundry Advisory Board Member

Sophie Adams, PG Diploma in Strategy and Innovation, St Hugh’s College, Founder, Beeyond

Dr Tracey Denton-Calabrese, Postdoctoral researcher, Oxford Department of Education, Co-founder, go_girl: code+create

“The workshops, the pitching practise, and the conversations I’ve had with others during the programme have all given me a real taste of what entrepreneurship is like. It’s helped shape my strategy, my go-to-market plan, my branding – everything. It’s been phenomenal. My next steps will be to work hard at developing the product, and then to get out there and start hustling!”

Oxford Foundry

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“Through participating in L.E.V8 Women, my colleague and I now have a business plan and some practical ways to navigate the funding landscape, so that we can work towards our goal of making the go_girl programme available on a national scale. We know that it can really make a difference in the lives of marginalised young women by increasing their digital skills and their confidence, and enabling them to become self-sufficient and socially mobile.”

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Dragana Savic, DPhil in Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, Linacre College, Co-founder, Carntrol

“The number of high calibre mentors, and established and successful advisors I met through L.E.V8 Women helped me form a tangible business plan with clear next steps. We’re now working on obtaining a grant that can help us formulate our compound and validate our research results to-date. The continued contact with fellow female founders, even after the programme, means we have established a wonderful network of friendship and support.”

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@oxfordfoundry

L.E.V8 WOMEN AMBASSADORS Our L.E.V8 Women Ambassadors are a strong and diverse group of experienced business leaders, who generously donate their time to advise and mentor the women-led teams through the programme. Coming from a range of backgrounds and industries, and from companies such as Google, adidas, X and Airbnb, the advice and insights they provide are of enormous value to these ventures who are just starting out on their entrepreneurial journey.

Jenny Tooth OBE, Chief Executive, UK Business Angels Association

“Encouraging more women entrepreneurs, and increasing their potential to obtain investment is paramount – I believe it will have enormous positive economic impacts. I’m delighted and honoured to be an L.E.V8 Women Ambassador, and to be part of this important programme from the Oxford Foundry.”

Marcus East, Technical Director, Office of the CTO, Google

“I believe that it’s incredibly important that opportunities in innovation and technology are open to everyone, regardless of their gender or cultural background. I’m delighted to be an Ambassador for the Oxford Foundry’s L.E.V8 Women programme, and to be supporting participants as they skill-up and move their ventures forward.”

Nicole Vollebregt, Senior Vice President, Global Purpose, adidas

“We need to do everything that we can to protect the potential, the passion and the talent of the next generation, by partnering with talented girls and women and supporting them to be successful leaders. I am excited about the possibilities that entrepreneurship brings for women, because it gives them the control which is still so difficult to garner in the corporate sector. The more companies that are started by women, the more we will start to shift workplace culture and what the organisations of the future will look like.”

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Niamh Gavin, Start-up advisor

“Surrounding early-stage female founders with peers, mentors and role models will both inspire and equip them to fulfil their full potential and aspirations. This programme is a terrific addition to the ecosystem.”

Helen Riley, Chief Financial Officer, X

“The economic and societal impact of empowering the next generation of female entrepreneurs and leaders is deep, far-reaching and self-sustaining. I am thrilled to continue my support of this important programme at the Oxford Foundry, supporting the next cohort of female founders in their journey to becoming their best, most successful professional selves.”

Kathy Harvey, Associate Dean, MBA and Executive Programmes, Saïd Business School

“The Foundry’s L.E.V8 Women programme empowers and upskills Oxford’s talented women founders, so they can build their strong ideas into strong ventures.

All of us benefit when women are supported and encouraged in this way, and I’m delighted to be involved in this important programme.”

Srin Madipalli, Product Manager, Airbnb, Co-founder, Accomable

“As an alumnus of the University and former start-up founder, I feel especially strongly that entrepreneurship and its opportunities should be accessible to everyone at Oxford, particularly those groups that are currently underrepresented, where there is so much potential for entrepreneurial growth.

The L.E.V8 Women initiative is an important step forward for Oxford, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

PUJA BALACHANDER, MBA STUDENT, ST CATHERINE’S COLLEGE, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO OF DEVIE, L.E.V8 WOMEN COHORT TWO “Our goal with Devie is to close the existing gaps in childhood development, so that all children can start their early years education on a level footing, regardless of their parental income or background.

The fact that children from a lower income background are already a year behind by the time they start Kindergarten is just a tragedy. We want to fix this with our AI-powered app for parents, which will enable them to be their children’s best first teachers.

Going through the L.E.V8 Women pre-accelerator programme has been a powerful catalyst for us. We can now see the steps we need to take to move forward with testing our value proposition to end-users and customers, and our longer term marketing strategy.

We also learnt some practical ways to counter the casual prejudices that we meet as female tech founders. With Devie, we’ve done a tonne of research to validate our business idea, and we have proven expertise in tech and product design, so it can be frustrating to be introduced as ‘girls who are working on a project around parenting’.

The L.E.V8 Women learning programme is as much about tackling and overcoming that kind of prejudice as about launching and growing a strong commercial business.”

Visit deviecoach.com.

“The L.E.V8 Women programme has been a powerful catalyst for us.”

Oxford Foundry

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CARLA INTAL, MSC STUDENT IN SOCIAL DATA SCIENCE, KEBLE COLLEGE OXFORD, CO-FOUNDER OF FIVO, L.E.V8 WOMEN COHORT TWO Carla is Co-founder of Fivo, an app-based solution that uses AI technology to deliver alumni-crowdsourced student loans for international students.

“My goal with Fivo is to fund people from countries that don’t have funding opportunities or scholarships, bridging the gap and giving equal opportunities for people who have the intellectual capability to study here, but not the funds.

The L.E.V8 Women pre-accelerator programme has been brilliant.

After the very first workshop, I knew it was a positive, supportive space, and a rare opportunity to learn from the experts and to connect with this wonderful cohort of talented Oxford women. My confidence to take Fivo forward has increased, thanks to the encouragement from the incredible mentors and advisors. Hearing about their struggles and past failures has helped me to push past previous setbacks, and I also got valuable advice and connections from them to help with practical aspects of building our business.

My big vision for Fivo is for it to really grow and expand to institutions worldwide, so that more people are able to apply for university without having the worry of ‘how am I going to fund this?’ I feel ready to do that now, and I’m excited for what lies ahead.”

“We got valuable advice and connections to help with practical aspects of building our business.”

TILLY ROSE, BA ENGLISH ALUMNA, JESUS COLLEGE, FOUNDER, THAT OXFORD GIRL Tilly is the Founder of ‘That Oxford Girl’, a unique media platform that encourages young people from all backgrounds to consider applying to the University of Oxford, bringing access and participation into the 21st century through authentic student voices and experiences.

“Thanks to the L.E.V8 Women pre-accelerator, I now have a clearer vision to develop That Oxford Girl into a viable business, and some practical, next steps to follow so that I can scale it nationwide. With sessions from angel investors, entrepreneurs and seed funders, we were learning from the best in the field and the information they shared was invaluable. By day two, my brain was ready to explode, and my notepad was fit to burst! This programme has not only given me structure and focus, it has inspired me to think big, and has connected me to some amazing mentors and fellow entrepreneurs.

I’m so excited now to start the next phase of the journey!”

“This programme has not only given me structure and focus, it’s inspired me to think big. I’m excited to start the next phase of the journey!”

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what our supporters say Alexsis de Raadt St James, Managing Partner at Merian Ventures, Foundry Advisory Board Member

“Being an entrepreneur means being able to think differently, act boldly and develop new ideas into successful businesses. By encouraging University of Oxford students to develop a creative mindset, and giving them the space and resources to explore their entrepreneurial ideas, the Foundry is empowering the leaders of tomorrow.”

Jørn Lyseggen, Founder and CEO, Meltwater, Foundry Advisory Board Member

“Equipping young people with an understanding of new technologies such as AI and machine learning, and ensuring that they understand the ethical, social and economic implications of these, is incredibly important. The Foundry provides practical support to Oxford students through its programmes, ensuring that they have the skills and the ability to effect strong social impact as they develop into global leaders in their field.”

Toby Coppel, Co-founder, Mosaic Ventures, Foundry Advisory Board Member

“The Oxford Foundry is a powerful catalyst: it is uniquely placed to draw in the inherent curiosity and talent of Oxford’s students and academics, and to combine this with its strong networks, resources and opportunities to translate it into real, commercial and societal value.“

Matt Perkins, CEO, Oxford University Innovation (OUI)

“Oxford is a world leader in its ability to take discoveries and turn them into companies and technologies that have impact on people’s lives around the globe. At OUI we’re working in close partnership with the Foundry, so that even more talented Oxford people with smart ideas will get the early stage support they need to start and grow their ventures.”

Rebecca Surender, University Advocate and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality and Diversity

“From the very beginning, the Oxford Foundry has set out to create a truly diverse and inclusive community. Its programmes, events and core mission are firmly underpinned by these values, and as a result it has attracted and engaged students and staff from all sections of the University. It makes a clear statement: ‘this is for you’, and it is a wonderful and welcome addition to the University and its student body.”

Matthew Wood, Deputy Head, Medical Sciences Division

“The Foundry has given our students clear pathways into the entrepreneurial journey. Through their programmes, students are able to develop their entrepreneurial side, with skills workshops that have practical hands-on learning at their core. In this way, they’re skilling-up for future challenges.”

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venture acceleration and growth developing products reaching the right customers achieving global impact

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Demo Day 2019: the teams from L.E.V8 cohort two with Ana Bakshi, Foundry Director and the Foundry team; Mohamed Amersi, Chairman of the Amersi Foundation; Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter; Alexsis de Raadt St James, Managing Partner, Merian Ventures, and Peter Tufano, Dean of SaĂŻd Business School

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the L.E.V8 Accelerator

19

ventures supported so far

£1.2m

£8m

worth of equity-free raised collectively support provided in venture funding so far

70+

jobs created by ventures

So what happens when good ideas grow up? They need a more intensive programme of support. Our OXFO L.E.V8 Accelerator, hosted in the Amersi Foundation Accelerator space, nurtures high-potential commercial ventures founded by Oxford students or alumni, who share the common intention to have a clear impact in the world. To date, we’ve supported 19 start-ups through two OXFO L.E.V8 cohorts, who have collectively raised over £8m in funding (with 70% raising in the US and Europe), and created 70+ jobs globally. Since graduating from the OXFO L.E.V8 accelerator programme, 75% of ventures who were pre-revenue are now post-revenue, with their first paying clients/users.

We primarily support non-research related ventures, and we are sectoragnostic so ventures of all types can apply, just so long as they have an Oxford student, alumnus or alumna in their founding team. The competition for places is fierce, and the word is spreading.

All teams have direct access to top-flight experts and mentors, to guide and advise them as they develop and grow. And we have recently introduced an appreciation equity commitment, whereby ventures can elect to give back to the Foundry and support the next generation of ventures through a voluntary donation of their future equity.

1600+

hours of learning delivered by industry experts and mentors

Ben Legg, Managing Director, Ola UK, former Chief Operating Officer, Google (Europe)

“The L.E.V8 Accelerator is producing serious, scalable businesses, that are changing people’s lives for the better. Oxford is leading the way in universitybased venture acceleration, and as a resident expert to the Foundry, I believe that it’s imperative that we all support such initiatives to reach further and achieve more, for all of our tomorrows.”

The number of women founders we’ve supported has increased, from 10% in year one to 30% in year two, with an ambition to increase this further in the next cohort.

We want to support more start-ups with founders from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds to achieve their ambitions.

What our ventures say:

100% of participants have said that the programme exceeded their expectations

our investor network includes over

500 VCs and Angels s

who are actively engaged with the accelerator

pinouts

overall, the L.E.V8 programme received a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of

9.1

We are grateful to our incredible network of L.E.V8 mentors, experts in residence, partners and champions who have generously given their time to support our ventures. These include: Kal Patel, former Executive Vice President, Best Buy Inc and CEO Best Buy Asia; Ben Legg, MD of Ola UK, former COO Google (Europe); Robin Saunders, Managing Partner at Clearbrook Capital; Bill Aulet, MD Entrepreneurship at the Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship at MIT; Patrick Pichette, former Chief Financial Officer, Google, Chairman, Oxford Sciences Innovation; Kevin Roberts, former CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi; Farzana Baduel, CEO, Curzon PR; Stephen Scruton, former MD, HSBC; Srin Madipalli, Product Manager Airbnb and Co-founder, Accomable; Niamh Gavin, start-up advisor; Claire Davenport, ex-CEO, HelloFresh; Peter Garratt, IP specialist, formerly at Mathys & Squire; Dom Jacqueson, Director of Talent at Index Ventures and many others.

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IMRAN MAHMUD, BM BCH MEDICINE, ST CATHERINE’S COLLEGE, CO-FOUNDER AND HEAD OF GROWTH, NYE HEALTH, L.E.V8 COHORT TWO Nye Health is enabling GPs to build digital-first primary care practices, by providing clinical grade applications and integrating these into live clinical settings. Since joining the OXFO L.E.V8 Accelerator, Nye have grown their team from three to 15, developed partnerships covering over 600,000 NHS patients, built the capabilities to provide medical records to over 40 million patients, and secured funding of more than £1.5m.

“The Foundry’s L.E.V8 Accelerator programme is extraordinary. It feels like the bleeding edge of an ancient institution. Being part of L.E.V8 has boosted our ability to raise investment, and it has contributed in deeply meaningful ways to the development of our team, our model and our product.”

Visit www.nye.health for more information.

Cohort one (2017/18):

Cohort two (2018/19):

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foundry ventures make an impact

EMPOWER ENERGY are enabling children in remote villages in India to study for an additional 30 minutes each night, and women entrepreneurs from those communities to double their incomes. women entrepreneurs

doubling

OXWASH have saved over

LANTANA PUBLISHING have

1800 cubic tonnes of CO2 in the hospitality and catering industry, and are now partnering with Deliveroo to target the reduction of single-use plastic in food home delivery.

enabled over 500,000 children from BAME backgrounds in 35 countries to see themselves represented in the stories they read.

1800 cubic tonnes of CO2 saved

their incomes

INFOGRID have made savings

VERATRAK are ironing out

NYE HEALTH are enabling

for one NHS Trust that equate to ÂŁ144,000 per year.

kinks and bottlenecks in the global pharmaceutical supply chain, making it super lean and efficient and helping to get healthcare systems future-ready.

more than 600,000 UK citizens to make smarter healthcare decisions through direct access to their own medical records.

ÂŁ144k per year saved for one NHS Trust

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500,000

BAME children can see themselves represented in stories they read

getting healthcare systems

future-ready

600,000 UK citizens making smarter healthcare decisions

demo day 2019 cohort two smashes it On 30 May 2019, 200 invited guests from the world of venture capital, academia and industry gathered in the Foundry to see our cohort two teams pitch their ventures at the end of their six months on the L.E.V8 Accelerator programme. The audience included special guests Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter, Jelly and Medium, and Arlan Hamilton, Founder of LA-based fund Backstage Capital.

Matt Pierri, Founder of SociAbility, winner of a CAE Technology grant and a Skoll Venture Award in 2019.

After the pitches, guests were able to connect with the start-up teams in the venture marketplace, and start potentially valuable conversations around support and investment.

Peter Tufano, Dean of Saïd Business School, closed the evening by noting, “Entrepreneurs come from everywhere, and here at the Foundry we’re enabling young people from all the different spaces across the University of Oxford to achieve their dreams. That’s the value of the Foundry.”

Biz Stone, Co-founder, Twitter, Jelly and Medium, Foundry Advisory Board member

“With the Foundry, Oxford has now established its own centre of entrepreneurial gravity. It is already a tight-knit community, and this is so important for entrepreneurial culture. I urge you all to nurture it, support it, be part of it - as much as you give, you’ll get back in multitudes.”

Kal Patel, Investor, Former EVP, Best Buy Inc, CEO Best Buy Asia, Advisor to the OXFO L.E.V8 Accelerator

“Coming from an innovation background, I sincerely believe that it’s crucial to nurture an inclusive entrepreneurial culture amongst future leaders, and to encourage new and different groups to engage with entrepreneurship. This approach shines through in all that the Foundry is and does. The ventures supported through OXFO L.E.V8 and the L.E.V8 Women programme are strong, sustainable and hard-working, and they are already making a clear impact on the world.”

Alice Curry, Co-founder and CEO, Lantana Publishing

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MIKESH UDANI, MSC IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, GREEN TEMPLETON COLLEGE, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, ALBUS HEALTH, L.E.V8 COHORT ONE Albus Health, from Cohort one of the Foundry’s L.E.V8 Accelerator, is developing an automated, real-time home monitoring system to predict asthma attacks up to days before they happen.

In the UK alone, 1400 people die because of asthma every year, and 45% of these die even before they get to hospital.

Albus Health have so far secured funding to a total of over £1m, including grant funding from Innovate UK, and investment from Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI).

They are currently growing their team, and commercialising their first product in partnership with a big pharma company.

“Thanks to the Oxford Foundry, we’ve gained access to incredible networks and opportunities. We were selected as one of 15 UK digital health SMEs by Innovate UK and the Enterprise Europe Network for a Department for International Trade-sponsored trip to the US. With funding and a first sales contract now secured, we’re in an intensive R&D phase with industry-leading researchers and clinicians from across the UK. We will be expanding our collaborations to the rest of Europe, taking steps towards ensuring we can serve the 330 million people in the world whose lives can be impacted by our technology.”

Visit albushealth.com for more information.

“We will be expanding our collaborations to the rest of Europe, ensuring we can serve the 330 million people in the world whose lives can be impacted by our technology.”

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ELLA O’CONNOR, MENG, MATERIALS SCIENCE, CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CO-FOUNDER OF WOW YOU!, L.E.V8 COHORT TWO WOW YOU! caters to an emerging market in clean, non-toxic beauty driven by millennial consumers who value ethical roots and strong customer interaction. The brand launched in August 2018, and they now sell their products to a growing fanbase of customers all over the world through their website. They have also been stocked by Urban Outfitters, Riley Rose (Forever 21) and Aerie (American Eagle) in the US. “L.E.V8 has empowered me to think big when it comes to my business, and to be more future-focused. It’s helped me to feel more confident in decision-making and more resilient to setbacks. I’ve had to learn to be more robust at defending why I think the business is a good idea despite the masses of competitors.”

Visit wowyou.com, and follow @wowyoubeauty on Instagram.

“L.E.V8 has empowered me to think big about my business and to be more future-focused.”

COLIN TIERNEY, MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, MANSFIELD COLLEGE. HEAD OF PRODUCT, VERATRAK, L.E.V8 COHORT ONE Veratrak is a software provider solely focused on the Life Sciences Industry.

Their platform aims to streamline the development, review and approval processes for all quality documentation and data shared both internally and externally between customers and suppliers. With the aim to move the pharma supply chain away from paper and towards platform, the Veratrak solution provides security and traceability, reducing lead times and working capital for customers. Now based in Shoreditch, London, they secured an additional £1.1m in seed funding in 2019.

“We’re currently building our sales team, establishing strategic partnerships, and growing our engineering team. We’ve been doubling our customer base each year and increasing the number of our customers’ suppliers and partners using the platform.

The Foundry has been a huge influence and catalyst to our successes so far, and continues to give us an amazing array of support – the connection to them and to the University remains strong: having met the Veratrak team at the Foundry, I completed an internship during my MBA at Saïd Business School over the summer, and have since joined on full-time as the Head of Product. The Foundry also introduced us to our recent investors; and of course we give back to the Foundry community through mentoring and advising the new cohorts of L.E.V8 ventures.

As personalised medicine comes on stream, it’s increasingly important that the systems involved in pharmaceutical production and supply runs smoothly and safely, and ready for scale. We are oiling the wheels that improve these systems, and helping to get healthcare future-ready.”

Visit veratrak.com for more information.

Kevin Roberts, ex-CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi, Resident Expert to the OXFO L.E.V8 Accelerator

Robin Saunders, Managing Partner at Clearbrook Capital, Resident Expert to the OXFO L.E.V8 Accelerator

“Through my work with high-profile leaders of large multinationals, I know how crucial it is to challenge leaders to think in fresh ways and adopt new perspectives. By nurturing this fresh thinking and combining it with access to strong networks, the Foundry is ensuring that these young ventures are setting the right course for the future. Their commitment and determination is formidable.

They are smart, they are focused and they are irrepressible.”

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“I’ve been involved in advising major international businesses for many years, but there’s something particularly exciting about launching something completely new. I am thrilled to have been asked to help young entrepreneurs to translate their vision, ambition and energy into viable new businesses, and it’s so rewarding to see them develop personally and professionally through the L.E.V8 programme.”

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our 2020 vision what’s the future?

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The Oxford Foundry team Top row, L-R: Tara Adenle (Social Media Officer), Katy Clapham (Experiential Learning Manager), Daniel James (Operations Manager), Alex Feyler (Venture Manager), Becky Fishman (Content and Partnerships Manager), Amy Lothian (Head of Marketing and Communications) Bottom row, L-R: Jonny Thomson (Head of Outreach and Development), Rose Talbot (Events Coordinator), Ana Bakshi (Director), Kate Nilsson (Executive Assistant to the Director)

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OXFO timeline – past and future highlights The year ahead will see us deepening our roots and continuing to grow our Foundry ecosystem, building on the strong foundations we’ve already laid down. We will be establishing the infrastructure to efficiently connect talent to our network as we scale.

Peter Tufano, Dean of Saïd Business School, developed the original concept for the Oxford Foundry as an entrepreneurial facility for all students and alumni of the University of Oxford

We will also be refining and growing our programmes.

This includes: Scaling up our accelerator and our pre-accelerator programmes, through our partnerships with industry and across the University, and introducing specific sector streams, so that we can enable more ventures to make a positive impact in the world. We will be building out our L.E.V8 Women programme for female founders and leaders, and supporting initiatives focused on creating greater social inclusion, to ensure that more talented people from all backgrounds have access to Oxford’s amazing resources, networks and opportunities.

This includes building our collection of digital learning resources. We will be reviewing more targeted programming focused on supporting our PhD talent to develop their entrepreneurial ideas.

The All-Innovate ideas competition will be generously supported

by Oxford Sciences Innovation in 2020, and will take place in Hilary term, as will our next AI Impact Weekend, delivered in collaboration with EY. This year’s AI challenge will focus on climate change, tying in with wider University initiatives in this highly important area.

Our OXFO Tech series of workshops will be generously supported

by Ripple Technologies UBRI, enabling students from all colleges and disciplines to gain new skills in blockchain, AI and machine learning. We are also grateful for continued support from Santander Universities and CAE Technology. We will be announcing further partnerships and initiatives as the year progresses.

We also want to make sure that Oxford alumni have even more ways to engage and connect with us, so we’ll be building out our offering to those who have graduated, and creating more events and programmes specifically for them.

2016 Announcement of the founding donation of

US$1m from Reid Hoffman CBE, LinkedIn Co-founder and Oxford University alumnus

2017 Early 2017 Saïd Business School secures support and funding to launch the centre through the Advisory Board, including a donation of

£1.5m from the Amersi Foundation

Summer 2017 Foundry Director, Ana Bakshi, appointed Building renovations take just 15 weeks, transforming the nightclub into the Oxford Foundry October 2017 The Foundry is officially opened by Apple CEO

Tim Cook

November 2017 The first student members join, and the Foundry’s first learning workshops begin

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2019 January Machine learning workshops November Idea Exploration workshops begin The OXFO L.E.V8 Accelerator welcomes its second cohort of ten ventures October The first OXFO Booster Grants are announced, supporting 17 student societies to deliver entrepreneurial initiatives Summer Launch of the OXFO L.E.V8 Women programme for Oxford’s

February Python coding workshops, led by students from OxAI society and CodeSoc AI Impact Weekend 2019, powered by EY, with a focus on Recruitment Bias

£20k

prize money. Supported

by Santander Universities

Public Speaking Masterclasses for staff and students, led by best-selling author David Nihill The first OXFO L.E.V8 Demo Day takes place

March Accelerator pitch night, with partners CAE Technology May The first AI Tech Talent Networking event, with

20+ tech companies participating

April

Fail Faire, part of the Skoll World Forum 2020

OXFO Start-up Sprint February The AI Impact Weekend 2020, held in collaboration with EY, with a focus on Climate Change The All-Innovate student ideas competition final, supported by Oxford Sciences Innovation

2020 November OXFO L.E.V8 cohort three arrives OXFO Speaker Series begins Silicon Valley Comes to the UK (SVC2UK) conference, Oxford Programme

June Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales visits and speaks at the Foundry February The first peer-led learning workshops on coding and blockchain

Summer 2019 L.E.V8 Women pre-accelerator, cohort two

January Launch of the OXFO Student Advisory Board (SAB)

September Climate Change + AI panel event, part of the AI@Oxford conference, 17/18 September 2019

2018

May OXFO L.E.V8 Demo Day 2020

Medicine in 2030: How to Shape the Future of Healthcare, event delivered in collaboration with medical student societies

and founders

March Launch of the OXFO L.E.V8 Accelerator, welcoming the first cohort of venture teams hosted in the Amersi Foundation Accelerator Space.

L.E.V8 Women, cohort three

The All-Innovate student idea competition final: 10 teams pitch for a share of the

women leaders

May The first AI Impact Weekend, held in collaboration with EY, with a focus on Fake News

Summer 2020 Applications open for L.E.V8 cohort four

October The Foundry Freshers Festival – welcoming all new students to Oxford Start of OXFO Tech Series and Creativity Series workshops

our champions, leadership and governance

We are grateful to our brilliant advisory board, as well as our inspiring collective of academic champions and resident experts, who help us to ensure that our work is reflective of commercial market needs and the needs of our students, and that we are leveraging on the talent that exists all around us.

Oxford Foundry Advisory Board Reid Hoffman CBE Co-founder, LinkedIn Mohamed Amersi Chairman, Inclusive Ventures Group and the Amersi Foundation Biz Stone Co-founder, Twitter, Jelly, and Medium Brent Hoberman CBE Executive Chairman, Founders Factory, Founders Forum, and firstminute capital Pete Flint Founder, Trulia, Managing Partner at NFX Jeff Wong Global Chief Innovation Officer, EY

Toby Coppel Co-founder and Partner, Mosaic Ventures Phil Libin Co-founder, Evernote and All Turtles Alexsis de Raadt St James Managing Partner, Merian Ventures Peter Tufano Dean, Saïd Business School Jørn Lyseggen Founder and CEO, Meltwater

Our Academic Steering Committee

L.E.V8 Resident Experts

Chas Bountra Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation

Ben Legg MD, Ola UK, Former COO, Google (Europe)

Peter Tufano Dean of Saïd Business School

Kal Patel Former Executive Vice President, Best Buy Inc and CEO, Best Buy Asia

Matt Perkins CEO, Oxford University Innovation Thomas Hellmann DP Worlds Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Saïd Business School Miles Young Warden of New College and Chair of the Conference of Colleges Karen O’Brien Head of the Humanities Division Matthew Wood Deputy Head of the Medical Sciences Division - Innovation Lionel Tarassenko CBE Head of Engineering Paul Martin Associate Head of the Social Sciences Division - Education Christopher Jones Head of Industrial Research Partnerships, MPLS Division Jim Wilkinson Chief Financial Officer, Oxford Sciences Innovation Mark Bramwell Chief Information Officer, Saïd Business School Jo Harris Director of Finance and Administration, Saïd Business School

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Arlan Hamilton (Honorary Member) Founder and Managing Partner, Backstage Capital

Farzana Baduel CEO, Curzon PR Claire Davenport Former CEO, HelloFresh Srin Madipalli Product Manager, Airbnb, Co-founder of Accomable Kevin Roberts Former CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi Robin Saunders CEO, Clearbrook Capital Peter Garratt IP specialist and former attorney at Mathys & Squire Stephen Scruton Former Global Head of Research, HSBC Dom Jacqueson Director of Talent, Index Ventures Niamh Gavin Start-up advisor

OUR STRUCTURE

The Oxford Foundry is supported through philanthropy and corporate partnerships, as well as critical operational and administrative support from Saïd Business School.

Philanthropy and corporate partnerships

FREE support for all students and alumni

Industry experts, academic champions and entrepreneurs

We have an incredible community of experts, mentors, entrepreneurs and world leaders who donate their time to the Foundry completely pro-bono. This enables us to provide access to resources, advice, guidance, potential investment, introductions and advisors worth millions annually.

Thanks to our donors and supporters, all of our programmes of support are free of cost to our students, alumni and further audiences.

L.E.V8 Women Ambassadors This year the Foundry’s L.E.V8 Women programme has been fortunate to have the support of the following individuals, who have given freely of their time to support the women-led venture teams who made it on to our pre-accelerator programme (see page 42).

Arlan Hamilton Founder and Managing Partner, Backstage Capital Nicole Vollebregt Senior Vice President, Global Purpose, adidas Marcus East Technical Director, Office of the CTO, Google Helen Riley Chief Financial Officer, X (an Alphabet company) Jenny Tooth OBE Chief Executive, UK Business Angels Association Srin Madipalli Product Manager, Airbnb Kal Patel Former Executive Vice President, BestBuy Inc and CEO, BestBuy Asia Niamh Gavin Start-up advisor Kathy Harvey Associate Dean, MBA and Executive Degrees, Saïd Business School

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Our Student Advisory Board 2018/19 Blockchain Society Oxford University Computer Society Oxford Coding Society Oxford AI Society OxRAM (Robotics and Additive Manufacturing) Oxford Drone Society Oxford Women in Computer Science Society Oxford University Fintech and Smart Law Society Technology Oxford Business Network (MBAs) Oxford University Biological Society Oxford University Physics Society Oxford Biotech Society Oxford Medical Students’ Society Cortex Club (Neuroscience) Paediatrics Society Doctors of the World Capitox 180 Degrees Oxford Oxford Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship Oxford Business Network (MBAs) Africa Oxford Business Network Oxford Women in Business Society OX1 (Start-up pre-accelerator) Oxford Business Guild Rhodes Incubator Campus Capital Oxford Women in Consulting Law Society Oxford African and Caribbean Society German Society North African Society Enactus Oxford Media Society Philosophy Society International Development Boxing Society Athletics Club Pole Sports Racing Society

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thank you

We are hugely grateful to the following organisations and individuals for their support of the Foundry and its activities.

•

Saïd Business School

•

Reid Hoffman CBE

•

The Amersi Foundation

•

Mohamed Amersi

• EY

•

Brent Hoberman CBE

• Meltwater

•

Biz Stone

•

•

Toby Coppel

• Barclays

•

Pete Flint

•

Santander Universities

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Alexsis de Raadt St James

•

CAE Technology Services

•

Jørn Lyseggen

•

Jeff Wong

•

Phil Libin

DeTao Education Group

THANKS TO THE TEAM FROM ANA The Oxford Foundry is a start-up, and as we’ve been scaling rapidly over the past 24 months, our start-up challenges have been the same as those of any new venture. I wanted to share a big thank you to my team, THE team that make this all possible. Kate, Jonny, Katy, Tara, Dan, Rose, Alex, Becky, Amy, Fernando, Marta, Margaret, Yvonne and Daniel - you are all incredible. Your passion, determination and shared vision to create platforms for change and build opportunity for others is what makes the Foundry so special. You are all critical pieces in our wonderful puzzle, that keeps on growing. Congratulations for all that you have achieved as leaders in your spaces, and here’s to another year of togetherness, delivering real impact, and making the world a better place, as best as we collectively can.

Ana Bakshi, Foundry Director

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become a supporter of the Oxford Foundry

The Foundry was set up by Saïd Business School for all University of Oxford students, and it is wholly funded through philanthropy and corporate partnerships. We are dedicated to providing talented people from all backgrounds with access to the networks, resources and opportunities that will enable them to create solutions to the world’s most complex challenges.

If you share our vision, and want to support us in building a new generation of ventures, please get in touch with us to start a conversation about funding our work: development@oxfordfoundry.ox.ac.uk.

Robert Easton, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Development and External Affairs

Pete Flint, Co-founder, Trulia and Managing Partner, NFX, Foundry Advisory Board Member

“By connecting Oxford’s talented early stage ventures, such as those supported through the Foundry’s accelerator programme, with our network of successful entrepreneurs and investor alumni around the world, we are cementing Oxford’s reputation as a global entrepreneurial influencer.”

“Entrepreneurs often find themselves charting new territories, and that can be both terrifying and lonely. But a facility like the Foundry, that brings diverse people together, offers practical support and encourages fearlessness, it’s a tremendous gift that will yield greater outcomes for everyone.”

Phil Libin, Co-founder, Evernote and All Turtles, Foundry Advisory Board Member

“Effective entrepreneurship is a fundamentally multidisciplinary endeavor, and nobody does this better than the Oxford Foundry. The environment is perfect for bringing together people with farranging backgrounds, disciplines, and approaches, and focusing them on solving real-world problems.

I’ve been inspired by every visit to the Foundry and am thrilled to be part of its evolving story.”

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST Register to join our mailing list and receive news updates from the Foundry: https://newsletter.oxfordfoundry.ox.ac.uk

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Building a new generation of ventures.