OXFO Venture Portfolio by oxfordfoundry

2018 - 2021

OXFORD FOUNDRY ELEVATE ACCELERATOR VENTURE PORTFOLIO

BUILDING A NEW GENERATION OF VENTURES AND LEADERS.

OXFORD FOUNDRY Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter | Chair, Oxford Foundry Advisory Board

“At this moment in history, it’s imperative that we invest in the future and harness the power of entrepreneurship and networks like the University of Oxford for the greater good. When this community of student, alumni, academic and industry talent works together across disciplines and geographies, it’s game-changing. Collectively as a strong community, the Oxford Foundry’s network is delivering actionable and sustainable solutions to the complex challenges we face as a society, and leveraging the unparalleled assets Oxford has to offer the world. OXFO Elevate is the foundation and powerful framework that has directed and driven these high-potential ventures to success. The calibre of OXFO ventures is second to none. I’ve personally invested because of the jobs they’re creating at a time when our economies need it most, the passion and commitment of OXFO founders to lead with purpose and use tech for good, and the incredible positive impact they’re having on society.”

Reid Hoffman CBE, Co-founder of LinkedIn | Senior Advisor, Oxford Foundry “The early stages of building a successful venture are some of the hardest. You’re still setting your direction, in need of guidance and looking for funding - and that’s where accelerators such as OXFO Elevate come in. The OXFO Elevate programme has supported venture growth, given founders fundamental skills for running a business, and ultimately made the ventures valuable in the eyes of global investors and influencers. In making entrepreneurship accessible to everyone, OXFO is gamechanging for the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Oxford and more broadly across the UK and Europe.”

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction, Ana Bakshi, Executive Director, Oxford Foundry

OXFO Elevate accelerator, Cohorts 1-3 key stats

OXFO Elevate ventures in the press

Venture Awards

Venture Impact

Healthcare and Pharma, Cohorts 1-3

Albus Health • Pharma • Medical device • AI • Respiratory 8 iLoF • Pharma • AI & photonics • Biomarkers • Stratification 9 Nye Health • Digital health • Telecommunication • B2B SaaS 10 Oxford Cancer Analytics • Pharma • AI • Cancer detection • Biomarkers 11 Veratrak • Pharma • Supply chain • Document sharing • Blockchain 12 Ufonia • Healthcare • Telemedicine • AI • Automation 13 Novoic • Pharma • Digital Biomarkers • Alzheimer’s • B2B SaaS 14 See-Through Scientific • Pharma • AI • Liquid biopsy • Cancer detection 15

Enterprise, Cohorts 1-3

Infogrid • Property management • IoT • Big data • B2B SaaS 18 TradeLink • Transport • Logistics • Supply chain • B2B SaaS 19 Util • Financial services • Impact investing • SDGs • AI 20 Archangel Imaging • Defence • Asset protection • AI • B2B SaaS

Deep Planet • Agriculture • Supply chain • AI • B2B SaaS 22 EcoSync • Property management • Sustainability • Big data • B2B SaaS 23 myo • Care homes • Social networks • Communication • B2B SaaS 24

Metronome • Energy • Agriculture • B2B SaaS • Hardware 25 Intellicharge • Energy • Electric vehicles • B2B SaaS • Optimisation 26

Consumer and Education, Cohorts 1-3

Oxwash • Last mile • Sustainability • Laundry • Logistics 28 Scoodle • Education • Students • Platform • Content 29 Sociability • Accessibility • Community • Social inclusion • Consumer 30 Peergos • Privacy & security • Developer ecosystem • Data storage • Decentralised 31 WOW YOU! • Beauty • e-commerce • Natural • Consumer 32 SmashMedicine • Education • University • Learning • B2B SaaS 33 Yoxly • Sexual health • Testing • Privacy • Consumer 34 Lantana Publishing • Publishing • Diversity • e-commerce • Children 35

Our unique model and lifelong learning

Testimonials 39 NEW Cohort 4 ventures

ammonite • Financial services • Accessibility • Advice

Checkstep • AI • Content moderation • Trust & safety

DroneStream • Drones • Real-time communication • Remote working

HedgeFlows • Financial services • SME • Currency risk

KindWorks.AI • AI • Mental well-being • Kindness chatbot

Mitra bio • AI • Skin biomarkers • Beauty & healthcare

Neumind • Application • Brain injury • Cognitive rehabilitation

ngenius.ai • AI • Smart cities • Sustainability

PIPRA • AI • Post-operative delirium • Risk prediction Vocsta • Application • Music talent • Social media

49 50

Thank you

Oxford Foundry

INTRODUCTION

VENTURE PORTFOLIO 2021

As well as this unique ability, we also have a responsibility to support this next generation of ventures and leaders. To look ahead, have foresight, and to build and nurture ventures that will truly help us build a better and more resilient world.

e’re incredibly proud of our OXFO Elevate accelerator portfolio. Not just the economic and social value our ventures have created and continue to create, but the amazing people behind the ventures.

The University of Oxford contributes around £15.7 billion to the UK economy, and supports more than 28,000 full time jobs (London Economics, 2021)

Every individual has put their heart and soul into solving an important problem and creating a venture that has true value to society. Their commitment and authenticity shines through everything they do and it’s an honour to see the purpose-led, inclusive and impactful leaders they’ve become. We built the accelerator using global best practice frameworks, and in under four years we are proud to say it has gone from strength to strength and had exceptional demand, particularly amongst alumni, many of whom graduated ten or more years ago. As a multidisciplinary entrepreneurship centre for all 24,000 Oxford students as well as alumni and wider communities, we are critically placed to leverage on the University of Oxford’s unparalleled assets, global networks, industry partnerships, world-class academic expertise, and exceptional student and alumni talent, to add critical value to ventures at the point in their journeys they need it most.

Our ventures are using the latest science, innovation and technology to tackle some of the world’s toughest problems including climate change, cybersecurity and healthcare equity and the unique position of OXFO Elevate has enabled the 32 ventures in cohorts 1-3 of our portfolio to raise £52.4m+ in investment and create 250+ jobs since joining the accelerator, valued at over £157m. OXFO ventures continue to demonstrate the impact a university community can have in nurturing, scaling, and investing in high-potential startups and removing barriers to growth. They are exceptional role models, giving back so generously to support each other and embodying the dedication, values, and evergreen cycle of support that makes university entrepreneurship ecosystems so unique. Thank you to our incredible global network of dedicated Resident Experts, mentors, advisors and partners who provide hands-on support to our ventures, supporting them not just to scale, but to gain holistic lifelong skills in dealing with pressure, relationship building, resilience, and mental well-being. I have infinite amounts of gratitude to you all, and to my incredible team and the entrepreneurs we have the privilege of working alongside. Thank you for trusting us to support you on this journey and fully immersing yourselves into OXFO Elevate and the Oxford Foundry. As a Foundry family we have created something truly special. With warm wishes,

Ana Bakshi, Executive Director, Oxford Foundry

OXFORD FOUNDRY

OXFO ELEVATE ACCELERATOR KEY STATS In three years, cohorts 1-3 of the OXFO Elevate accelerator have achieved:

32 STARTUPS SUPPORTED ACROSS 3 COHORTS

£157m+ OXFO ELEVATE PORTFOLIO VALUATION

9.0

NET PROMOTER SCORE

86% OF VENTURES ARE REVENUE GENERATING

£52.4m+ £52.4m + CAPITAL RAISED BY COHORTS 1-3 SINCE STARTING THE PROGRAMME

£38m CAPITAL RAISED BY COHORTS 1 & 2 SINCE JOINING THE PROGRAMME

250+ JOBS CREATED GLOBALLY SINCE STARTING THE PROGRAMME

70%

OF VENTURES RAISED FOLLOWON FUNDING IN EUROPE AND THE US IN THE 6 TO 12 MONTHS FOLLOWING THE PROGRAMME

OXFORD FOUNDRY

OUR VENTURES IN THE PRESS THE OXFORD FOUNDRY HAS FEATURED 100+ TIMES IN THE PRESS AND THE VENTURES ALSO COLLECTIVELY OVER 100 TIMES. FOR A FULL LIST, PLEASE VISIT THE OXFORD FOUNDRY WEBSITE.

EX-ARMY OFFICER MARCHES ON WITH £10M FUNDING FOR AI FIRM INFOGRID

HOW ILOF TURNS BLOOD INTO A CLOUD-BASED FINGERPRINT LIBRARY TO FIGHT DISEASES

NOVEMBER 2020

MAY 2021

TWITTER CO-FOUNDER BIZ STONE INVESTS IN SCOODLE JANUARY 2020

CORONAVIRUS: THE TECH MINNOWS CHANGING THE NHS APRIL 2020

SPACE SCIENTIST’S LAUNDRY START-UP OXWASH GETS A £2M LIFT-OFF JUNE 2021

VERATRAK WANTS TO DIGITISE THE PHARMACEUTICAL SUPPLY CHAIN APRIL 2019

APP DESIGNED BY CAREGIVERS COMBATS LONELINESS IN CARE HOMES JULY 2020

NEW ACCESSIBILITY APP LAUNCHES IN OXFORD APRIL 2019

OXFORD FOUNDRY

VENTURE AWARDS FOR A FULL LIST PLEASE VISIT THE OXFORD FOUNDRY WEBSITE.

Winner of Microsoft’s Female Founders competition in partnership with Mayfield and Pivotal Ventures DR MEHAK MUMTAZ, ILOF

Recipient of a NHSX ‘AI in Health and Care Award 2020’ ALBUS HEALTH, NOVOIC AND UFONIA

Winner of a Great British Entrepreneur Award 2020 DAN SOLA, ARCHANGEL IMAGING

First place in the Energy Solution category of the Shell LiveWIRE Top Ten Innovators Awards 2018 JOSH BURTON, METRONOME

Winner of the Clarissa Luard Award

Winner of an EU Next Generation Internet Grant

ALICE CURRY, LANTANA PUBLISHING

PEERGOS

Forbes 30 Under 30

Winner of a CINET Global Best Practice Award 2020

DR KYLE GRANT, JASON LACOMBE, LUIS VALENTE AND RONIT KANWAR

OXWASH

OXFORD FOUNDRY

HIGH-GROWTH VENTURES. UNPARALLELED OXFORD UNIVERSITY RESOURCES. WORLD-CHANGING IMPACT.

ur ventures deliver a double bottom-line. They are profitable whilst at the same time have intrinsic moral values. Social value-add, and using the power of innovation and entrepreneurship to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges like climate change and healthcare equity, are at the very heart of their purpose and mission.

Our founders know that making money and making a positive impact on the world aren’t mutually exclusive. All of our ventures have positive impact at their core and understand that true success means giving others a step up, preventing widening inequalities, and bringing everyone along on the journey together.

OXFO ventures are committed to equality and fairness. Led by the Foundry, they work hard to break down barriers and ensure equality and equity for founders from under-represented groups including women founders and founders from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. For some ventures, their social impact is immediate and direct, while for others, who are addressing structural changes in broken systems, or tough and complex problems like Alzheimer’s diagnosis and treatment, the far-reaching social impact will be fully realised over a longer timeframe. Examples of the social impact our ventures are having include Oxwash and its eco-laundry business, Archangel Imaging and its intelligent software used to prevent poaching, and myo, and its communication tool to connect families with care home residents (pictured). Our ventures prove that making the world a better place and having a high-growth, globally scalable business can go hand in hand.

OXFORD FOUNDRY

WHEN PEOPLE AND PLANET PROSPER. VENTURES PROSPER.

10 MILLION PATIENTS SUPPORTED TO HAVE REMOTE GP CONSULTATIONS

100 MILLION PLASTIC MICROFIBRES PREVENTED FROM GOING INTO THE WORLD’S OCEANS

£5.4M RAISED IN INVESTMENT

£4.2M RAISED IN INVESTMENT

8,000 FAMILIES CONNECTED TO CARE HOME RESIDENTS £5.8M RAISED ACROSS THREE FUNDING ROUNDS

HELPING PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC RESPIRATORY DISEASES DETECT ANY DETERIORATION BEFORE AN EMERGENCY £3M IN EQUITY AND GRANT FUNDING

WORKING WITH PARTNERS ACROSS FOUR CONTINENTS TO USE PERSONALISED MEDICINE TO DIAGNOSE AND TREAT DISEASES LIKE ALZHEIMER’S £4.1M IN INVESTMENT RAISED

PROVIDING ANALYTICS TO QUANTIFY INVESTMENT IMPACT AND MAXIMISE ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL INVESTMENT RETURNS £2.8M RAISED IN INVESTMENT ACROSS THREE FUNDING ROUNDS

1 BILLION DATA POINTS CREATED TO HELP MAKE BUILDINGS SMART & ECO-FRIENDLY. 3 METRIC TONS OF CARBON EMISSIONS AND THOUSANDS OF LITRES OF WATER WASTAGE ELIMINATED ANNUALLY PER BUILDING £14.9M IN INVESTMENT RAISED

REDUCING CO2 FOOTPRINTS IN THE SINGLE LARGEST CONTRIBUTING SECTOR TO GLOBAL GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS £3M RAISED IN INVESTMENT IN ITS FIRST FUNDING ROUND

Healthcare and Pharma The University of Oxford’s Medical Sciences Division is an internationally recognised centre of excellence and the largest of the four academic divisions within the University. OXFO ventures are tackling some of the toughest challenges in healthcare including using AI and deep tech to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease and cancer much earlier than is currently possible.

Albus Health

Healthcare and Pharma

albushealth.com

Intelligent respiratory monitoring at home – fully automated. No Contact. No Burden.

Co-founding team : Mikesh Udani, Co-founder & CEO, MSc Computer Science, St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford William Do, Co-founder & Medical Director, BMBch Medicine, St Anne’s College, University of Oxford

Team size 8 team members

Investment & stage: Seed Albus Health has raised more than £3m in equity and grant funding from Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), Innovate UK, NIHR, and Oxford’s ‘University Challenge Seed Fund’.

Pharma Medical Device AI Respiratory

Albus Health Problem Patients with chronic respiratory diseases can have warning signs and symptoms missed, leading to a higher risk of emergencies such as asthma attacks. Existing tools, including symptom diaries and breathing tests are subjective and ineffective, relying on patients changing their behaviour, often leading to missed data. Critical signs aren’t seen early enough to prevent hospitalisation or sometimes death. This is costing healthcare systems in Europe and the US more than $12bn a year, but the problem starts with the pharmaceutical industry who spend more than $15bn a year in respiratory clinical trials alone, with research limited by using the same inadequate tools. This leads to inefficient clinical trials, high costs, missing data, and an increased risk of rejected label claims. Solution Albus Health has developed a fully automated and non-contact monitoring system for clinical respiratory research, as well as truly personalised asthma care at home. Albus Health provides a tabletop device that does not require patient

contact or interaction, providing objective assessments, and long-term, high quantity and quality symptom monitoring. Traction Albus Health launched its first product in 2019 and secured its first client order from one of the world’s largest pharma companies. It was selected by Innovate UK as one of the top 15 digital health companies in the UK, and awarded an NHSX ‘AI in Health and Care Award’, announced by the Secretary of State for Health & Social Care. It will now be working with Asthma UK, Imperial College and the Oxford AHSN on a ground-breaking project aiming to predict asthma attacks in children using its device. Albus Health’s results compared to clinical gold standards (which only monitor a subset of symptoms and are not suitable for use at home) show over 93% accuracy, which is unseen across the industry. The team are scheduled to launch their second product (a home monitoring system to predict and prevent asthma attacks for children) in 2022.

iLoF

Healthcare and Pharma

ilof.tech

An AI-powered digital library of disease biomarkers – to accelerate a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.

Co-founding team:

iLoF Problem Alzheimer’s disease is devastating, and despite decades of research, we are still far from a cure. In the last 14 years, more than 400 clinical trials failed, without any new disease modifying treatment on the market. Clinical trials for the disease have major issues: they use expensive and invasive techniques, which cause 90% of patients to drop out. In fact, drug discovery for Alzheimer’s is twice as expensive as oncology (cancer), and because of that, many pharma companies are forced to abandon even promising discovery and clinical programmes. With a growing acceptance of the need for personalised medicine for diseases like cancer, it’s clear that there is no magic bullet for diseases as multi-faceted as Alzheimer’s, and treatments need to be tailored to individuals, especially their stage of disease. The challenge here is in stratifying patients, and in developing tools that are low-cost, non-invasive and easy to use. Solution iLoF is enabling a new era of personalised medicine, by using AI and photonics to build a cloud-based library of disease biomarkers. It leverages machine learning to create value for industry and for the patient by drastically reducing the cost and

time of drug discovery and development, and providing screening and clinical prognosis tools in an affordable, noninvasive, label-free way, including working with leading hospitals to quickly, affordably and comfortably pre-screen patients for rare or heterogeneous diseases. iLoF saves up to 40% of the cost and 70% of the time spent screening for clinical trials. Traction CB Insights named iLoF one of the ‘top 150 digital health companies in the world in 2020’. iLoF has already initiated two clinical studies with hospitals in the North and South of Portugal to screen hundreds of patients for Alzheimer’s disease, aiming to potentially save hundreds of people from invasive, risky procedures like lumbar puncture and PET Scans, as well as working with a well-known UK based biotech company. iLoF has also accelerated its traction with pharma, winning the Roche open- innovation programme, and having built a cloud-based library of more than 1,000 biological profiles. It has seen results of over 84% accuracy, while working with ten partners from four continents to validate the agnostic platform on both gold-standard and promising targets & biomarkers. As well as Alzheimer’s, iLoF maintains ongoing verticals on Digestive Cancer, Stroke and Infectious diseases.

Dr Mehak Mumtaz, Co-founder and COO, MBiochem at St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford, and DPhil in Pathology at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford Luis Valente, Co-founder and CEO

Team size 16 team members

Investment & stage: Seed/Pre-Series A iLoF has raised more than £4.1m in funding from EIT Health and others.

Pharma AI & photonics Biomarkers Stratification

Nye Health

Healthcare and Pharma

nye.health

Enabling any clinician to call any patient, from any device, from anywhere.

Co-founding team: Dr Alexander Finlayson, Co-founder, CEO and Head of Product, Doll Fellow in Medicine, Green Templeton College, University of Oxford Dr Imran Mahmud, Co-founder and Head of Growth, MBMch, Biochemistry, St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford

Team size: 15 team members

Investment & stage: Pre-Series A Nye Health has raised over £5.4m across three funding rounds. It has had investment from InHealth ventures and very impressive angel investors.

Healthcare Digital health Telecommunication B2B SaaS

Nye Health Problem The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the face of healthcare and research study delivery across the world. Due to the threats posed by coronavirus, it very quickly became unsafe for patients and clinicians to continue meeting face to face and carry out consultations as normal. This is particularly true amongst vulnerable patient groups, some of whom are participating in research studies that require visits to hospitals and clinics. Solution The Nye Phone from Nye Health is an NHS-compliant browser-based telephone and video phone that enables any clinician, to call any patient, from any device, from anywhere. It is used in line with NHS Digital standards, integrating with existing records and databases, meaning all patients, care, data and insights are kept within the NHS. The platform is needed more than ever in a Covid-19 world, enabling thousands of clinicians to work flexibly and safely through the disruption caused by the pandemic. It is also now being used within the clinical trial market.

Traction Nye Health is being used by thousands of NHS clinicians and clinical researchers to deliver medical care and clinical trials to millions of patients across the UK. It is supporting key clinical trials across Oxford University, Imperial College London, St George’s, University of London, and others. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Nye Health was rolled out to be available to 10 million patients, supported the University of Oxford’s Covid-19 vaccine trial, and worked closely with ICUs around the country including in Milton Keynes University Hospital, with one million patient consultations. Nye’s integration now enables 40 million patients to access their medical records.

Oxford Cancer Analytics

Healthcare and Pharma

oxcan.org

Detect cancer intelligently. Give cancer no chance.

Co-founding team:

OXcan Problem The deadliest cancers are often diagnosed at the final stage, when cancer has spread across the body and become incurable. If diagnosed late, 90% of patients will die. If diagnosed at the earliest stage, 90% of patients will survive. This puts a huge amount of financial strain on the NHS and healthcare systems around the world, as treating a late-stage cancer patient will cost three times more than it does to treat an early-stage cancer patient. But the big problem here is that current diagnostics can’t reliably detect the deadliest cancers early. Solution Early cancer detection is key for saving both money and lives for global healthcare systems. Oxford Cancer Analytics has developed a machine learning software platform for early cancer detection by analysing multidimensional results from a blood test combined with personalised patient information, allowing early treatment and cure. Initially focused on lung cancer, this blood test can be conducted in an affordable, minimally invasive and routine manner in large populations benefits that are not possible for existing tissue biopsy and complex imaging

Dr. Peter Jianrui Liu, Co-founder & CEO, DPhil in Clinical Medicine, Jesus College, University of Oxford

methods for cancer detection. As a result, OXcan technology could revolutionise the way in which the deadliest cancers are detected, monitored, and treated to save millions of lives.

Andreas Halner, Co-founder & COO, DPhil in Clinical Medicine & Machine Learning, St John’s College, University of Oxford

Traction OXcan is supported by world-leading institutions including the Francis Crick Institute and Cancer Research UK. It has shown that it can dramatically improve early cancer detection compared to current approaches and other competitors. Using open access data of 1800 patients, including both healthy patients and up to eight different types of cancer, OXcan is able to more than double stage 1 lung cancer detection compared to leading companies in the field, achieving 86% sensitivity and 99% specificity. Furthermore, OXcan accurately distinguishes between lung cancer and other cancer types, an ability often lacked by competitors. As a result, it is currently establishing a first-of-its kind longitudinal biobank of recurrent lung cancer monitoring blood samples, and is setting up a clinical trial with physician-scientists and professors in Oxford for detecting early stage and recurrent lung cancer. OXcan is also working with other NHS hospitals including in Newcastle to detect a variety of cancers at early-stage, using existing datasets. Other collaborations span North America and Asia with leading hospital partners.

Team size 11 team members

Investment & stage: Seed OXcan has raised an oversubscribed seed round of £1.36m with Cancer Research UK, Civilisation Ventures, the Francis Crick Institute, Oxford Technology Management, MegaRobo, the Chief Digital Officer of TMobile USA, Marcus East, and the former European President of GlaxoSmithKline, Brad Wilson.

Pharma AI Cancer detection Biomarkers

Veratrak

Healthcare and Pharma

veratrak.com

Increasing visibility, trust and efficiency between supply chain companies.

Co-founding team: Jason Lacombe, Co-founder and CEO, DPhil in Public Health, Hertford College, University of Oxford Colin Tierney, Head of Product MBA, Mansfield College, University of Oxford

Team size: 9 team members

Investment & stage: Pre-Series A Veratrak has raised over £1.2m across two funding rounds. It has had investment from Seedcamp, Ascension Ventures, Force Over Mass, TrueSight Ventures, and reputable angels including Charlie Songhurst, Tony Fitzpatrick and Antonin de Fougerolles.

Pharma Supply chain Document sharing Blockchain

Veratrak Problem Efficient pharmaceutical supply chains are essential for delivering high quality and cost-effective healthcare. Currently, business-to-business collaboration and the sharing of documents in the pharmaceutical supply chain is done via email, with approvals being printed, signed and scanned. Email is not collaborative, which leads to delays in the supply chain, increasing working capital requirements and time to market. Companies lose sight of the security of the storage when critical sensitive documents are transferred over email, and there is a lack of an audit trail, with documents spanning many inboxes. This leads to regulatory and reputational risk, as well as the opportunity for fraud. Solution Veratrak is a document collaboration and workflow management platform. It is the first industry approved commercial blockchain product, allowing pharmaceutical supply chain companies to communicate sensitive documents and work together with greater efficiency, security, and auditability. The platform enables supply chain partners to share and collaborate on critical product related documentation (e.g. artwork files, batch

documentation, certificates of analysis). Users can create a custom document workflow including sharing and approvals, and invite all relevant partners onto the platform to collaborate. Traction Across ten countries, Veratrak has 25 pharmaceutical and Life Sciences companies using the platform. Usage data from users on the platform has seen an increase in adoption, including a 120% increase in Q2 user growth in 2020, the majority of whom used the product daily to securely exchange, sign, and collaborate on thousands of files per month. The Covid-19 pandemic has only made the need for Veratrak greater, benefiting supply chain teams who have been forced to perform tasks remotely within regulatory bounds, such as performing remote audits of their suppliers.

Ufonia

Healthcare and Pharma

ufonia.co

Replacing routine patient healthcare interactions with next generation automated phone calls.

Founding team: Dr. Nick de Pennington CEO, BMBCh Medicine, Oriel College, University of Oxford, and EMBA candidate, Keble College, University of Oxford

Ufonia Problem The gap between the need for patient healthcare and the supply of clinicians to deliver it is increasing. In post-surgery follow-on care in particular, this has led to hospitals having nurses, clinicians and doctors follow up with patients manually and by phone, often without any form of appointment booked. Due to the need to have already exceptionally busy, qualified staff deliver this manual task, this has led to burnout of healthcare professionals, expensive temporary workers needed to fill this gap and, in some cases, missed patient follow-up that has led to serious conditions getting worse, sometimes irreversibly. The Covid-19 pandemic has driven the widespread adoption of remote care, but this still requires human clinicians and is not flexible or scalable enough to meet current and future demands across the globe. Solution Ufonia is replacing routine patient healthcare interactions with next generation automated phone calls. It is providing increased convenience to patients, freeing up clinicians to deliver more complex care and reducing costs for provider healthcare organisations. It uses AI to deliver a like-for-

Team size like solution that doesn’t require patients to learn to use any new technology. The system delivers triple bottom line benefits to healthcare of lower cost, increased accessibility, and improved environmental sustainability. Traction Ufonia is currently live and being tested at Buckinghamshire Hospital NHS Trust to manage the follow-up of patients who have undergone cataract surgery - the most common operation in the world. It has funding from NHSX’s ‘AI in Health and Care Award’ and its work in cataract surgery has the support of the President of the European Society of Cataract Surgeons. Ufonia also has a formal academic study of the system, due to commence in Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) and Imperial College. Further clinical use cases are also being developed with other hospital sites, including the use of the system to triage head and neck cancer care at St George’s Hospital in London.

11 team members

Investment & stage: Seed Ufonia has raised more than £2m in equity & grant funding from Innovate UK and NIHR, as well as reputable angel investors including Charlie Songhurst, Mark Evans, and Jean Nehme.

Healthcare Telemedicine AI Automation

Novoic

Healthcare and Pharma

novoic.com

Predicting Alzheimer’s disease 20 years early through the way you speak.

Co-founding team: Jack Weston, Co-founder and CTO, MPhys, Physics, St John’s College, University of Oxford Emil Fristed, Co-founder and CEO, MSc, Neuroscience, Merton College, University of Oxford

Team size: 7 team members

Investment & stage: Seed/Series-A Novoic has raised £2.2m million in Seed funding across two rounds from leading institutional investors including Anthemis, Apex Digital Health, Plug & Play and EF.

Pharma Digital biomarkers Alzheimer’s B2B SaaS

Novoic Problem Alzheimer’s disease will affect one in five people, causing progressive loss of memory - loss of what makes us who we are. Today, 50% remain undiagnosed, 35% misdiagnosed, and diagnosis happens 15-25 years too late. No disease modifying treatment currently exists. We now know that the disease progresses silently for decades before symptoms become obvious and a diagnosis is made, which is a major reason why treatments don’t work. But very subtle changes do exist in the silent stages in episodic memory, executive function, and language - and, with sophisticated enough technology, these changes can be detected in the way someone speaks. Solution Novoic is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing algorithms to detect neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease in their preclinical stages, by analysing audio-linguistic patterns of speech. Building on decades of research, Novoic is currently testing its algorithms in a number of clinical trials, to validate them for software-as-medical-devices, and bring the first clinically viable speech-based algorithms to market. Long-term Novoic is building the tech stack that will power a

generation of natural language processing (NLP) AI medical devices. Importantly this speech-based technology is affordable, accessible, and rapidly scalable. Traction Novoic is working with the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and Gates Ventures on the world’s largest study of speech biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease to develop a global standard for speech biomarkers. Novoic has been backed by the NHS to test out its algorithms in seven common neurological indications - the only speech company in the world to receive this backing. Novoic was also recently awarded the ‘AI in Health and Care Award’ by NHSX.

See-Through Scientific

Healthcare and Pharma

n/a

Enabling earlier genomic analyses of tumours, and personalised, timely treatment of cancer.

Co-founding team:

See-Through Scientific Problem Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are the cells responsible for the spread of cancer through the blood stream to secondary tumour sites. Typically, symptoms are experienced after this metastasis has occurred, by which time it can be too late for surgical resection - the most effective treatment. Metastasis effectively is the cause of death in 90% of cases. CTCs are both very rare and difficult to distinguish from background blood cells, but if they could be enriched it would be a way to cheaply and safely track a patient’s disease and deliver personalised and timely treatments. Solution See-Through Scientific has developed a hardware and software solution to aid the enrichment and isolation of ultra-rare circulating tumour cells (CTCs) from blood. It has designed a unique (UK and US patent pending) approach that synthesises digital holographic microscopy (DHM), machine learning, and a novel fluidic system. The in-line CAR-T cell monitoring device was designed through an industrial R&D collaboration and could allow significant cost savings for generating personalised cell therapies. Unlike other approaches

that use biochemical or size information to distinguish CTCs from blood cells, its approach makes use of cell morphology information (which includes accurate size measurement). The fluidic process leverages distinctive features of DHM, and can use large apertures and low flow rates, meaning negligible damaging and applicability to small cells and large clusters alike. Traction See-Through Scientific is an award-winning biotech company awarded the ‘Pioneer award’ by Cancer Research UK. In 2019, it partnered with Oxford Mestar to validate the feasibility of its technology and now has two paying clients, including one of the top ten global pharmaceutical players in the space. It has also established an industry collaboration to fulfil a cell therapy manufacturing need for a simple system to monitor proliferation and viability of CAR-T cells in the incubator. See-Through Scientific has also pursued this second project because the system it uses could make use of the same software platform built for the CTC enrichment device.

Dr. Irwin Zaid, Co-founder, DPhil, Theoretical Physics, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, Junior Research Fellow, Physics, Christ Church, University of Oxford Dr. Oliver Harriman, Co-founder, DPhil, Condensed Matter Physics, Hertford College, University of Oxford

Team size 4 team members

Investment & stage: Seed See-Through Scientific is growing rapidly on the back of successful industry collaborations and grants of £400,000, as well as paid pilots with some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

Pharma AI Liquid biopsy Cancer detection

OXFO ELEVATE VENTURES SCALE FAST, RAISE SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT, AND INNOVATE TO REINVENT A BETTER WORLD.

OXFO ELEVATE ACCELERATOR VENTURE PORTFOLIO 2021

Enterprise Our ventures are selling into some of the world’s biggest companies across financial services, property, energy and agriculture. They are combining the latest emerging technologies with a customer-centric approach to improve operational efficiencies, reduce costs, save time and help companies increase their revenues.

Infogrid

Enterprise

infogrid.io

Creating data where it didn’t exist, and using it to solve real-world problems.

Founding team: William Cowell de Gruchy, Founder and CEO, BA History, New College, University of Oxford

Team size: 76 team members

Investment & stage: Series A Infogrid has raised £14.9m in investment from Northzone, JLL Spark, Concrete VC, and some of the UK’s most reputable angel investors

IoT Big data B2B SaaS Property management

Infogrid Problem Buildings are a data black hole. Data is the currency of the modern world, but 95% of buildings still have no intelligent systems at all - which is particularly concerning given that operating buildings currently accounts for 28% of global carbon emissions. Although the IoT technology needed to optimise buildings has been around for over a decade, commercial businesses have yet to scale IoT across their organisations, either because it is too complicated, too expensive, or both. The lack of viable and scalable technology has meant that facilities management is one of the last industries to be enhanced by digitisation, despite covering the world’s largest asset class. Failing to do this has resulted in larger carbon footprints, higher manpower costs, more menial jobs and lower levels of safety than could have otherwise been achieved. Solution The Infogrid smart building platform combines the world’s smartest IoT sensors with powerful AI to automate and optimize facilities and building management, with the goal of being the global go-to provider for connected devices in smart buildings, creating dynamic solutions for everyday challenges. Easily deployed, Infogrid’s end-toend system enables Facilities Managers and Estate Owners to create efficient, healthy, and sustainable buildings, whilst strengthening and reducing costs. The Infogrid platform is already enabling a broad portfolio of bluechip clients across the globe to retrofit their

existing assets with IoT sensors to instantly provide data where it previously wasn’t available. Use cases include Indoor Air Quality, Desk Occupancy, Smart Cleaning, Cold Storage, Pipe Monitoring and Compliance Reporting for Legionella. Powerful algorithms turn simple data-points into far more useful insights. Real time alerts and data visualisations allow clients to respond to events rapidly, whilst all historic data is stored in the cloud and is accessible at any time, allowing for powerful analysis. The net result is a scalable digital solution to a wide range of problems. Traction Infogrid closed a $15.5m Series A in November 2020 following 1400% growth, including rapid expansion in the US. The funding is being used to accelerate Infogrid’s growth that has already revolutionized facilities management for the world’s largest FM providers, many S&P 500 and FTSE 100 companies, including global banks, supermarkets, restaurant chains, and the NHS. Infogrid is working towards its mission to address the world’s climate crisis by enabling businesses to reduce the environmental and social cost of their buildings while simultaneously benefitting their bottom line and asset values. Infogrid has over a billion data points with over 100 clients, delivering SaaS solutions driven by tens of thousands of sensors across almost 10,000 sites across a range of industries. Infogrid was awarded a prestigious Verdantix 2020 International Smart Building Innovation Award, and won the Property and Facilities Management (PFM) 2020 Award for Technology Application.

TradeLink

Enterprise

tradelink.co

Delivery coordination thought through to the end.

Co-founding team: Frederic Krahforst, Co-founder and CEO, MSc, Information and Software Security, Kellogg College, University of Oxford

TradeLink Problem Staying updated about the status of warehouse deliveries poses some complex challenges. Companies typically have hundreds of suppliers. Each delivery from each supplier may be handled by up to six companies that can change, so companies deal with a lot of unstructured communication around planned arrival of deliveries. This introduces multiple potential points of failure, which can be costly and frustrating to all parties. Solution TradeLink provides a digital cloudbased solution for delivery and transport coordination around the warehouse. It connects buyers, suppliers and logistics service providers in a way never seen before. By working together in the cloud, TradeLink helps companies keep track of information and delivery status. The result? No back-and-forth phone calls, less paper, less stress, and most importantly, increased efficiency and visibility across the entire supply chain.

Traction There are now more than 30 TradeLinkers in 7 countries with hundreds of companies relying on TradeLink for their daily logistics decisions every month. Among them 9 of Europe’s top 10 Forwarders and some of Europe’s leading brands in retail and production.

Tobias Nendel, Co-founder and CTO Michael Bücker, Co-founder

Team size 30 team members

Investment & stage: Seed TradeLink has raised over £3m in its first funding round. It has had investment from Point Nine Capital, Fly Ventures and very impressive European angel investors.

Transport Supply chain B2B SaaS Logistics

Util

Enterprise

util.co

Helping responsible investors make better decisions.

Co-founding team: Stephen Barnett, Co-founder and CEO Abdel Turkmani, Co-founder and CTO, MSc Computer Science, Oriel College, University of Oxford

Team size: 11 team members

Investment & stage: Pre-Series A Util has raised over £2.8m across three funding rounds. It has had investment from OSI, the Oxford Endowment Fund & very reputable angel investors in the financial services space.

Financial services Impact investing SDGs AI

Util Problem With over $80 trillion in assets under management, investors have unique financial clout and impetus to direct capital towards sustainable companies. But the industry has lacked actionable and comparable impact data to guide capital allocation decisions. Until now, the responsible investor has relied upon patchy company disclosure, data providers that use non-financial data and qualitative industry and company analysis to formulate an investment thesis. Key problems include time consumption - with significant human resource given to qualitative industry and company impact analysis; zero comparability across companies and funds; a lack of transparency in existing data providers and in-house methodologies; and that it is not performance-based, with existing analysis conflating company policies, actions and outcomes. Solution Util is a London-based financial technology company seeking to change the way the world invests by building the next generation of investment solutions. Using machine learning to measure the impact of every company, Util uses a wide range of data and machine learning capabilities

to provide investors and analysts with quantified, comparable performance metrics aligned to specific impact themes and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For the first time, investors have insight into how investment products contribute to key impact themes, allowing them to track products on an annual total returns basis, and compare performance with comparable investment opportunities. Traction Util launched its first product for Asset Managers in October 2020 and within three months secured three large clients including a Scandinavian national bank. Clients using Util can now look at every publicly listed company in the world and see the positive and negative impact of their products on all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It covers 45,000 companies, 12,000 products and the 245 locations where they are sold.

Archangel Imaging

Enterprise

archangel.im

Teaming humans and machines to solve remote asset protection and public safety challenges.

Co-founding team:

Archangel Imaging

robots can confirm or follow a detection, and additional IoT sensors add more Problem In civil markets, we focus on asset protection understanding (e.g. routes used and and monitoring. Challenges like safety at sea, locations of animals). Because human endangered species poaching, illegal logging resources are on the same system as their and oil theft have required massive networks machine teammates, real-time collaboration enables high confidence, timely actions. of intelligence systems and manpower to This leads to much more successful have a chance of being solved. outcomes for monitoring remote assets, Safeguarding and warning systems around whether those assets are copper cables, oil some of the biggest global issues are often pipelines or endangered (valuable) animals. hampered by the sheer scale of the remote Archangel Imaging gives security teams terrain that needs to be covered. This costs companies within the sector millions per year. advance warning of incidents and better tools for follow-up or prevention. Anti-poaching Rangers or pipeline security staff might have a 45 minute response time and will only discover the problem when it is Traction too late and/or are presented with unreliable, Archangel Imaging is an award-winning software business now generating low-confidence detections. revenues of more than $1m+ pa with early clients. It has engagements within Solution defence, policing, rail transport and antiUsing diverse smart machines as part of poaching, with revenues supporting core the coordinated team allows people to development. Impressively, it already focus on what they do best. We have built has several technology vendors starting a common team operating tool called to market its equipment as ‘Cerebella Cerebella. Cerebella helps companies coordinate diverse, best-in-class technologies compatible’, giving it the ability to provide a fully comprehensive offering to existing (from Archangel Imaging and partners) and pilots and paying clients. During the integrate them into human workflows. pandemic, with support from the Oxford Archangel’s deployable AI ground cameras Foundry, Archangel Imaging co-developed are able to recognise potential problems, a combined AI fever detection, people often giving high confidence warning in tracker and QR code scanner. Several advance (e.g. a likely poacher), drones and hundred units remain deployed today.

Dan Sola, CEO and Co-founder, MEng Engineering, Pembroke College, University of Oxford Trang Tran, COO and Co-founder, MSc Pharmacology, Lincoln College, University of Oxford

Team size 17 team members

Investment & stage: Seed/Series A Archangel Imaging has been bootstrapping by delivering innovation projects that have validated its technology and applications across multiple verticals.

Defence Asset protection AI B2B SaaS

Deep Planet

Enterprise

deepplanet.ai

Using machine learning for the benefit of the planet.

Co-founding team: Sushma Shankar, CEO, Executive MBA, St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford Dr. Natalia Efremova, CTO, Executive MBA, Christ Church, University of Oxford David Carter, CFO, Executive MBA, Green Templeton College, University of Oxford

Team size: 10 team members

Investment & stage: Seed Deep Planet has raised more than £1.5m in equity & grant funding from Innovate UK, the European Space Agency and an angel round in 2020.

Agriculture Supply chain AI B2B SaaS

Deep Planet Problem The traditional approach to global viticulture is undergoing a fundamental transformation. The $450B wine grape production market is said to be the “Canary in the coal mine for climate change”. With 20% of the production lost today due to climate change impact and inefficient management, this is expected to accelerate with the wine-growing areas shrinking by 75% by 2050. Grape ripening has been pushed forward by two weeks to a month and with inaccurate yield prediction by 30% to 200%, growers and winemakers are struggling to make profits. Inefficient use of inputs like water, fertilizer, and pesticides has increased costs and negatively impacts soil health affecting the sustainability of the crop. Solution Deep Planet is building the world’s first AI platform that helps growers and winemakers to monitor their vineyards at scale. Using machine learning, satellite imagery, and agricultural data such as ground sensor, yield and weather data, it is providing large enterprise and small independent growers a platform that will give them data and visibility to (1) Lower variability and improve yield by 20%, (2)

Predict yield at 90% accuracy, (3) Lower irrigation and fertiliser usage by 10%, (4) Predict crop input and output over large areas, and (5) Substitute and complement manual scouting of crops globally. Traction Deep Planet is already revenue-generating, having processed more than £200k of bookings in Q1 2021. Its client list includes large wine growers and supply chain companies including Pernod Ricard, as well as independent growers, with more than 150 across Australia, the USA, France, and New Zealand. The company has signed up 15 of the top 20 producers in Australia on the platform either as paid customers or free trials. Deep Planet has been able to provide successful case studies to show an ROI of harvest efficiency of $50 per tonnes of grape produced and an improvement in quality of $0.50 to $20 per bottle of wine.

EcoSync

Enterprise

ecosync.energy

Stop heating empty rooms – heat rooms intelligently and with little effort.

Co-founding team: Dr. Zsuzsa Mayer, Co-founder, CTO and Director of Product, Former Lab Manager, University of Oxford

EcoSync Problem Each year, large organisations spend millions on their energy bills, heating large buildings and hundreds of different meeting rooms, small and large. Over 70% of their heated rooms are empty, with 40% of energy completely wasted. To make matters worse, those managing these buildings - old and new - have poor solutions that are not user-friendly and three different solutions are needed in parallel to each other. Solution EcoSync provides a dynamic energy management platform for Building Facilities Managers to control heating from one central location/device. Using a combination of hardware and software, EcoSync provides a cloud-based platform that allows existing building technologies to integrate and communicate, identifies empty rooms to create responsive heated zones - promoting more efficient use of heating, and uses data AI-powered optimisation for forward planning.

Team size 12 team members

Traction EcoSync is currently delivering its solution with paying clients and has recently shown results that give its clients a saving of up to 66% in energy consumption, positively impacting their costs and increasing the usability for Facilities Managers to control large buildings and rooms on one platform. It has been through the laterstage Microsoft accelerator ‘AI for Good’ in collaboration with the Tech Trust and the Alchemist Accelerator. EcoSync’s clients include Oxford University Colleges and installations can be completed in as little as under two hours.

Investment & stage: Seed Ecosync has raised £700,000 from investors, including from RO Capital Partners, Oxford Innovation EIS Growth Fund, Silicon Roundabout Ventures, Steve Headington, and Key Capital Partners (KCP) Nominees.

Property management Sustainability Big data B2B SaaS

myo

Enterprise

myo-care.com

Modern communication in care - increasing productivity, transparency and staff retention.

Co-founding team: Richard Böckel, Co-founder & Managing Director, UK BA, Politics, Philosophy & Economics, New College, University of Oxford Felix Kuna, Co-founder & Managing Director (Germany)

Team size: 21 team members

Investment & stage: Pre-Series A/Series A myo has raised £5.8m across three rounds of funding from leading institutional investors including Axel Springer, Plug and Play, Round Hill Ventures & Mountain Partners.

Care homes Social networks Communication B2B SaaS

myo Problem When working as caregivers, the myo founding team discovered multiple communication ‘pain points’ in care homes. Broken communication negatively affects the well-being of all who are part of the care ecosystem - residents, caregivers and relatives. Those in care are lonely, isolated, digitally-excluded and struggle to communicate independently. While caregivers deliver frontline services, they seldom have the culture and technical means of proactively sharing this valuable work with relatives, therefore they can often lack appreciation for their work and have high churn into other sectors. The communication which does occur is scattered across multiple channels and is time consuming, error-heavy and stress-laden, giving rise to a grave public perception of care homes, which has suffered further during the Covid-19 pandemic. Solution myo is a mobile communication app, 100% GDPR compliant, built by caregivers for the care sector. It allows for direct communication between residents and their families by enabling caregivers to share secure content, video and messages.

Multiple caregivers quickly create posts throughout the day, sharing them with families who can comment, sending their appreciation through messaging. Relatives participate and gain confidence in care, caregivers are appreciated and motivated and residents are included and cared for. These effects funnel down to the care providers who have a better Care Quality Commission rating, improved staff retention and a better reputation, ultimately leading to increased demand for their care and profitability. Traction Since market entry, myo’s revenue has grown 30% CMGR and their CAC to CLV is 1:12. The myo service is used in over 200 care homes across the UK and Germany. It is currently establishing a sales partnership with a large service provider in the UK and myo has a partnership with other service providers, acting as resellers, in the care sector in Germany. myo has connected 8,000 families - keeping them up to date with activity in the care home. As a result, early clients experienced the following: (1) Trust in the quality of care increased by 70%, (2) Saved 30% of time when using myo in comparison to existing tools, (3) Saw an increase of 500% in positive communication by families of residents, to the care team.

Metronome Technologies

Enterprise

n/a

A cheaper and more efficient way to scale & balance a renewable grid using unique response technology.

Founding team: Josh Burton, Founder and CEO, MSc Engineering Science, Oriel College, University of Oxford

Metronome Technologies Problem Both solar and wind energy are powered by the weather, but of course, weather in the UK is unreliable at best. To solve this, we need storage – LOTS of it, and more than the Grid can currently provide. The Grid is hanging together by a thread, and it isn’t scalable, meaning that currently there are huge inefficiencies in energy production and usage. Metronome Technologies’ first market focuses on agriculture and cold stores in potato farming, where there is no existing solution, high costs, low margin and a poor manual user experience for farmers to manage these large energy consuming buildings. Solution Metronome Technologies is an energy intelligence company that aims to be the world’s largest green energy supplier. Its technology and scalable platform puts farmers in control by turning existing cold storage units into giant batteries. The unique technology uses sensors that are optimised for the process, the farm and the whole network. By storing energy in innovative ways and using clever predictive models, Metronome Technologies can

Team size shift consumption to reduce the amount of energy needing to be bought, and make it quicker and far more cost-effective for farmers.

5 team members

Traction Metronome Technologies is now live in more than 50 sites across the UK, providing its hardware and software solutions to help farmers save money, provide an additional revenue stream (from those redirecting energy) and more importantly, be able to better manage their cold stores from afar. Metronome Technologies was awarded Shell’s ‘Global Innovation prize’ in 2018 and is connected to an experienced network of Shell senior leaders.

Metronome Technologies raised a pre-seed round of £300k from OTM and reputable angel investors including Charlie Songhurst, Matt Clifford, and Srin Madipalli.

Investment & stage: Seed

Energy Agriculture B2B SaaS Hardware

Intellicharge

Enterprise

intellicharge.co.uk

Powering electric vehicles with the greenest and cheapest electricity, while helping grids to balance.

Co-founding team: Pam Liu, Co-founder and CEO, BA (Hons) Mathematics and Statistics, Keble College, Oxford

Team size: 2 team members

Investment & stage: Pre-Seed Intellicharge has been bootstrapping the business on the back of paid pilots.

B2B SaaS Energy Electric vehicles Optimisation

Intellicharge Problem Intellicharge came from the founders’ own experience of being electric vehicle (EV) owners. Consumers need access to charging solutions that are low cost and green. EV charging should also ideally be optimised to make use of existing generation and distribution capacity and not overload networks. However, that is not quite the case today. EV charging is unmanaged and inflexible. In fact, 80% of charging takes place in situations where the vehicle is parked and plugged in for a very long period of time - much longer than the required charging time. When it is charging, it happens at times when everyone else is consuming power, so the grid is stressed, prices are high, the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing. As a result, EV charging is considered a burden to grid networks, and does not provide consumers value for money. Solution Intellicharge is a software application that helps electric vehicle owners to charge their cars with the cheapest and the greenest electricity when possible, while helping electricity grids to balance. Intellicharge software bridges a gap in the current EV value chain. While EV manufacturers and

charging networks build hardware and infrastructure and electricity suppliers provide energy, Intellicharge software fits in between by providing a charging optimisation service that intelligently controls EV energy consumption and charging infrastructure. Traction In 2019, Intellicharge began a paid pilot with one of the UK’s largest renewable energy companies, Bulb. It delivered a trial providing its application to Bulb to automatically schedule their charging, helping the customer to save money and CO2.

Consumer and Education Many of the largest companies to come out of the University of Oxford are consumer-driven, including Monzo and LinkedIn. The needs of consumers are rapidly changing with technology being at our fingertips like never before. Our ventures are serving hundreds of thousands of users across data & privacy, education, mobility, beauty, and sustainability, putting the needs of their customers at the heart of what they do.

Oxwash

Consumer and Education

oxwash.com

Circularising the laundry, linen and garment care economy.

Co-founding team: Dr. Kyle Grant, Founder and CEO, DPhil, Synthetic Biology, Wadham College, University of Oxford Tom de Wilton, COO, MEng, Engineering, Wadham College, University of Oxford

Team size: 42 team members

Investment & stage: Seed/Pre-series A Oxwash has raised over £4.2m. It has had investment from Future Positive Capital, Holly Branson, Sam Branson, the Clean Venture Fund, Conduit-Ascension EIS Impact Fund, Pentland Group, Leon Lewis (River Island), Paul Forster, Founder of Indeed, Force Over Mass, TrueSight Ventures, Reckitt Benckiser’s venture arm RB Ventures, Founders Factory, and Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter, and Chair of the OXFO Advisory Board.

Last mile Sustainability Laundry Logistics

Oxwash Problem The two most polluting and unsustainable global service industries are hospitality and catering. Each impacting our planet with billions of tonnes of CO2, millions of tonnes of plastic waste and untold disruption in increasingly congested cities across the world. With the increasing demand for last mile food delivery and flexible short let accommodation, the problem is growing with frightening velocity. Solution Oxwash provides an on demand end-toend integrated platform allowing B2B SME and B2C customers to order dry cleaning services. With cutting-edge technology used by NASA, and a customer experience like no other, Oxwash collects items via its ultra-flexible electric bike fleet, brings them back to one of its ‘lagoons’ for washing and then returns the items to customers when they book a delivery. The entire process takes 24 hours on average. The net environmental impact is zero with renewable energy powering the entire process, water reclamation and unique bleach/harsh chemical free processing integrated into the Oxwash platform.

Traction Oxwash has 8,000 individual customers, alongside clients such as the Marriott Hotel Group, Hurr Collective and the NHS, and is operating across three different cities: Oxford, Cambridge and London. It is now in partnership with Reckitt Benckiser’s venture arm RB Ventures who are supporting critical aspects including UK roll-out and Oxwash has key partnerships with Vanish, Deliveroo, JustEat, NHS England, Peloton, The Marriott Chain, Hurr Collective, Thrift+, and Rotaro and was awarded a Cinet Global Best Practices Award (GBAP) 2020. In June 2021 Oxwash announced a further £2.08m in seed expansion investmemt from leading investors. As part of the funding round, Oxwash took part in Collective Impact, a five-week investment readiness programme, delivered by Crowdcube and Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit entrepreneurial arm of the Virgin Group. Oxwash has experienced rapid growth (15 per cent MoM) since the start of the pandemic. During the pandemic, with support from the Oxford Foundry, Oxwash crowdfunded to provide 5,000 free washes to vulnerable people in Oxfordshire and laundered the PPE for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine trial. Oxwash is en route to becoming a certified B Corp.

Scoodle

Consumer and Education

scoodle.co.uk

Everyone has the ability to teach and the desire to learn something. Scoodle brings the two together.

Co-founding team: Ismail Jeilani, Co-founder and CEO Ahmed Kerwan, Head of Partnerships, MSc Medical Anthropology, Mansfield College, University of Oxford

Scoodle Problem When students need extra help studying or doing their homework, they will often search for answers online, unearthing information from multiple sources and platforms. In doing so, they risk finding information that is low quality, lacks credibility and which can damage their academic success. Students find it difficult to get the support they need and to learn in an effective way. Meanwhile, talented tutors find it incredibly difficult to acquire new students and gain visibility in a tutor market that is complex and saturated. Tutors often lack the capacity and resources to develop and grow their client base for online tutoring work or for face-to-face group classes. Solution Scoodle connects people who want to learn, with people who can teach. Students can ask questions for free on any subject on the application and platform, get answers from tutors and follow up by booking lessons or joining classes. Scoodle is creating a way for the whole world to become a classroom. Educators can share and create content that lives

online, build their brand and help students grow. Students can learn from and connect with the teachers who resonate with them the most. The best teachers around the world are not always accessible. You may not know the world’s best piano instructor or the best English teacher, but it doesn’t need to be that way. Scoodle is opening up access to the best teachers so that everyone can grow together. Traction Scoodle has helped over 1 million students to learn. Between March 2020 and January 2021, Scoodle supported more than 750,000 students either watching tutorial content, asking questions, reading questions or completing online classes. It has had more than 500k+ questions asked on the platform and educators have earned $150k on Scoodle, with a 50-70% monthly retention rate for content producers.

Imdad Ahad, Co-founder and CTO Mujavid Bukhari, Co-founder

Team size 7 team members

Investment & stage: Seed/Pre-series A Scoodle has raised £2.8m across three funding rounds. It has had investment from Google for Startups, Tiny VC, IFG ventures, DA One, China First Capital Group, Capital T, and reputable angels including Biz Stone (Co-founder of Twitter, Chair of the OXFO Advisory Board).

Education Students Platform Content

Sociability

Consumer and Education

sociability.app

Helping people find accessible places.

Founding team: Matt Pierri, CEO and Founder, MSc, Social Science of the Internet, Lincoln College, University of Oxford

Team size: 5 team members

Investment & stage: Pre-Seed/Seed Sociability has raised over £95,000 in its first angel round. It has had investments from reputable investors including Biz Stone (Co-founder of Twitter and Chair of the OXFO Advisory Board), Mike Fitzpatrick and the Oxford Seed Fund.

Accessibility Community Social inclusion Consumer

Sociability Problem For disabled people, or people with access challenges, going out can be difficult. Finding accessible places to spend time with family, friends and loved ones is tedious, time-consuming and anxietyinducing. For the 21 million disabled and elderly people living in the UK, the lack of readily available, detailed and reliable accessibility information is a barrier to meaningful social and economic inclusion. This leads to higher rates of social isolation, loneliness and inequality that has significant health, social and economic costs. There’s still no quick and easy way to find detailed, reliable and accurate accessibility information for local hospitality and retail venues. Sociability changes that. Solution Sociability is building a more inclusive and accessible world. It empowers disabled people, elderly people, and their family and friends to find accessible places, and to explore their communities with confidence. Through its mobile app and online platform, Sociability empowers users to quickly and easily find detailed and reliable accessibility information for local hospitality and retail venues. By combining crowdsourced tagging with vetted uploads

from business partners, it gives users widespread venue coverage no matter where they are. Traction Sociability is available for download for free on web, iOS and Android. It has more than 2000 users and more than 1500 local venues on its database and this is growing. In 2021, Sociability onboarded its first two enterprise customers and has begun generating its first commercial revenues.

Peergos

Consumer and Education

peergos.org

Cutting-edge privacy and security for your online life.

Co-founding team: Dr. Ian Preston, Co-founder and CEO, MPhys and DPhil in Particle Physics, Magdalen College, University of Oxford

Peergos Problem Society is generating more digital information than ever before – documents, photos, videos and much more. Some of it is private and personal and some of it people want to share with family, friends or colleagues. Following the various public hacks across some of the platforms considered safest, consumers face a number of worrying questions when choosing a provider. These often include (1) “How secure is my data?” (iCloud hacks), (2) “Can my storage provider see my data?” (WhatsApp terms and conditions changes), & (3) “What happens to my data if my storage provider shuts down, or their servers are compromised?”. To make matters worse, the biggest providers don’t encrypt data, and they maintain control of the information used to store data and tie consumers into their own ecosystems, making it hard to move to new solutions and disastrous if an account is ever compromised or locked. Solution Staying safe online has never been more important. Peergos is a secure and private space where people can store, share and view photos, videos, music and documents. Peergos secures files with quantum-resistant

end-to-end encryption and ensures all data about files, including who they are shared with, remains private. Data remains safe, no matter where Peergos runs.

Team size

Traction Peergos has been successfully audited by world-leading security firm Cure53. It has received grant funding from the wellknown Silicon Valley company Protocol Labs (creators of the interplanetary file system) and NGI (Next Generation Internet) in collaboration with the Horizon 2020 initiative supporting the most talented ventures to build the future internet. Peergos has recently launched its beta focusing on 2,600 users and is doubling down on product to make sure the user experience is at its best.

Pre-Seed/Seed

7 team members

Investment & stage:

Peergos has received £227k in grant funding from Protocol Labs, the EU Next Generation Internet Initiative, and Santander Universities.

Privacy & security Developer ecosystem Data storage Decentralised

WOW YOU!

Consumer and Education

wowyou.com

Affordable, cruelty-free, naturally powered skincare for the millennial consumer.

Founding team: Ella O’Connor, Founder, MEng Materials Science, Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford

Team size: 3 team members

Investment & stage: Pre-Seed/Seed WOW YOU! has completely bootstrapped and is 100% self-funded from the profitability of the business.

Beauty e-commerce Natural Consumer

WOW YOU! Problem Natural, organic and cruelty-free skincare is often expensive and uninspiring for the millennial customer. There are also a lot of unethical practices in the industry, for example; companies saying their products are cruelty free but selling them in China where animal testing is mandatory. Formulations purporting to be gentle and for sensitive skin often contain harsh ingredients and synthetic fragrances which instead leave it irritated. This led WOW YOU! founder Ella to question what she was putting on her skin that was making her eczema worse, rather than better. Solution WOW YOU! produces a clean skincare range with attractive packaging and natural ingredients which doesn’t break the bank for the millennial audience. It blends scientifically proven actives with natural, gentle bases to provide effective skincare which works for all skin types. Having built a strong community across platforms, WOW YOU! sells direct-to-customer and to some of the largest, highly targeted retailers in the UK.

Traction WOW YOU! is currently generating more than £300k in sales per annum. It had more than 1,000 five star reviews in 2020 and less than a 1% refund rate, as well as having grown an online community of over 30,000 people. It has sent over 10,000 orders, with customers in every single postcode area within the UK.

Smash Medicine

Consumer and Education

smashmedicine.com

Improving the efficiency and efficacy of remote education.

Co-founding team: Dr. Ben Harris, Co-founder, CEO, BM BCH Clinical Medicine, Green Templeton College, University of Oxford

SmashMedicine Problem A significant historic underinvestment in digital learning has left educational institutions struggling to deliver engaging materials at a distance. As a result, students find remote learning tedious, isolating and inefficient. This has been exacerbated worldwide by the Covid-19 pandemic. The move towards online education which was seen as a long-term trend by industry experts pre-Covid-19 has now been catalysed by the pandemic and will continue to develop as the industry norm. However, without the necessary tools, students and faculties will continue to struggle, leading to higher student and staff attrition. Solution SmashMedicine is an online educational platform that makes remote learning more engaging, collaborative and efficient using gamification, peer-to-peer learning and artificial intelligence. Used across a broad set of subjects, students experience deep learning through co-creating exam-style questions and providing feedback to one another interactively, but remotely, in a game-like environment. Question

creation is streamlined by advanced artificial intelligence, which improves learning efficiency, while adaptive learning algorithms provide students with a more tailored educational experience. This methodology can boost student performance by up to 15% and reduce dropout rates by over 30%. It also gives university staff a tool to improve the student experience while producing valuable educational content and identifying bottlenecks in understanding. This can lead to significant time saving for the faculty. Traction SmashMedicine is live in eight top-tier universities across Europe including at the University of Oxford, Barcelona and Uppsala. Additional partnerships have been established with EIT Health, Cancer Research UK, the Oxford University Hospitals network (TheHill), The Spanish Council for Medical Students (CEEM) and DEX-innovation centre. It has proven its solution is effective across different languages, geographies and university subjects.

Matteo Di Giovannantonio, Head of AI, DPhil Oncology, Linacre College, University of Oxford

Team size 6 team members

Investment & stage: Pre-Seed/Seed SmashMedicine has been bootstrapping its development and has been awarded £345k of grant funding from the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, Santander Universities & Cancer Research UK.

Education University Learning B2B SaaS

Yoxly

Consumer and Education

yoxly.com

The future of sexual health.

Co-founding team: Dr. Judson Alphin, COO, DPhil, History, Kellogg College, University of Oxford Dr. Jason Lee, CTO, DPhil, Physical & Theoretical Chemistry, Worcester College, University of Oxford Dr. Danae Maragouthakis, CEO

Team size: 4 team members

Investment & stage: Pre-Seed Yoxly has been bootstrapping its development and has been awarded competition grants of £10k from the University of Oxford and Santander Universities.

Sexual health Testing Privacy Consumer

Yoxly

Sells discreet STI test kits (PAYG or tailored subscription); Generates digital results records Problem (that can be stored or shared); Offers medication More than one million sexually transmitted guidance; Provides psychological support options; infections (STIs) are acquired every day around Develops patient-provider networks, and curates an the world, resulting in acute and chronic health inclusive community (comprised of users, content problems, for which individuals and healthcare creators, healthcare practitioners, and affiliate systems pay dearly. The physical sequelae, partners). psychological impact, and economic burden associated with STIs make them a major public Traction health issue. Rates continue to rise across the Yoxly meets all medico-legal and insurance UK, where someone is diagnosed with a new requirements to trade. It has developed a unique STI every 70 seconds. Yet with recent budget brand identity, contracted an accredited lab, cuts, and the effects of Covid-19, genitourinary sourced regulated test kits, and built a secure, medicine (GUM) clinics are closing across fully GDPR-compliant tech infrastructure to enable the nation, leaving remaining clinics more sales (front-end) and automate results (back-end). than 500% oversubscribed. People aren’t Since launching its B2C MVP in 2021, it has been getting tested or treated: some struggle to onboarding users in a structured way, continuously access sexual health services (due to a lack collecting feedback and iterating the service. Its of appointments, long wait times, or sheer site has had over 12,000 visits, of which 12% are embarrassment), while others don’t even know returning visitors, with an SEM CTR of 5.6% and they need to. an SEM CPC of £0.52. It has sold 200 test kits, acquired returning customers, and more than 500 Solution people have joined Yoxly’s community. Now, Yoxly Yoxly will become the one-stop shop for is exploring promising partnership opportunities all matters related to sexual health - the (e.g. Mira, hims), creating exciting content, leading lifestyle brand synonymous with experimenting with new marketing strategies, and sexual wellness. Its ecosystem integrates a testing different distribution channels. Next, Yoxly range of remote sexual health services with will build a mobile app, through which users can plug-and-play potential, designed to give access informative content, purchase discreet STI users a personalised experience, with more test kits (and other sexual health products), order convenience, privacy, accessibility, and control. medications, seek private healthcare appointments, Through its online platform, Yoxly: and opt to integrate Yoxly with other applications Creates contemporary, educational content; (e.g. dating apps, GP practices).

Lantana Publishing

Consumer and Education

lantanapublishing.com

Because all children deserve to see themselves in the books they read.

Founding team:

Lantana Publishing Problem In the UK, a third of school children identify as Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic, yet fewer than 5% of children’s books feature main characters of colour and fewer than 2% of children’s book creators are British authors of colour. The picture is even more bleak for those who identify with marginalised groups relating to class, gender, sexuality, health and ability. This can have a detrimental effect on a child’s sense of self-worth and can impede the enjoyment they derive from reading, negatively impacting their literacy. Solution Lantana actively seeks out stories by authors from under-represented groups who make a diverse range of lived experiences accessible to young children. It prints its books with non-petroleum based inks on Forest Stewardship Council certified paper to minimise its carbon footprint. It also operates a buy one give one model for direct sales where for every book bought, Lantana donates a book to a charity partner working to improve child literacy across the UK and internationally. Traction Lantana has sold just short of 125,000 books to c. 200 suppliers in 35 countries,

Dr. Alice Curry, Founder and CEO, BA English Language & Literature, St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford

and licensed subsidiary rights to app and audio producers, book clubs, eBook distributors, and theatre companies around the world and in multiple languages. It has established key partnerships with Ingram Publisher Services, Gardners Digital Wholesale, Macmillan Marketing Services, Lerner Group PLC, Myrick Marketing & Media, and The Rights People who support the physical and digital distribution of its content in the US, Europe and globally. It has evolved its model from physical books sold via trade bookshops, schools and libraries to also include digital rights and licenses sold through platform, community and distribution partnerships to achieve a truly global reach. Lantana’s books have been embraced by the press and by review bodies both at home and abroad, receiving press coverage in The Guardian, the Observer, the Sunday Times, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times amongst many others, and winning a slew of awards that testify to the importance of reducing inequalities in representation in children’s publishing. During the pandemic, it launched a series of initiatives to keep children reading despite the closure of schools and libraries including an online book club and free home schooling resources.

Team size: 4 team members

Investment & stage: Pre-Seed Lantana Publishing has bootstrapped over the last few years and has been able to do so based on its fast growth and profitable model, alongside £33k of grants.

Publishing Diversity e-commerce Children

OXFO ELEVATE ACCELERATOR

OUR UNIQUE MODEL & LIFELONG LEARNING The OXFO Elevate accelerator demonstrates how a university can build ventures and a commercial-style accelerator programme, with an engaged ecosystem, from the ground up - through leveraging global accelerator best practice and the exceptional internal assets universities have to offer. Focused on supporting pre-seed to seed stage ventures, OXFO Elevate has been consistently iterating its accelerator model with every cohort, with the objective to deliver the greatest value to founders and ventures over a six month timeframe and give exceptional Oxford student and alumni talent the greatest probability of success in building a high growth, scalable venture. In only three cohorts, since joining the programme, ventures have raised more than £52.4m in capital, hired more than 250 new employees and more importantly, have grown into inspiring entrepreneurial leaders. The accelerator model is broken down into four core layers: (1) The venture building curriculum, (2) Bespoke programming, (3) Leadership, Diversity & Inclusion curriculum, & (4) an OXFO ecosystem. The venture building curriculum is broken down into four phases underpinned by venture building methodologies built by global academics and successfully exited entrepreneurs, and delivered by world-class academics and practitioners. With every venture at a different stage, operating in a different sector, and composed of very different founding teams with different levels of experience, our bespoke programming focuses on developing individual key milestones and objectives for each phase of the programme, as well as taking a case-by-case approach to how we can support each venture with their unique set of problems and needs. Our leadership, diversity & inclusion programme is delivered by thought leaders and practitioners through masterclasses and 1:1’s, in parallel to providing each founder with personal coaches throughout the programme and supporting their mental health and well-being. Finally, we provide an exceptional ecosystem of support that includes 20+ Resident Experts, 350+ curated mentors, 20+ startup partners, an access to talent programme that delivers funded internships, peer-support from our portfolio ventures, as well as access to an investor community of 800+ global investors. The skills, training and networks founders receive stays with them throughout their lives and careers. Our focus on lifelong

learning is part of what makes university accelerators so unique and influential, and rather than driven by the need for a fast ROI, focuses on building purpose-led, highly-skilled, confident leaders. OXFO founders lead with compassion and empathy - through OXFO Elevate gaining critical skills in communication, how to build and lead effective teams, resilience, and leadership under pressure. “Our vision is to support the very best Oxford talent, working at the forefront of science, technology and innovation to solve big problems and build ventures that will positively shape our world, today and in the future. We focus not only on supporting societally and economically impactful ventures, but on working closely with founders to provide them with the vision and leadership training to become confident, purposeful CEOs, building and leading diverse, high-performing teams. Over the last 4 cohorts, we’ve used global best practice and feedback from ventures to consistently evolve and iterate the programme to deliver critical, personalised value to ventures at the points in their journeys they need it most. We leverage the unique resources, networks and capabilities of the University of Oxford alongside an exceptional curated external ecosystem of support that continues to grow and diversify.”

Alex Feyler Head of Ventures Oxford Foundry

OXFORD OXFO ELEVATE FOUNDRY ACCELERATOR

“The OXFO Elevate accelerator took us from a successful side project to a venture. Bringing the team together through the different methods of participation forced us to consider, and level-up our approach across the board. Specifically we became more focused on operating Sibyl AI as a business through scalable processes. Access to experts in every area meant we were able to quickly gather the critical considerations and facts when coming to any decision point.” Dr Nikul Vadgama Nikul has a PhD in Gas Turbine Aerodynamics from the University of Oxford and completed Saïd Business School’s Finance and Valuation Modelling programme. Nikul co-founded Sibyl AI, a lawtech venture, with Richard Strauss, BA English, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, and was part of OXFO Elevate cohort 3. Nikul is now Product Manager (ESG) at fellow OXFO Elevate venture Infogrid.

“The accelerator has been an incredible experience for myself and the company. I have been on a great personal development journey and throughout the programme was able to learn about different ways to think about the growth of Empower Energy such as coming up with a playbook for scaling into new areas. The Foundry team were brilliant and the Foundry has been a key part of our story - not least because our founding team all met each other there for the first time! The Foundry is not just a physical space, it is a whole network of people from different disciplines who share a passion for entrepreneurship and doing good. We’re part of a warm and supportive community of fantastic fellow start-ups.” Ronit Kanwar Ronit has a BA Economics and Management, Keble College, University of Oxford. In 2018 he co-founded Empower Energy with MBA student James Dickson, winning the Hult Prize, and BP’s Lead 2030 Challenge for startups in the Renewable Energy sector, and named Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2019. Ronit is now a Consultant at Schmidt Futures, and in 2020 launched fightcovid.uk to help the Covid-19 pandemic, using his lifelong skills and networks gained from the Oxford Foundry.

“OXFO Elevate fundamentally made the whole process feel ‘real’ and made me believe in myself more. It was incredibly inspiring to be surrounded by other people doing the same thing and it felt less isolating and unconventional compared to all the careers my friends were going into! Not to mention the 360 degree package of training in entrepreneurship and access to mentors to help me keep improving.” Christian Holland Christian started his career at Oxford where he initially trained as a doctor, before moving into tech, founding his first company, Appli, and winning a place on chort 3 of the OXFO Elevate accelerator. Christian is now working with Oxford University alumnus and OXFO mentor Srin Madipalli on AI generated descriptions for travel listings, and for a group working at the intersection of government and national security and startups. “Having seen the difference that the Oxford Foundry has made in mine and others’ entrepreneurial journey, I believe that these active networks and spaces — what Ashraf called ‘dark matter’ — make all the difference. Our business seriously accelerated once we tapped into Oxford’s vast networks with global companies, prominent entrepreneurs, and domain experts. We’ve raised our sights, and our game.” James Thorogood James was a Rhodes Scholar at Green Templeton College with an MSc in Social Data Science, Oxford University, working at EY, and as an engineer, before founding Boresha Technologies. James joined cohort 2 of OXFO Elevate and won a Skoll venture award 2018, and through the Foundry joined a funded trek to Silicon Valley. Boresha raised equity and grant funding of £150k, helping businesses in Uganda to manage their poultry, cocoa, soy, cotton, and sesame value chains, expanding to Tanzania.

OXFORD OXFO ELEVATE FOUNDRY ACCELERATOR

“Joining the Oxford Foundry was a watershed moment for MO Intelligence. Knowing what we can do is not always difficult for a tech-background founder, but knowing what we should do was the beginning of the changes we implemented because of the Foundry. Because of the Foundry we were able to deliver real value, rather than just creating exciting things. From my perspective, the best things were not the sessions and lectures we attended, but the way I learned to think as a founder. The courage I gained to create things from nothing, and the confidence I built up in carrying out different kinds of difficult conversations. Although my entrepreneurial journey was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the mindset and skills I gained are still extremely helpful in my current jobs. Most importantly, I made so many friends at the Oxford Foundry and we support each other and share with each other, and I know this will continue not just now but in the future. Without a doubt, my journey with the Oxford Foundry community was the greatest thing I had in 2020.”

Dr. Yishu Miao Founder and CEO, MO Intelligence, Lead Machine Learning Engineer, TikTok, Research Associate, Imperial College London.

Yishu studied data mining at Tsinghua University in Beijing before completing a PhD in machine learning at the University of Oxford. He completed two internships at DeepMind before founding MO Intelligence in 2018 and joining the OXFO Elevate accelerator in 2020. During the pandemic, Yishu supported fellow OXFO venture Ufonia by joining as their AI research lead. Yishu has since recruited Yingxian ‘Claire’ Tang, one of the Oxford Foundry’s Entrepreneurial Fellows with an MSc in Social Science of the Internet, University of Oxford.

“The best things were...the courage I gained to create things from nothing, and the confidence I built up in carrying out different kinds of difficult conversations”

“One of the best things about the OXFO Elevate accelerator is the sense of community with the other ventures. Our cohort was absolutely fantastic. They started as fellow entrepreneurs, but soon became friends. At the beginning of the program, the Boot Camp day at the UK Defence Academy served as a great icebreaker. The Foundry team created a safe, supportive space where ventures of all stages, and entrepreneurs of all ages and backgrounds, could come together and solve problems. They gave us the confidence to dream bigger and pushed us to work harder, helping us to achieve our goals. I cannot say enough positive things about the Oxford Foundry team - their skills and support are an essential part of what makes the Foundry so special. The Foundry restored my self-confidence as an entrepreneur. It helped me accept that there are no mistakes on this journey, just further opportunities to learn.” Dr. Danae Maragouthakis Co-founder and CEO, Yoxly, formerly, Business Development and Medical Lead, Pod Health. Danae joined the OXFO Elevate accelerator in Cohort 1 as the Business Development and Medical Lead of medtech venture Pod Health. Danae has a background in working in emergency medicine and on the front line of the NHS. Following Pod Health, Danae used her experience to co-found Yoxly who were awarded a place on Cohort 3 of the OXFO Elevate accelerator.

OXFORD OXFO ELEVATE FOUNDRY ACCELERATOR

VENTURE TESTIMONIALS “We’re the first blockchain product to receive regulatory approval for use in the pharmaceutical industry anywhere in the world. With the help of the Oxford Foundry, we have moved from proof of concept and pilots to receiving regulatory approval and handling real products. We signed our first two-year contract with a pharma packaging organisation and are now talking to the big pharma companies themselves. Such growth wouldn’t have been possible without the Foundry. Of course we would very much still exist, but I don’t think we would have got as far as quickly. The Foundry has accelerated our growth by providing a space devoted to entrepreneurship, giving access to people with different expertise and investors. It has broken down silos. It has been incredible.” Jason Lacombe, CEO, Veratrak Raised a £1.2m in investment across two rounds from Seedcamp, Force Over Mass, Ascension Ventures and impressive industry angel investors

“The cohort and its mentors are so impressive that it makes you feel very humble and at the same time pushes you to perform at the same level. The Foundry team is a blessing for the program as they genuinely care about the individual success of the cohort participants. At least from my perspective the Foundry seems to focus even more on the founder and only sees the business as the result of it and I valued this very highly, especially given my numerous “pivots”.“ Frederic Krahforst, CEO, Tradelink Raised £3m in investment from FLY VC, Point Nine Capital and impressive industry specific angel investors

100% of ventures would recommend the programme to another venture “I was completely blown away by the quality of the programme and the effort put in by the team to help. It was definitely the right option for us at that point in time. Our growth has been so connected to OXFO that it’s hard to compare exactly how and where we would be now without them. The world-class experts and mentors were all excellent in what they did, provided candid advice, and added real value to the business.” Mehak Mumtaz, Co-founder & COO, iLoF Winner of the $1m Microsoft and Mayfield Fund Female Founders Investment competition

“OXFO connects you with some absolutely incredible mentors, advisors, investors, and most importantly fellow founders. These became close friends who I still speak with regularly. I would highly, highly recommend ventures join the programme. It will undoubtedly have a huge impact on their business both for the duration and beyond.” William Cowell de Gruchy, Founder & CEO, Infogrid Raised a £14.9m Series A round from Northzone, JLL Spark, Concrete VC, and reputable angel investors

“The positivity and support of the programme (the people as much as the information) provided me with confidence to press forwards. It meant there was rarely a point where I felt the need to ‘look down’ and be worried about the tightrope we’re walking as early-stage entrepreneurs. It has been a transformative phase of our company and life!” Dr Nick de Pennington, Founder & CEO, Ufonia Awarded the NHSX ‘AI in Health and Care Award’ presented by Matt Hancock and Sir Simon Stevens, as well as having taken on investment from impressive angel investors

“I knew entering the accelerator was a huge opportunity and a great forum for myself and the team to work on Oxwash and take it to the next stage. I was incredibly impressed that the entire programme was seamless and added significant value to the team and our venture. OXFO delivered on every single thing they promised! The experts and investors they brought in were all of a fantastic calibre. Many we still work with closely today and have gone on to invest in the business.” Dr Kyle Grant, Founder & CEO, Oxwash Recently raised over £2m in an expanded Seed round with investment from Holly Branson, Sam Branson, Future Positive Capital, the Clean Venture Fund, ConduitAscension EIS Impact Fund, Pentland Group, Leon Lewis (River Island) and Paul Forster, the Founder of Indeed “The accelerator may only last six months, but the benefits go far beyond that. Much of the investment that we’ve received has been directly from the Foundry network, including Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter. Scoodle has a lot to be grateful for. Hopefully one day we can give back even a fraction of what we’ve received!” Ismail Jeilani, Co-founder, Scoodle Following a pre-seed round in 2020, Scoodle has raised £2.8m from Google for Startups, IFG, and DA One in their Seed round

OXFORD FOUNDRY OXFO ELEVATE ACCELERATOR

“The Foundry’s OXFO Elevate accelerator programme is extraordinary. It feels like the bleeding edge of an ancient institution. Being part of Elevate 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.” Imran Mahmud, BM BCH Medicine, St Catherine’s College, Co-founder and Head of Growth, Nye Health Recently raised a pre-Series A round to support their rapid growth across the UK

“The well rounded fast-paced programme made us reevaluate every aspect of our business plans. Critically it’s the first time we’ve talked to investors and hearing their feedback was enlightening and encouraging.” Dr Ian Preston, CEO, Peergos Awarded the NGI award in collaboration with the Horizon 2020 initiative supporting the most talented ventures to build the future internet

“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.

“OXFO Elevate has been a transformative experience for the company and on a personal level. Members of the cohort, resident experts, mentors, and workshops have been carefully selected to enable maximised synergy and tailored to the needs for specific ventures. The Oxford Foundry team is a highlight, making OXFO Elevate overall an especially enjoyable experience.”

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.”

Peter Jianrui Liu, Co-founder & CEO, Oxford Cancer Analytics (OXcan) In 2021, OXcan announced its oversubscribed seed round. The team has received fudning from The Francis Crick Institute and is one the KQ Labs accelerator programme for data-driven health

Mikesh Udani, CEO, Albus Health Recently awarded the NHSX ‘AI in Health and Care Award’

100% of ventures are mentoring other OXFO ventures to help them on their journeys “OXFO Elevate has helped my confidence and clarity in thinking, and provided a foundation to then innovate from. As a venture, we found OXFO Elevate extremely valuable and we had access to an exceptional global network of experts, partners, and investors. Our mentors helped us focus on the Defence & Security market in particular, and helped us to understand how we could best scale our B2B solution. I would absolutely recommend it!” Trang Tran, COO, Archangel Imaging Winner in the Tech for Good category of the AI-Conics award 2019

“The OXFO Elevate accelerator programme has been a transformational experience. It’s been incredibly intense, enormously enjoyable, at times extremely stressful but has without doubt helped me grow as an entrepreneur, set the business along a path towards far greater sustainability, and given me skills and experiences unlike any I have found elsewhere, or am likely to find again. I feel hugely privileged and fortunate that I’ve been able to take part in the programme, and the friendships and networks I’ve made will last a lifetime.” Alice Curry, Founder, Lantana Publishing Winner of the Clarissa Luard Award for Women changemakers

The OXFO Elevate accelerator has a Net promoter score of 9.0 “Personally, I think OXFO helped me become a more confident entrepreneur - this was due to the entire programme and interactions with mentors, resident experts, investors, and the demo day pitches.”

“OXFO Elevate was an integral part of our journey, both as a venture and as a team. It provided us with invaluable education, an inspiring community of colleagues, and an incredible network of advisors. The programme is a supportive, transformative experience for any young entrepreneur.”

Sushma Shankar, CEO, Deep Planet An award-winning AgriTech venture that has raised more than £1.5m to validate how AI can be used for crop detection, health and yield using satellite data and on the ground hardware

Danae Maragouthakis, Co-founder & CEO, Yoxly Winner of a Santander Universities grant

You can see more testimonials on the Oxford Foundry website www.oxfordfoundry.ox.ac.uk

2021: Cohort 4 ventures In April 2021 a new cohort joined the OXFO Elevate accelerator. We’ve brought people together across the Oxford community, our global entrepreneurial ecosystems, and the public and private sectors to support Cohort 4 ventures who are working across boundaries and geographies to tackle tough challenges and make the world a better and more equitable place.

ammonite

Fintech

ammonitewealth.com

Empowering Wealth Managers and Independent Financial Advice (IFA) firms to engage their next generation of customers.

Co-founding team: Caroline Duff, Co-founder, Physics and Philosophy, Exeter College, University of Oxford Robert Harradine, Cofounder

Stage Pre-Seed to Seed Team size 5 team members

Financial services Accessibility Advice

ammonite Problem There is a massive and increasing advice gap in the UK and across the globe, whereby everyday working people cannot access or afford personal financial advice and guidance. Millions of people are unaware they will not be able to retire when they want to, and will miss out on life goals; because they don’t have a financial plan in place. IFA engagement and conversion of the mass affluent (30-50 year old) market is staggeringly low, however represents a huge opportunity for forward thinking advice / wealth management businesses. It is anticipated in the UK alone circa £327 billion will be transferred to the next generation over the next decade, yet businesses are unable to capture or profitably service this market. Currently, these businesses are limited by their outdated technology and processes. High cost of customer acquisition / servicing and poor engagement means that Wealth Managers can only profitably advise high net worth clients, and subsequently the largest future market in the UK and globally remains under-serviced. Solution ammonite provide a SaaS tech platform that enables online financial coaching and a new a hybrid customer proposition (combining roboadvice with traditional financial guidance & advice). This technology empowers advice businesses to better engage through financial education and goal mapping tools, delivered through financial coaches

(thereby enabling businesses to take advantage of recent changes in regulations, and reduce their costs). ammonite’s technology also enables semi-automated financial advice reports and recommendations to be produced in a fraction of the time/cost, making high quality advice affordable to the masses. Traction Ammonite is one of only 50 firms that was accepted into the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) Advice Unit, part of their Innovation Hub, alongside businesses such as Nutmeg, Moneyfarm and Santander. For two years, ammonite has built and tested its technology as an FCA regulated advice business, proving efficacy in increasing conversion and reducing time cost (with revenues of circa £100,000 per annum). ammonite is now taking its technology and model to other advice business as SaaS, and is experiencing early success. ammonite is currently negotiating a co-development agreement (partnership) with one of Europe’s largest Wealth Managers to create its new hybrid customer proposition with a SaaS licence thereafter. ammonite is also in advanced discussions with two other large wealth management businesses who seek to pilot their technology (as paid for pilots). ammonite’s two co-founders have a combined 30 years’ industry experience, and are both Chartered Financial Professionals. They are supported by an advisory board including Gary Dolman, Co-founder of Monzo bank.

Checkstep Venture Name

AI Venture and SafetyTech Sector

checkstep.com Venture Website

Reducing online platforms’ CMD/CTRL + SHIFT CLICK TO compliance & PR risks by EDIT automating and monitoring content moderation requirements.

Co-founding team: Guillaume Bouchard, Cofounder and CEO

Checkstep Problem We have seen a huge rise in social startups such as Pinduoduo, TikTok, Clubhouse, and streaming platforms such as Twitch, and more recently Caffeine, DAZN and Powder. However, as with other social networks, they are subject to the perils of misinformation and hate speech. In 2020, we saw an infodemic of viral health misinformation and historic highs of hate speech across advanced economies. Emerging generative technologies such as Deepfakes and GPT-3 are fuelling the rise of this malicious content. For some social startups this can be an existential crisis failure to uphold community standards can ultimately result in deplatforming. Whilst the very largest social networks are making progress, historically, this has been a human problem with a manual solution. Figures suggest that the largest social networks are dedicating between 1-2% of their revenue towards fighting the problem and this is increasing. At medium sized companies, the investment required to grow a healthy online community can extend to 10-20% of the cost of goods and services, as they lack the resources to develop automated systems in house.

Solution Through AI and flexible workflows, Checkstep are developing a full stack content moderation solution - a tool for automating detection, interventions, transparency reporting, and the appeal process. The solution is B2B, targeting companies Trust and Safety teams, and focuses specifically on features for the UK Online Harms Bill and EU DSA, which specify that if content is removed, a statement of reason must be provided. Traction Checkstep software runs in production with a leading European forum and has analysed over a million pieces of content. It is being tested by five leading online platforms in education, sport, finance, e-commerce and event organisation. Checkstep has 20+ employees spread over three continents, a world-class leadership team with previous experience at Facebook, Microsoft, and Xerox, and an exceptional technical team able to constantly innovate in the fast-changing domain of SafetyTech. Checkstep has raised two rounds: $500,000 in September 2020 and $1.8 million in March 2021.

Jonathan Manfield, Cofounder and CTO, Artificial Intelligence for Business diploma, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

Stage Seed Team size 22 team members

AI Content moderation Trust & Safety

DroneStream

Aerospace and Defence

dronestream.io

Live stream, communicate with, and control drones safely.

Co-founding team: Sergio Montes De Oca, COO, MBA, Saïd Business School, St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford Harry Howe, CEO Dennis Babych, CTO

Stage Pre-Seed to Seed Team size 10 team members

Drones Real-time communication Remote working

DroneStream Problem Drone use cases have multiplied over the course of the pandemic, and drone related initiatives have increased dramatically across different industries including construction, mining, public safety, and most recently, healthcare, due to financial, environmental, and time savings. However, drone workflows are still very disjointed and cumbersome, and a multitude of actions need to be completed before a commercial drone pilot can get a simple video and supporting data to a client or team member. New ways need to be found to collaborate remotely, while socially distanced, and to perform critical in the field’s tasks. Solution DroneStream is a software company that provides a cutting-edge platform to control drones for a variety of critical missions and industry applications. The technology delivers a real-time data feed from a drone with no additional hardware requirements. The platform allows teams that work with drone operations to live stream, communicate, and control drones in a safe manner. It allows workers to

tackle remote operational and fieldwork challenges on their day-to-day jobs and enables organisations to perform better saving financial, human, and environmental resources and optimising team workflow.” Traction DroneStream is working closely with two of the largest Construction companies in Europe, as well being part of a BT-led consortia to build a nationwide network of drones that can be deployed for infrastructure inspections and public safety incidents. DroneStream has raised a preseed round with investors including Sony. It has also received an Innovate UK grant of £80,000.

HedgeFlows

Fintech

hedgeflows.com

Accessible, frictionless, and low risk foreign trade for SMEs.

Co-founding team: Neh Thaker, Co-CEO, Chemistry, Merton College, University of Oxford

HedgeFlows Problem Small businesses (SMEs) make up more than half of the UK economy by turnover and drive global trade. However, 95% of SMEs that are active in cross border trade, do not manage the associated currency risk. Most are excluded because of a variety of factors: a lack of knowledge, being too small to qualify for relevant financial services, or the lack of a finance department to manage collateral requirements. As a result, two-thirds of SMEs lose money and their average loss from not managing the risk is £70,000. There are ~six million SMEs in the UK of which ~2.5 million are registered. 350,000 to 500,000 of these make cross border payments. Taking the lower estimate, this implies an annual loss to UK SMEs of ~£16 billion (350,000 x £70,000 x 2/3).” Solution HedgeFlows removes the uncertainties associated with paying or collecting invoices in foreign currencies, minimising losses for SMEs. Its products allow small businesses to save time, have unparalleled flexibility at no increased cost, avoid financial losses and safely grow their

business with partners and customers in any country. It also removes the administrative burden placed on SMEs by competitors (banks, neo banks or fintechs). HedgeFlows releases the £16 billion of foreign currency risk losses, into working capital. Money which SMEs can better use to invest in improving the skills base of their employees, growing their business through investment and greater hiring.

Alex Axentiev, Co-CEO

Traction With developments such as the Open Banking initiative, trade digitalisation, and the openness of SMEs to try non-bank financial service providers, HedgeFlows has validated its MVP and is due to launch the operational live Beta. It has received regulatory approval already has live clients.

5 team members

Arnar Jonsson, CTO Daniel Lawson, Director of Business Development

Stage Pre-Seed to Seed Team size

Financial services SME Currency risk

KindWorks.AI

Mental Well-being and AI

kindworks.ai

Improving Employee Experience & Well-being through kindness and technology.

Co-founding team: Daniel Lozano, Founder and CEO, Software Engineering MSc, Kellogg College, University of Oxford Timothy Seabrook, CTO, DPhil, CDT Autonomous Intelligent Machines and Systems (AIMS), Pembroke College, University of Oxford Dr. Thea Bauer, CXO, MJur, Wadham College, University of Oxford Nicole Yelsey, CMO

Stage Pre-Seed Team size 11 team members

AI Mental well-being Kindness chatbot

KindWorks.AI Problem Practicing consistent Acts of Kindness solves priority problems in corporations including employee retention and wellbeing. These problems have grown significantly during Covid and data shows increasing levels of burnout, lack of connection at work, and lack of a sense of purpose. These underlying problems have led to â€˜The Great Resignationâ€™ of 2021â€™ where employees are quitting at increasingly high rates when they hit tipping points related to burnout and lack of job satisfaction. Solution The first product by KindWorks.AI is â€˜Beniâ€™, a friendly AI agent who suggests fun and easy Acts of Kindness. Beni is powered by AI to develop personalized experiences for each user and ensure delivery of the right Act of Kindness to the right person at the right time. Beni is also grounded in behavioral science research, which guides the Acts of Kindness, the nudges, gamification, and the entire UX.

Traction The idea for KindWorks.AI was first conceptualized as a solution to the global mental health crisis. Kindness has the power to have exponential benefits on the mental well-being of individuals and society. While the initial core solution is focused on the well-being within corporations, the potential impact on society is endless. Besides the benefits for individuals (improved connectivity, sense of purpose, and increase in happiness and life satisfaction), the benefits to companies (reduced burnout, retention, job satisfaction), we also see significant benefits to society (decreased polarization and human conflict). KindWorks.AI is launching with its first big client (a top global consulting firm) in Autumn 2021. It has developed a partnership with Webex by Cisco for their HybridWork campaign and will be integrated for their clients over Autumn 2021. The partnership was announced via a billboard in Times Square in August 2021.

Mitra bio

mitra.bio

Healthcare

Powering the next generation of anti-ageing skincare & therapeutics through genomics.

Co-founding team: Dr. Shakiba Kaveh, CEO Dr. Cristiana Banila, CSO, MBiochem, University of Oxford, St John’s College, Oxford University

Mitra bio Problem Over 10 million invasive skin biopsies are taken every year to study skin health. From skin cancer screening to developing antiaging skincare to precision medicine. $200 billion is spent on skincare yet most is wasted as there is no way to measure the impact on skin other than taking skin biopsy. In skin cancer diagnosis, 9 out of 10 skin moles that are biopsied are harmless. This results in unnecessary surgery, stress for the patient and high economic cost (the cost of biopsy is £1000 for the NHS). Solution Mitra Bio has developed a non-invasive epigenetics skin test. Using patented noninvasive skin tests, Mitra Bio collect epigenetics data based on DNA methylation signatures from the skin. Its beachhead is helping skincare companies to discover new ingredients and longer term is to replace invasive biopsy with its non-invasive approach for skin cancer examinations.

Stage

Pre-Seed to Seed Team size 2 team members

AI Skin bio-markers Beauty & healthcare

Neumind

HealthTech

neumind.co.uk

Life-changing therapies at your fingertips.

Co-founding team: Dr. Ellis Parry, CEO, PhD Engineering Science, St John’s College, University of Oxford Dr. Claudia Hill, COO, PhD Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford Rufus Russell, CTO

Stage Pre-Seed Team size 4 team members

Application Brain injury Cognitive rehabilitation

Neumind Problem Acquired brain injury (ABI) can result from stroke, trauma or illness, and manifests in cognitive, emotional, and physical symptoms equivalent to those resulting from conditions such as dementia. In English speaking countries, there are 100 million people living with ABI or neurological conditions, forcing over 150 million people to become impromptu caregivers. In the UK, ABI and dementia costs the economy £67 billion annually with similar costs reported in other European countries. There is inadequate neurorehabilitation for people with neurological injuries and conditions, and a lack of long-term care. Current solutions lack technological features, are expensive and don’t fulfil the practical and therapeutic requirements of users. Solution Alfred is Neumind’s smartphone app that; compensates and improves cognitive functions - using the full extent of smartphone technologies; empowers all caregivers to not only care for the individual but rehabilitate them; and delivers evidence based neurorehabilitation exercises. Alfred takes the most effective strategies used

in neurorehabilitation and behavioural science and distills them into personalised, actionable therapeutic prompts. These are delivered straight to the user’s phone, smartwatch, or smart speaker when and where they are needed, with no requirement to navigate menus or set aside time in the day. Traction Neumind’s beta is available via limited access on the Play and App store. There are over 200 users trialling Alfred including Neurorehabilitation units and hospitals in the UK and the US. Over 20,000 smart prompts have been delivered. Preliminary results show that adherence rate of therapies delivered on Alfred is ~80%, significantly higher than the average in complex conditions of 35-40%. Neumind has been through the Aspect Student Accelerator Programme ($7,000 grant received), and the EIT Health e-boat accelerator ($27,000, (<$1,400 of bankable funding). It received the Mike Barnes Award for Innovation in brain injury from the United Kingdom Brain Injury Forum who are partnered with the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). CEO, Ellis, received the Young Innovators Award’s from Innovate UK ($20,000 grant), and Neumind has received a grant of $25,000 from Plug and Play. CTO Rufus worked as a Senior Developer at IBM and ConsenSys.

ngenius.ai

Smart Cities

ngenius.ai

Transforming CCTV systems to provide data for smart cities.

Co-founding team: Linford Bacon, CEO, MMath Mathematics & Statistics, University College, University of Oxford

ngenius.ai Problem It is clear that our cities have an essential role in combating climate change and supporting environmentally sustainable economic growth. However, at present, they lack the insight to create genuinely tailored services and interventions that stimulate sustainable behavioural change. To ensure that these interventions are meaningful and effective, smart cities must be driven by data generated in their physical spaces. The collection and transformation of this data is a significant challenge for even the smartest cities. The current approach of deploying vast bespoke sensor networks does not scale effectively, owing to the substantial upfront capital expenditure, significant ongoing maintenance cost, and narrow range of data that these sensors can collect. Solution ngenius.ai provides an integrated cloud platform to underpin smart city operations and strategic sustainability planning, called Data-enabled Smart Cities (DeSC). It collects the real-world data that will underpin the smart city of the future by deploying cutting-edge deep learning technology to transform existing CCTV systems into a network of smart sensors.

Kieran Bacon, CTO

These ‘smart sensors’ will be capable of automatically capturing data related to anything that can be identified visually and allow the capture of a rich stream of highly contextual, real-time data without the need for any additional hardware, installation or maintenance costs. ngenius.ai gives a significant cost benefit against current solutions that require numerous bespoke sensors or specific cameras. Traction Negenius.ai is now working closely with three live clients to integrate and build a better solution that adds significant value. In August 2021, it was awarded pre-seed funding of £400,000 from Innovate UK and the Geospatial Commission after completing two successful Innovate UK funded technical feasibility trials with Croydon Borough Council and Norfolk County Council. This funding facilitated the development of its prototype to a marketready product in the upcoming months, whilst also supporting live trial activities with a pipeline of 10 Local Authority customers. ngenius.ai solutions are currently running in over 500 locations and over 3,500 cameras across the UK.

John Chapman, Commercial Director Eliza Moyse, Head of Operations

Stage Pre-Seed to Seed Team size 7 team members

AI Smart cities Sustainability

PIPRA

Healthcare

pipra.ch

Reducing medical complications through pre-surgery identification.

Co-founding team: Dr. Benjamin Dodsworth, CTO, DPhil Pathology, Lincoln College, University of Oxford John Klepper, CEO Nayeli Schmutz, Chief Medical Officer

Stage Pre-Seed to Seed Team size 6 team members

AI Post-operative delirium Risk prediction

PIPRA Problem Disorientation, memory loss, difficulties in speech; if you are over sixty and about to undergo surgery, you could be at risk of developing these symptoms. Post-operative delirium (POD) is an enormous problem occurring in 20% of surgical patients aged 60+. POD leads to adverse outcomes such as a 25% increased risk of mortality within one month, double the risk of nursing home admission, and 38% of the affected end up suffering long-term cognitive decline and dementia. Costs can also be greatly affected (e.g. 1-2 billion Euros to health insurers in Germany alone). There are no treatments available once symptoms arise. Instead, the focus is on prevention. Many highly effective prophylactic treatments (with 40% reduction of POD) have been developed. These measures are much cheaper in comparison to a patient with delirium but are too costly to deploy for every patient. Solution PIPRA has developed a novel, AI-based pre-operative risk prediction software that highlights patients at risk before they undergo surgery. Patients at risk can then benefit from targeted prophylactic intervention. By shifting to preventative measures, enabled by PIPRA’s technology,

hospitals can significantly improve patient outcomes while also saving £1.8 million annually (example, a mid-sized public hospital in Switzerland). PIPRAa’s software does not require any non- routinely collected data which ensures the software fits into the clinical pathway and will be used by clinicians. PIPRA owns the largest, richest, most diverse database on post- operative delirium, with over 20,000 patients (curated research-grade, patient-level data - with exclusivity). Traction PIPRA has received pre-seed funding of over £1 million from EIT Health. It has honed in and validated the idea with over 200 stakeholder interviews with anaesthesiologists, surgeons, patients, hospital administrators, hospital IT managers and GPs. Eight hospitals have agreed to pilot the software, and it has 17 Letters of Intent signed by clinicians who want to purchase the tool. PIPRA has won three Innosuisse grants, the EIT Health Wild Card New Ventures’ competition (2019), the Brain Innovation Days award (2020), the Venture.ch Award (2021- best startup in Healthcare), and the Oxford OSEFx pitching award (2021).

Vocsta

Arts and Entertainment

vocsta.com

Helping fans help artists. Democratising the discovery of new music talent.

Co-founding team: Oliver Csendes, Co-founder and CFO, Executive EMBA ‘13, Pembroke College, University of Oxford

Vocsta Problem Singers across the world face challenges with exposure, fan engagement and funding, while labels are looking for more efficient ways to separate the great from the good. Auditions have been impacted by the pandemic, and in-person auditions disadvantage people in rural areas, parents without childcare, and often focus more on looks and personal background than real talent. In addition, most singers lack the funding to support their dreams, as 91% of all singers remain undiscovered. Solution Vocsta is an online music platform allowing social media to determine who the next big vocal star is. It democratises the discovery of talent by allowing the crowd to decide which artists receive funding for the development of their music career. Gamified competitions give talent more exposure and traction, build an engaged community, and create a self-reinforcing success model. Its solution is a multi-sided marketplace on a mobile music platform, connecting talented singers with an audience to increase the discovery of great talent.

Traction Vocsta had over 200 participants in its first competition, and the winner funded the recording of their first single with the Vocsta prize money and was nominated for the Latin America GRAMMYs. It has since developed an MVP for iOS and Android, and has over 10,000 followers across the UK, US, India, Latin America, and Africa. Vocsta has had over 40 pieces of press coverage including Forbes Mexico, and Reforma. It is currently in the process of building its community across platforms to feed into to its future Beta launch.

Carlos Bernardo Torres Diaz, COO, Executive EMBA ‘13, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford Mara Belen Munoz, Cofounder, Executive EMBA ‘13, Pembroke College, University of Oxford Lorraine Wright MBE, CEO, Executive EMBA ‘13, Green Templeton College, University of Oxford

Stage Pre-Seed Team size 5 team members

Application Music talent Social media

OXFORD FOUNDRY

WITH THANKS TO OUR OXFO ELEVATE RESIDENT EXPERTS AND PARTNERS, INCLUDING: Claire Davenport, Chief Executive Officer, notonthehighstreet.com Raif Jacobs, Former CFO, Deliveroo, Tech Investor Kal Patel, Former CEO, Best Buy Asia, Investor and Advisor Robin Saunders, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Clearbrook Capital Partners Saalim Chowdhury, Former Partner, 500 Startups, CTO, Skillbridge (acq Ben Legg, CEO & Co-founder, The Portfolio Collective, former COO, Google Europe Mary McKenna MBE, Tech entrepreneur, Co-founder, Learning Pool, Angel Investor Matthew Woolsey, Global President, 66°North, former MD, NET-A-

AWS Google Cloud HubSpot MathWorks Mixpanel Notion OVHcloud SeedLegals Twilio

PORTER Kevin Roberts, Former Chairman and CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi Mike Smith, Former Chief Product and Technology Officer, Barclays Ventures, and Former co-CTO, Disney Marcus East, Chief Digital Officer, T-Mobile US & former Technical Director, Office of the CTO, Google

Legal Partners: Ignition Law Taylor Vinters Taylor Wessing

Ed Lee, Founder & CEO, HelloAdvisr Lorenzo Alberton, VP of Engineering, SenSat, and former CTO, DataSift (acq Meltwater) Srin Madipalli, Former Co-founder and CEO, Accomable (acq Airbnb), Investor Yu-Ting Kuo, Corporate Vice President of Research and Technology, Microsoft Dominic Jacquesson, VP Insight & Talent, Index Ventures Farzana Baduel, Founder and CEO, Curzon PR Rudi Sellers, Associate Partner, IBM iX Stephen Scruton, Former MD, Head of Equity Research, (CEEMA), Tech Investor Peter Garratt, Former Senior Partner, Mathys & Squire Niresh Rajah, Managing Director, Head of Data and Regulatory Change, Grant Thornton Major General Rupert Timothy Herbert Jones CBE, Senior British Army officer, who previously served as the Standing Joint Force Commander

AND OUR INCREDIBLE NETWORK OF MENTORS

OXFO ELEVATE ACCELERATOR VENTURE PORTFOLIO 2021

Toptal), Product Manager, Scansafe (acq Cisco)

Startup partners include:

OXFORD FOUNDRY

THANK YOU TO OUR ADVISORY BOARD DONORS & PARTNERS, OUR WORK WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT YOU: Reid Hoffman CBE, Co-founder, LinkedIn, and Senior Advisor, Oxford Foundry Biz Stone, Co-founder, Twitter, Medium, Jelly | Chair of the OXFO Advisory Board Mohamed Amersi, Chair, The Amersi Foundation Jeff Wong, Global Chief Innovation Officer, EY Mark Evans, Partner, Kindred Capital Toby Coppel, Co-founder and Partner, Mosaic Ventures Alexsis de Raadt St. James, Managing Partner, Merian Ventures Phil Libin, Co-founder, Evernote, CEO, All Turtles Pete Flint, Founder, Trulia, Managing Partner, NFX Brent Hoberman CBE, Executive Chairman, Founders Factory, Co-founder, First Minute Capital Jørn Lyseggen, Founder and CEO, Meltwater

University of Oxford Saïd Business School The Amersi Foundation EY Santander Universities Ripple OSI Meltwater Detao Education Group With thanks to The Amersi Foundation for The Amersi Foundation Accelerator space in Oxford.

With thanks to the Amersi Foundation for the Amersi Foundation Accelerator space

OXFO ELEVATE ACCELERATOR VENTURE PORTFOLIO 2021

Oxford Foundry, University of Oxford 3-5 Hythe Bridge Street Oxford OX1 2EW info@oxfordfoundry.ox.ac.uk

@oxfoundry

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