Oxford Spin-outs Raise £50 million
12th July 2006
Oxford spin-outs have been busy raising finance. A total of nearly £50 million has been secured so far this year by some of the 50 companies spun-out by Oxford University Innovation from the University of Oxford, including those mentioned below.
Some Successful Oxford Spin-outs
Oxford Catalysts IPO
In April Oxford Catalysts announced its admission to AIM having raised £15 million in a private placing. Based on the work of Professor Malcolm Green and Dr Tiancum Xiao from the Department of Chemistry, Oxford Catalysts develops carbide based catalysts for GTL (gas-to-liquid) processes, hydrogen-on-demand production for fuel cell applications, removal of sulphur from hydrocarbon fuels and high temperature steam generation.
The Company will use the funds to pursue its commercialisation strategy which currently comprises the refinement of existing catalysts, the recruitment of up to 25 employees over the next 18 months, the re-location to, and fit-out of, new premises and the purchase of necessary laboratory equipment, and the enhancement of its portfolio of intellectual property.
Early prototype research work had been financed by the Oxford University Challenge Seed Fund. This investment of £125,000, made in 2003, is currently valued at c£4 million and represents a significant return to the UCSF which was launched in 2000.
http://www.velocys.com/
Rolls Royce and Comvest contributed the bulk of a new fund-raising round of £4 million. Oxford Biosignals develops and supplies condition monitoring systems, its main applications being in aero engines and critical care. The critical care side of the business is being driven from the USA, where the company has recently opened an office in Indianapolis.
“Traditional patient monitoring focuses on collecting and displaying individual vital signs, while clinical information systems focus on integrating collected data” said Frank Cheng, President of Oxford BioSignals (US) Inc. “Beyond these traditional means of clinical data management, [the company’s lead product] BioSign™ focuses on advanced interpretation of collected and integrated data to generate new clinical insights. The patented technology uses data fusion to assess patterns of multiple vital signs and to identify patient changes that may not be derived by looking at each vital sign separately.”
Oxford Nanolabs secures £7.5 million
Oxford Nanolabs, led by CEO Dr Gordon Sanghera and founded on the technology originating from the research of Prof Hagan Bayley, is developing single biochip based tests to be coupled to portable and/or hand held readers for decentralised or ‘Point of Care’ (POC) testing. The short term core focus of the company is to develop a molecular diagnostic platform for infectious disease. The development of products based on NanoPore proteins is a result of the culmination of over 15 years research by Professor Bayley.
ONL is currently designing a research use only (RUO) instrument that can be linked to a computer for greater end-user flexibility and control. These devices will make use of disposable chips as well as be compatible with custom cells that can be modified by the Company to suit customers’ research needs. ONL plans to make these RUO devices available soon under an early access programme.
The company is also developing a multiple array based system for the simultaneous measurement of multiple analytes. Products for the array based system will focus on delivering a high throughput drug discovery platform for membrane bound proteins and for DNA sequencing.
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