OUI marks UCSF Silver Anniversary with almost £3 billion raised by spinouts
30th September 2025
For 25 years, Oxford’s University Challenge Seed Fund has helped to create almost 100 companies
Spinout companies backed by the University of Oxford’s University Challenge Seed Fund (UCSF) have raised a remarkable £2.97 billion in venture capital since the scheme began 25 years ago.
Established at the turn of the millennium with a £4 million endowment from the UK Government, the Wellcome Trust, Gatsby Foundation and the University of Oxford, UCSF was created to overcome the ‘valley of death’ faced by early-stage businesses seeking equity finance. Today, it remains the longest continuously operating proof-of-concept fund in the UK, managed by OUI.
Over the last quarter century, UCSF has invested £18.5 million in 316 projects, helping to create 97 spinouts. This accounts for 40 per cent of Oxford’s total 248 spinouts during that period. Seven have gone on to list on UK or US stock markets, and three – Natural Motion, Yasa Motors and Mirobio – have each been acquired in deals worth over £500 million.
Other UCSF-backed success stories include Caristo Diagnostics, whose AI technology detects hidden heart attack risks; OrganOx, which is transforming how donor organs are preserved between donation and transplantation; and OxCCU Tech, which converts CO₂ and hydrogen into sustainable fuels and products. OrganOx has recently agreed to be acquired by Temuro for $1.5billion, the largest acquisition of an Oxford University spinout to date.
The 25th anniversary of the fund comes at a time when the role of proof-of-concept (POC) funds is firmly on the agenda. TenU, the international collaboration of university innovation offices, has been campaigning throughout 2025 for a more strategic and sustained UK approach to early-stage funding. While the UK Government has committed £40 million over five years to help academics-turned-founders bridge the valley of death, the scheme has been heavily oversubscribed. Industry leaders argue that, to remain globally competitive, the UK must match the scale of international rivals.
Adam Workman, OUI’s Head of Investments and New Ventures, said: ‘For 25 years, the University Challenge Seed Fund has helped hundreds of researchers prove that their discoveries have commercial potential. The fact that UCSF-backed companies have gone on to raise nearly £3 billion shows the power of early-stage proof-of-concept funding. Without it, many of Oxford’s most successful spinouts would never have left the lab.’
He added: ‘The UCSF model, where returns from successful spinouts are recycled back into the fund, has given Oxford a sustainable engine for innovation, but the demand is now greater than ever. The current funding gap for proof-of-concept projects at Oxford is around £2.2 million a year, and unless we can bridge that, we risk great ideas falling through the cracks.’
Frank Cheng, CEO of Caristo Diagnostics, said: ‘The University Seed Fund has been instrumental in helping Caristo take an innovation from the scientific labs to a proven clinical solution that can save thousands of lives. We congratulate Oxford University Innovation on completing 25 years and are extremely grateful for their ongoing partnership in making Caristo Diagnostics a leading company, transforming in cardiovascular diagnostics.’
The UCSF fund has evolved through philanthropic donations in 2010 and a £3 million investment from Oxford Science Enterprises in 2018, ensuring its longevity. Its quarterly calls (January, April, July, October) continue to provide grants of between £2,500 and £250,000 to help researchers demonstrate commercial usefulness before securing angel or venture investment.
The fund underscores the growing recognition that POC funding is a strategic necessity for turning research into brilliant companies.
Photo by Ben Seymour on Unsplash
