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StEP 2026 winners: Meet Oxford’s next generation of student founders
Ictus takes the top prize after eight weeks of intensive venture building
After a summer of testing ideas, challenging assumptions and building ventures, the 2026 StEP programme has culminated in its final pitching event, as University of Oxford students presented their ventures for a share of £20,000 in prizes.
Delivered in collaboration with Oxford Edge, StEP is the Incubator’s eight-week student entrepreneurship programme, designed for University of Oxford students from any discipline who are interested in entrepreneurship. Supported by expert mentors and industry specialists from Oxford University Innovation and its wider network, students develop practical entrepreneurial skills and receive hands-on venture building experience, working either on their own ideas or with existing University of Oxford intellectual property.
On 20 August at Reuben College, Oxford, nine teams took to the stage to pitch their ventures to an expert judging panel, including Head of Consulting Services at Oxford University Innovation, Kirsty Allen; Multi-Exit Entrepreneur, Debbie Wosskow CBE; Professor Dame Sarah Springman, Principal at St Hilda’s College, Oxford; and Dr Nigel Meir.
After excellent pitches from all teams, taking first place and a prize £10000 was Ictus, a venture that has developed a system for the detection and classification of epileptic seizures, including non-convulsive seizures. Ictus provides epilepsy clinicians and neurologists with an objective seizure log from patients prior to appointments. It is developing a patch-style wearable EEG for automated seizure detection based on university intellectual property, enabling the extremely low-cost printing of silver nanowires. While its initial beachhead market is epilepsy, the company envisions that miniaturised EEG sensors could eventually be used to monitor other neurological conditions, including insomnia and dementia.
The support that we have received as a team through the StEP programme has been invaluable. We couldn’t have got to where we are without the expertise from the Oxford University Innovation and Oxford Edge teams.
The programme has been such a great experience, and has also given us the opportunity to meet new people and make life long friends.
In second place was Cloq, winning £5000, and Vivoxa winning the audience prize of £1000 for best presenter.
Cloq is building a new class of quantum clocks -dramatically smaller, cheaper, and more power-efficient than anything on the market today. Their patented technology brings incredible timing precision to industries priced out of it entirely, from GPS-denied navigation to telecoms and next-generation electronics.
Vivoxa is developing a reusable platform for rapid, laboratory-grade molecular diagnostics at the point of care. Starting with equine infectious diseases, they're building the foundation for the next generation of decentralised diagnostics.
The teams this year absolutely blew us away. It was unbelievably difficult to pick winners, but Ictus, Cloq and Vivoxa did exceptionally well. We are delighted to say that we will be continuing to support all nine teams in their future endeavours.
An absolutely incredible cohort with super ideas to take forward. All of the teams were excellent and we're delighted to have such great student entrepreneurs at Oxford University.
The remaining prize money will support an expenses paid trip for one team to attend Stage Two in Berlin, a pan-European competition showcasing leading university startups and spinouts.
Congratulations to Ictus, Cloq and Vivoxa, and all of the students who took part in StEP 2026.
We look forward to continuing to provide expert mentorship and further training to StEP participants through our Incubator, enabling these emerging student founders to turn their business proposals into fully realised ventures.
Find out more about StEP at unistep.org.
