Notable Universities
Notable Companies
Notable Investors
Notable Workspaces
Notable Start-ups
Notable Meetups
What's there
Onwards and upwards for Oxford, a city that is home to some of the UK’s leading digital tech companies and a world-class University. Success stories include cyber security company Sophos, which achieved the largest IPO for a UK software company in 2015, as well as gaming giants Rebellion and NaturalMotion.
What's new
2016 was a good year for Oxford. Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), the investment vehicle for the university’s spinouts, grew to £580 million after Asian investors joined its fund.
The commercial arm of the University, Oxford University Innovation, reached new heights too, launching an unprecedented 24 high-tech firms and raising a total of £52.6 million in seed stage funding. Twenty-one of these were spinouts from the university, including OxStem, Mind Foundry and EnzBond.
Not all the businesses making waves are linked to the university; Solid State Logic, OmPrompt and digital agency White October are all thriving.
Meanwhile Digital Oxford, which launched in 2015, continued to represent and promote the digital tech sector across Oxfordshire, including Didcot’s Harwell Science & Innovation Campus, which is home to 200 organisations and companies, employing more than 5,000 people.
What's up next
Watch out for the Fab Accelerator, which ran its pilot in 2016, and The Oxford Foundry – a scaled up entrepreneurial hub for students, due to open this summer.
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Lauren Fletcher
CEO & Founder, BioCarbon Engineering
What we do
BioCarbon Engineering is building automated drones which can plant at least 1 billion trees a year in order to rebuild global ecosystems, fight climate change and provide social uplift to millions of families around the world.
Why Oxford?
Our Oxford location has given us access to a diverse talent pool, research labs, greenhouses and outdoor trial sites. It also offers easy access to London and the rest of the world.
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Dr Graeme Smith
CEO, Oxbotica
What we do
Oxbotica is an award-winning vehicle software company that is challenging Silicon Valley digital tech giants. Our autonomous operating system, Selenium, is vehicle agnostic, and learns from the driver over time.
Why Oxford?
Our team still includes many of the original inventors of our software, who are themselves Oxford University robotics graduates. It's fantastic to have a global, world-leading talent pool right on our doorstep.