Just published, the impact report sets out OUI’s support to form cutting-edge spinouts and the return of millions of pounds to the University of Oxford to fund future innovation and research. 

According to OUI’s preliminary output metrics, between August (2023) and July (2024), OUI and its partners: 

• Raised £19.5 million in seed funding 
• Raised £872 million in investment for Oxford’s companies
• Created 15 new companies, including: 10 spinouts, 2 social ventures, and 3 startups 
• Filed 93 new patents 
• Struck 1,239 licensing deals from healthtech to clean energy

Hailing the results, OUI’s executive chairwoman Baroness Nicola Blackwood said: “As the world confronts increasingly complex challenges – climate change, public health crises, and technological disruptions – our ability to innovate at speed and scale has never been more critical. Over the past year, Oxford University Innovation has continued to play a pivotal role in transforming groundbreaking research into tangible economic and societal benefits, strengthening our position as a global leader in innovation.” 

The report was unveiled at an Oxford Innovation Society (OIS) event for academic founders and leaders, venture capital investors, industry and ecosystem partners.

OUI’s new CEO, Dr Mairi Gibbs, recognised Oxford University’s “prolific research output” which has fuelled another successful year for OUI, which manages the university’s technology transfer and consulting activities. 

Listing some of the achievements of the last 12 months, Mairi welcomed the “launch of many potentially world class companies”, including MatchBio, an Oxford University spinout that launched in January 2024 with a £4.5 million investment to pioneer advancements in immunotherapy to fight cancer. 

Mairi added that: “OUI has been instrumental in securing agreements that extend the reach of our research”, pointing to a new licensing agreement between Oxford University and biopharmaceutical company Apollo Therapeutics to accelerate the commercialisation of Oxford’s biomedical research by developing new therapies at pace. 

The past 12 months have also seen the first deliveries of Oxford’s R21 / Matrix-M malaria vaccine in Africa, following a licensing deal OUI negotiated with the Serum Institute of India. 

The report highlights the appeal of Oxford’s companies due the impact they are creating from saving lives to safeguarding identities. Gibbs cites technology developed by Onfido’s AI-powered Real Identity Platform, which allows customers to orchestrate award-winning document and biometric verifications, as well as providing vital fraud detection signals. Co-founders Eamon Jubbawy, Ruhul Amin and Husayn Kassai – former students at Oxford’s Saïd Business School – launched the company in 2012 through OUI’s Startup Incubator. Over the past year, Onfido has helped prevent $3.9 billion in fraud losses for its global client base. Onfido was bought in April (2024) by global security company Entrust Corp, marking the highest-value return to date on an Oxford University, student-led startup supported by OUI’s Incubator. The return received by OUI are being reinvested in OUI’s Incubator programme to offer more opportunities for student and staff entrepreneurs to train, collaborate and develop more game-changing companies. 

Gibbs also highlights another Oxford success story, Samsung Electronics’ acquisition of Oxford Semantic Technologies, a spinout which specialised in cutting-edge knowledge graph and reasoning technology.

The report reveals the growing role women are playing in OUI’s commercialisation activities. 

Figures show the share of unique female individuals involved in OUI commercialisation activities rose from 27.8% in 2015-16 to 33.7% in 2022-23. All female or mixed-sex teams involved in commercialisation projects increased from 29.8% to 39.5%. 

Professor Chas Bountra, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Oxford, said: “I believe OUI is the leading technology transfer office in the country. The team are uniting our innovation ecosystem by linking the university with more than 300 spinouts, supporting our expanding university science parks in and around Oxford, together with our investment growth driven with Oxford Science Enterprises and our network of investment partners. This collaboration has fostered remarkable clusters in areas such as Life Sciences, AI / Quantum, Space and Satellite, Autonomous Vehicles and Motorsport, Energy, and Publishing. With even high-profile international investors now setting up in the region, my vision is for Oxfordshire to rival innovation hubs like Boston and Stanford. By 2050, our goal is to establish the UK’s first trillion-pound company."

OUI’s Chief Eexecutive Dr Mairi Gibbs concludes: “Oxford University Innovation remains committed to turning cutting-edge research into real-world solutions for the unprecedented challenges and opportunities of our time. Our goal is to support innovators from across the University, ensuring that their ideas can create lasting economic, societal, and environmental impacts. Our future will be shaped by close collaboration between academia, industry, and society – and we are excited to lead the way in building that future here at Oxford.”  

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