Oxford Foundry Impact report 2020-2021

The oxford foundry annual impact report EDITION 2020/2021

PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2021 OXFORDFOUNDRY.ox.ac.uk info@oxfordfoundry.ox.ac.uk

t: @oxfoundry f: oxfound I: @oxfordfoundry li: oxford-foundry

IMPACT REPORT 2020-21

BUILDING A NEW G E N E R AT I O N OF VENTURES AND LEADERS.

Contents THE OXFORD FOUNDRY

3

Introduction.............................................................03 News........................................................................05 FMDQ Global Partnership.......................................07 OXFO Covid-19 Action Plan....................................09

DEMOCRATISING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

16 ENTREPRENEURSHIP & TECH SKILLS AND TRAINING

10

24

OXFO Entrepreneurial Fellowship Initiative.............25

VENTURE BUILDING AND ACCELERATION

32

Skills and training workshops...................................11 All-Innovate..............................................................12 Santander Universities Entrepreneur X....................15 Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Physicists.......17 OXFO Leader in Practice..........................................19 Digital transformation...............................................20 OXFO Community....................................................22 Outreach and Speaker series...................................23

OXFO Elevate Accelerator Cohort 4........................33 Cohort 4 Demo Day..................................................36 OXFO Elevate Women.............................................38 OXFO Venture Portfolio...........................................40 Thank you.................................................................42

The global Covid-19 pandemic continues to show us just how important it is to invest in community and in innovations that change people’s lives for the better.

We’re always humbled by the words of thanks we get from students and founders about the impact our work has had on their lives; ‘A safe space to experiment’, ‘the first time I felt I fitted in at Oxford’, ‘critical skills and friends for life’, ‘our venture wouldn’t be what it is without you’.

It’s a pleasure and a privilege to see the individuals involved in our programmes flourish and grow as confident, purpose-led and highlyskilled leaders, armed with the 21st century entrepreneurship, leadership and technology skills, mindsets, resilience and support networks they need to make true, lasting change in the world.

Since inviting CEO of Apple Tim Cook to open the centre in October 2017, with a founding donation from Reid Hoffman CBE, Cofounder of LinkedIn, demand for our programmes has continued to grow - whether that’s for our All-Innovate ideas competition, Diversity Fellowships, OXFO Elevate accelerator, or our skills and training workshops and masterclasses. Our community has also continued to diversify and expand throughout all corners of the University, changing perceptions of what entrepreneurship is and who it’s for.

In 2020-2021, we continued to focus on our core mission – to build economically and societally impactful ventures, and to democratise entrepreneurship - breaking down barriers and providing skills and training to build the next generation of leaders.

The ventures we’ve supported through OXFO Elevate have continued to scale. The 32 ventures in Cohorts 1-3 alone have raised a collective £52.4m and created 270+ jobs. They and the ventures 12

THE OXFORD FOUNDRY we scaled through the OXFO Covid-19 Rapid Solutions Builder continue to make a difference to the pandemic and other tough and complex global challenges.

Examples of the sustained success and difference OXFO programmes make include Infogrid who have raised a $15.5M series A since joining the accelerator and are on track to raise their series B over the next 6-12 months following incredible commercial metrics. Their venture uses IoT technology to make buildings smarter and more energy effiecient, combatting climate change. And Albus health who have raised £3m in equity and grants to use the latest science and technology to prevent asthma attacks globally and are backed by Innovate UK and other leading partners.

To all the students and founders we work with - thank you for trusting us to join you on your journeys. And thank you to everyone who has supported us on our own journey; our incredible global network of advisors, experts and mentors, and most of all thank you to my incredible Oxford Foundry team. As a Foundry family, we have created something truly special.

"When this community of student, alumni, academic and industry talent works together across disciplines and geographies, it’s game-changing. Collectively as a strong community, the Oxford Foundry’s network has delivered actionable and sustainable solutions to the complex challenges we face as a society, and leveraged the unparalleled assets Oxford has to offer the world."

Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter | Chair, Oxford Foundry Advisory Board "In making entrepreneurship accessible to everyone, OXFO has been gamechanging for the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Oxford and more broadly across the UK and Europe.”

Reid Hoffman CBE, Co-founder of LinkedIn | Senior Advisor, Oxford Foundry "Working across many different sectors - public health, education, the workplace, and more - Oxford’s entrepreneurial students and alumni inspire me with their dedication and creativity. The Oxford Foundry has provided the support, space and resources these ventures need to thrive.”

Professor Peter Tufano, Former Peter Moores Dean and Professor of Finance at Saïd Business School, and Former Advisor and Vice-Chair of the OXFO Academic Steering Committee

Tatatatem. Ihil magnis eo eossitas etusam et magnatis dusam que de quia si tenectium quamus quamuste volupic te rature, sam, expersp erest, er officias anihilisciam lanis explitati volorepta cum ipsunt officie offi ntiunt.

17,000 9,300+

£54.2m Ana Bakshi Executive Director, Oxford Foundry

270+

Engagements with the Oxford Foundry

Students and founders engaged

Investment raised

by OXFO ventures in cohorts 1-3 since joining the accelerator

Jobs created

03

Team OXFO

Team OXFO: (Top left > bottom right) Ana Bakshi, Executive Director Kate Nilsson, Executive Assistant to the Director Jonny Thomson, Head of Outreach and Partnerships Katy Clapham, Head of Skills and Training Alex Feyler, Head of Ventures Amy Lothian, Head of Marketing and Communications Dan James, Head of Operations Aaron Aquilina, Content Manager Rose Talbot, Events and Community Manager Allan Brian, Global Partnerships Manager

"Despite working remotely during the

pandemic, our team’s bond, efficiency and lean startup approach has gone from strength to strength. The willingness of everyone to help each other and go above and beyond has ensured that all our initiatives have had continued success and impact and our community and culture has continued to thrive; it is a privilege to be part of such an amazing team.”

Kate Nilsson, Executive Assistant to the Director

100+ pieces of News coverage T

he Oxford Foundry has now been featured in the press more than 100 times including in The Times, Financial Times, USA Today, Forbes, Guardian, BBC and ITV. A full list can be found on the Oxford Foundry website. Our work helped the University to reach the top of the Guardian Rankings for the first time in over a decade.

No need to drop out, uni is just the place to build your start-up

I

n June, as part of the Vice-Chancellor’s Circle, we held an ‘In Conversation’ event with Reid Hoffman CBE, Cofounder of LinkedIn and Founding Donor of the Oxford Foundry, showcasing the work of OXFO as entrepreneurship best practice. Five recent alumni and OXFO portfolio venture founders discussed how the Foundry had impacted them personally and professionally, changing their lives and careers for the better.

|

InspiringFifty named Ana Bakshi one of the Top 50 Leaders in Tech 2021.

Dan Carter announced as Oxford Foundry Leader in Practice

The former All Blacks player Dan Carter on how learning to cope in the tough moments made him a winner

2 July 2021

2 August 2021

16 August 2021

European Universities Are The Newest Deep Tech Hotspots

Oxford fellowship to promote diversity in business

23 June 2021

22 April 2021

How to educate the next workforce

"We’ve had an incredible year, and indeed four years since the Foundry opened, and it’s been rewarding to see our programmes – especially such important initiatives as our new Diversity Fellowships, gain the recognition and reputation they deserve in leading media outlets. Entrepreneurship is for everyone, and media coverage and communications channels across digital, print and social media are vital means to help change perceptions of what entrepreneurship is and who it's for."

13 October 2020

Amy Lothian, Head of Marketing and Communications, Oxford Foundry

05

Our global partnership with FMDQ I

n July 2021, we announced a global partnership with FMDQ Private Markets Limited. The partnership focuses on accelerating the growth of Nigeria’s startup ecosystem and nurturing young Nigerian leaders through knowledge exchange and collaboration.

Twenty emerging Nigerian leaders will be supported through a co-created OXFOFMDQ Young Entrepreneurs Leadership programme, and five high-potential Nigerian startups will be scaled through a tailor-made two week intensive accelerator - Innovate Nigeria. Applications for both programmes opened on 1 December 2021. Angel investment communities will also be brought together through roundtables to form a crosscontinent network.

The Programme is focused on three key areas; Upskill – Facilitation of the training of 20 young Nigerian aspiring entrepreneurs and leaders through the OXFO-FMDQ Young Entrepreneurs Leadership programme (YELP).

Grow – Establishment of an OXFO x FMDQ investor network (OxFIN) to promote knowledge exchange and shared best practice between Oxford’s and Nigeria’s communities of angel investors and venture capitalists through facilitated roundtable discussions and pitch events.

Accelerate – Acceleration of five highpotential Nigerian startups through a tailor-made OXFO x FMDQ Start-up accelerator Innovate Nigeria, to scale up social and economic impact in Nigeria. The Programme leverages the Oxford Foundry and University of Oxford’s unparalleled assets, including networks, partnerships and a venture building and leadership curriculum delivered by some of the world’s

“FMDQ is delighted to be the first global partner of the Oxford Foundry, particularly on this laudable initiative, which emphasises the provision of critical support for highgrowth start-up businesses.

“It is vital that young Nigerian start-up companies and highgrowth small-and medium-sized enterprises are provided with the skills, networks, mentorship and capital required to overcome the barriers to successfully grow and sustain their businesses, thereby creating employment opportunities and supporting poverty alleviation in the country.

“FMDQ Group, through its whollyowned subsidiary, FMDQ Private Markets, is excited to work with a credible partner to deliver the key programmes under the partnership to develop and transform Nigeria’s young entrepreneurs, further entrenching the ethos of the Group’s mission – we collaborate to empower markets for economic progress towards delivering prosperity."

Bola Onadeko, Chief Executive Officer, FMDQ Group

With thanks to Arunma Oteh OON, former Treasurer and Vice President of the World Bank for supporting this partnership.

Global press coverage: CNBC Africa, Oxford Foundry partners FMDQ to grow Nigerian start-ups, 13 July 2021 Business Day, University of Oxford FMDQ to accelerate Nigeria’s start-up ecosystem, 13 July 2021 WebTV, The Oxford Foundry Partners FMDQ Private Markets to Support Nigeria’s Start-Up Ecosystem, 13 July 2021 Proshare, University of Oxford and FMDQ Group Launch Global Partnership, 13 July 2021 Arise TV, 13 July 2021

"Africa is a big frontier of talent. But although talent is universal, opportunity isn't. Through this partnership we have a big opportunity to bring young Nigerian leaders into a network of established and seasoned practitioners and academics. We're harnassing Oxford's 900 year history and global networks to give young leaders and founders lifelong access to networks and skills. We believe in democratising entrepreneurship so that everyone can have the skills and opportunties they need to build a business."

Allan Brian, Global Partnership Manager, Oxford Foundry

NewsDiaryOnline, Oxford, FMDQ empower young Nigerian entrepreneurs, 13 July 2021 Naija247news, Oxford, FMDQ empower young Nigerian entrepreneurs, 13 July 2021 The Nation, UK., Nigeria partner on corporate start-ups, 14 July 2021 Tide, Oxford, FMDQ Empower Young Nigerian Entrepreneurs, 14 July 2021 Blueprint Nigeria, Oxford varsity, FMDQ private market launch pioneer global partnership, 14 July 2021 WorldStage news, Oxford, FMDQ empower young Nigerian entrepreneurs, 14 July 2021 Punch, Oxford, FMDQ partner to accelerate Nigerian startups, 15 July 2021 Africa Inc, Oxford Foundry and FMDQ Private Markets partner to accelerate the growth of Nigeria’s startup ecosystem, 23 July 2021

5 Innovation-led ventures will be accelerated through Innovate Nigeria

20 Young people will be supported on the Young Entrepreneurs Leadership Programme

07

OXFO Covid-19 Action Plan Following our OXFO Covid-19 Action Plan launched in April 2020, ventures we accelerated on the OXFO Covid-19 Rapid Solutions Builder continue to go from strength to strength. Through Oxford Foundry connections, skills and training, and our external global networks, they have raised: Vatic - £4.6m led by LocalGlobe and Hoxton Ventures for their innovative at-home Covid-19 saliva test, and created 15 jobs Devie - £90,000 and they are currently in the process of raising £550k Oblivious AI - have secured their first multinational client Crowdless - raised £275k including Innovate UK’s Business Response to Covid-19 Disruption grant (£50k) and Innovate UK’s Sustainable Innovation Fund (£170k).

15 Jobs created by Vatic

£4.6m Raised by Vatic

£275k Raised by Crowdless

Vatic Covid-19 saliva test approved

by Government for UK rollout raising £4.6m & Oxwash raise $7m This startup just created a fast, accurate COVID test that only needs saliva and links to an app 9 July 2021

"The sessions with OXFO Rapid Solutions Builder sector specialists have been extremely useful in formulating our strategy, alongside support from strategic experts at Verizon and Founders Factory introduced by the Foundry. We have really learnt the value of the network as an accelerant and picked up some useful growth hacks around building a high performance team."

Alex Sheppard, Co-founder and CEO, Vatic

Vatic raises £4.6m to deliver a new proactive form of healthcare with at-home tests 12 July 2021 Government backs 15-min Covid test to reopen clubs and sports stadiums 3 April 2021

Europe’s top sustainability deals 2021 30 December 2021 “I knew entering the accelerator was a huge opportunity and a great forum for myself and the team to work on Oxwash and take it to the next stage. I was incredibly impressed that the entire programme was seamless and added significant value to the team and our venture. OXFO delivered on every single thing they promised! The experts and investors they brought in were all of a fantastic calibre. Many we still work with closely today and have gone on to invest in the business.”

Dr Kyle Grant, Founder & CEO, Oxwash. Kyle has a DPhil from Oxford and met his COO at Oxford. Oxwash has gone on to raise $7m with investment from Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter, and Chair of the OXFO Advisory Board, Holly Branson, Sam Branson, the Clean Venture Fund, ConduitAscension EIS Impact Fund, Pentland Group, Leon Lewis (River Island), Paul Forster, Founder of Indeed, Force Over Mass, TrueSight Ventures, Reckitt Benckiser’s venture arm RB Ventures, Founders Factory and others

How Oxwash Raised $7 Million To Transform The Way We Clean Clothes 8 September 2021 Space scientist’s laundry start-up Oxwash gets a £2m lift-off 21 June 2021

09

ENTREPRENEURSHIP & TECH SKILLS AND TRAINING

"

Upskilling Oxford talent for the world of work and alternative career pathways.

Entrepreneurship and tech skills & training workshops

Following our workshop series’, hundreds of students have been upskilled this year in idea generation, problem-solving, design thinking, creativity, technology & AI.

3,746

Our workshops are delivered by world-leading experts including Rudi Sellers, Associate Partner, IBM iX, and are of the highest quality.

Students have been upskilled through our entrepreneurship and technology skills and training programmes to date

89%

100% Of Introduction to Python workshop, students rated the quality of course teaching as good or very good

Of students said the workshops helped them to improve their creative thinking skills to problem solve

40

workshops

In entrepreneurship and technology skills delivered to students in 2021 across all Oxford Colleges, Divisions, undergraduate and postgraduate

84% Of students said the workshops helped them to work collaboratively in interdisciplinary teams and improved their confidence to pitch their idea in a formal setting

"Great stuff - this kind of workshop which has real applications to people's careers is just what is needed. Really complements the more academic side of an Oxford education."

"Thanks to the team for presenting the workshop series, I learnt so much and feel a lot more confident talking about web development and programming generally."

Demystifying AI participant

Introduction to Python participant

11

All-Innovate ideas competition T

he Oxford Foundry hosted it’s first virtual All-Innovate ideas competition over both Hilary term and Trinity term 2021 offering University of Oxford students two chances to accelerate their ventures with the grant funding prize pots.

The inter-college competition, aimed to encourage all students at Oxford regardless of discipline to develop an entrepreneurial skillset and generate entrepreneurial ideas, is open to undergraduates, postgraduates and DPhils, and is delivered in collaboration with EY.

The prizes for each term were:

£95,000 Of prize money and follow-on support has been awarded to date to build All-Innovate ventures

414 Ideas for new ventures entered into the competition to date

• • •

Best Overall Idea, awarded £10,000 of grant funding - awarded to a team from either level.

Best Undergraduate Idea, awarded £5,000 of grant funding.

Best Postgraduate Idea, awarded £5,000 of grant funding (x2 for Trinity term).

Best overall idea Takura Couriers (now Hande Couriers) St Edmund Hall (Hilary term) A delivery company that helps small-to-medium size businesses in Zimbabwe deliver their products to their customers.

“With Covid, it’s easy to forget just how dynamic and vibrant the Oxford community is, but the networking opportunities were the most valuable and inspiring part of All-Innovate.”

CyanoCapture Christ Church (Trinity term) A biotech company that provides affordable carbon capture on an industrial scale by harnessing genetically modified cyanobacteria and transforming it into raw materials.

200 £45k 33 Entries

in prizes over the academic year

colleges participated

“The most inspiring aspect of the competition is the desire of students from across the university to put in extra hours from their degrees and translate theory into application.”

Best postgraduate idea Fiquetex

Linacre College (Hilary term) Developed and patented a 100% biodegradable and sustainable range of textiles for various sectors of industry.

“If you’re thinking about applying next term then go for it - you learn so much and meet some very interesting people, so it’s 100% worth it!”

Peelsphere

St Anthony’s College (Trinity term) A bio-innovated material made - through advanced material engineering - using fruit waste and algae that's an ideal alternative to leather and synthetic leather.

“The course is very engaging and concise and during the All-Innovate Bootcamp, we learnt so much from the sessions. It was also a great pleasure to listen, learn, and get inspired by the other teams’ brilliant ideas.”

Bedqueue

LevelUp

Predicts a patient’s length of stay in hospital with accuracy and precision.

An edtech company developing the first K-12 Educational Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) in the UK and Asia.

Linacre College (Trinity term)

“We found pitching online convenient and it was well-organised. It was also good to see other teams and share stories. It was an enjoyable experience.”

Best undergraduate idea

Merton College (Trinity term)

“Recalling the different stages of the competition, all the way from the Bootcamp to the finals, we were struck by the quality of the ideas, particularly the innovative and cutting-edge ways in which everyone’s ideas sought to target a pressing issue in the world.”

Unbox

Hertford College (Hilary term) A unique discovery hub, providing peer-to-peer advice, work experience, and upskilling opportunities, for young people with little to no experience.

“The whole experience was very inspiring, everyone is super supportive, and you learn a lot. It’s also fun coming together with friends to work on a solution to a problem you all identified.”

Traction includes: Takura Couriers (Now Hande couriers) has been featured in the press and were in the regional final of Santander Universities Entrepreneur X competition, nominated by the Foundry. All-Innovate Best Undergraduate Award winner 2019-2020 Genei, was been accepted onto Y Combinator’s Spring-Summer cohort - the largest cohort of European founders to date.

13

From All-Innovate to Santander Universities Entrepreneur X competition

T

akura Couriers, now known as Hande Couriers, competed against nine other strong and sustainabilityfocused ventures for the crown of All-Innovate Hilary term winners.

Following their victory, the founders spoke of the support and impressive networks they’ve received since:

“All-Innovate was an absolutely transformative experience that has catalysed our growth, forced us to rethink our goals and think through our ambitions for the future. The funds were transformational for our business, but even more amazing has been the support we’ve received from Katy Clapham, Head of Skills and Training at the Foundry, the Foundry team, and the University

We’ve also networked with some impressive founders building some really compelling products and working on some very important problems."

In early May, the Oxford Foundry selected Chido, Dennis, and Taf to represent the University of Oxford in the Santander X Entrepreneurship Awards 2021 with their venture. The competition, an accelerator programme that aims to prepare young businesses to scale up quickly, has a grand prize of £75,000 (£50,000 equity-free seed funding and £25,000 in business development support) and offers extensive training on how to scale up businesses which is crucial for developing entrepreneurs.

"The skills and training workshops series' we deliver at the Oxford Foundry fundamentally fill the ‘gaps’ in the skillsets of students entering today's workforce. By providing support for students to build a creative mindset, explore alternative career pathways, acquire core entrepreneurship and tech skills, and get comfortable with applying them across multiple settings, we’re giving them the means to acquire lifelong learning and the understanding of how these skills can be applied to enhance their futures."

Katy Clapham, Head of Skills and Training, Oxford Foundry

“It feels surreal to be able to represent the university in this competition among so many other amazing businesses. It affirms our belief in the business and gives us a lot of hope for what the future brings.”

Chido Chigwedere, Masters in Business Administration, Taf Matika, and Dennis Mazing, MSc students studying International Health & Tropical Medicine

It’s the relationships, the lessons learnt, and skills acquired that’ll be the enduring prize of participating in AllInnovate.

Thanks to the support we received from the Oxford Foundry, we’ve been able to increase our delivery capacity and are now working to increase the number of deliveries we make and the businesses we support.

At the end of one the greatest adventures the three of us have gone on together, all we have left to say is, thank you.

Thank you for having enough faith in us to give us your endorsement; for supporting us throughout this year-long journey; and for cheering us on when things have gone our way, and when they haven’t.

Co-founders of Hande (Takura) Couriers

15

On curriculum: Innovation & Entrepreneurship for Physicists In collaboration with Saïd Business School and the University of Oxford’s Physics Department, we ran a sevenweek bespoke physics course to equip physics students with the knowledge and skills to transform ideas and inventions into scalable businesses.

Programme summary: (06 May17 June, every Wednesday from 3pm-5pm):

During the programme, participants learnt from expert startup coaches, ex-physicists turned entrepreneurs, industry experts, and senior faculty from Saïd Business School.

Seminar 3 (20th May): Creative Thinking and Problem Discovery.

- Our Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Physicists Short Option (S33) course, run in partnership with the Department of Physics and Saïd Business School, was delivered to 50 undergraduates and postgraduates.

- 95% of students said they felt motivated to continue learning about entrepreneurship, whilst 85% of students said the course has improved their knowledge of how to translate ideas and inventions into viable businesses.

Seminar 1 (6th May): Inspiration and Zoom Onboarding.

Seminar 2 (13th May): Team Building.

Seminar 4 (27th May): Intellectual Property (IP) & Licensing.

Seminar 5 (3rd June): Market Segmentation & Knowing Your Customer.

Seminar 6 (10th June): Quantifying the Value Proposition & Designing a Business Model.

Seminar 7 (17th June): Assessment in the form of a Group Presentation.

"We know the importance of integrating entrepreneurship right across the university in order to open up alternative career pathways and new opportunities for students from all disciplines. Building innovation and entrepreneurship into academic curriculums is a vital way to do this. Students from all Divisons can, and should, be supported to gain entrepreneurship and leadership skills and understand how to translate their ideas into viable businesses."

Jonny Thomson, Head of Outreach and Partnerships, Oxford Foundry

Facilitators include: Pegram Harrison - Senior Fellow in Entrepreneurship Yo Percale - Founder of Rebel consulting Jon Moorhouse - Intellectual property and commercial lawyer Guest Speakers include: Lewis Liu - Co-Founder & CEO at Eigen Technologies Irwin Zaid - Co-Founder at SeeThrough Scientific Achillefs Kapanidis - Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Oxford & Academic Co-founder at Oxford Nanoimaging Matthew Wilson - Co-Founder at Veratrak (2017-2019) and Co-Founder at Omnipresent (2019-present) Sasha Haco - Co-Founder and CEO at Unitary Sophie Hackford, Futurist and Cofounder, 1715Labs

Entrepreneurship skills are a natural addition to our DPhil training and I am delighted that we have been able to pilot this course.

We deliberately conceived it to be practical and handson and we carefully selected experts who were either physicists or highly relevant in other ways to share their skills and experience. The Oxford Foundry and Saïd Business School have done an exceptional job.

‘It was really inspiring to see the ideas and enthusiasm that the students brought to the course – in spite of the challenges of online learning due to coronavirus restrictions – and we are now looking to open the course to include undergraduates next academic year.”

Dr Phillip Tait, Innovation and Enterprise Manager, Department of Physics

17

Dan Carter announced as OXFO Leader in Practice In June 2021, rugby New Zealand All Blacks Great Dan Carter was appointed as the Oxford Foundry’s first Leader in Practice. The announcement was made by the University, and was featured on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and in The Times. The role provides strategic counsel to OXFO leadership curriculums and the Foundry and Dan have pioneered an annual flagship event series with world-renowned global leaders across different sectors and disciplines, live streamed for open access to all.

Dan has already designed and developed a unique practical skills and training course with us on ‘The Art of Winning’ with the aspiration to impact and upskill millions of young people globally.

With thanks to our Expert in Residence Kevin Roberts for supporting this partnership.

1,200 people from around the world signed up to the first online event in Dan Carter’s OXFO Legends of Leadership series - interviewing OXFO Senior Advisor Reid Hoffman CBE, Co-founder of LinkedIn.

70+

Countries represented by attendees, including Romania, Japan, Argentina, Sri Lanka, and Nigeria

21% Of the audience were current Oxford University students

19

Digital transformation: online skills and training In 2021, we continued our focus on blended learning and maintaining our physical centre and community whilst increasing our digital offering.

This included expanding our Saleforce CRM functionality and creating digital learning assets.

We created 70 video masterclasses with worldclass entrepreneurs, business, sports and military leaders, academics and practitioners from our extensive network.

Examples include ‘Blitzscaling and The Startup of You’ with Reid Hoffman CBE, Co-

founder of LinkedIn and Senior Advisor to the Oxford Foundry, ‘Profit and Purpose’ with Ajay Banga, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors, and former CEO of Mastercard, ‘Making AI Efficient’ with Professor Stephen Roberts, Professorial Fellow of Somerville College, Founding Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Autonomous, Intelligent Machines and Systems (AIMS) and Director of the Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance, ‘Responsibility, Diversity and Digitising the Public Sector’ with Baroness Martha Lane Fox, Twitter Director, House of Lords peer, and Chancellor of the Open University, engagement.

17,000 engagements with the Foundry since we launched

“As a student from the Oxford UNIQ widening access programme, I’m not exactly the ‘classic’ Oxford student. When the Foundry opened its doors in my second year of study, it quickly became my second home. Through the friends and networks I made at the Foundry and through its workshops and AI impact challenges, I learnt to code and I learnt systemsmapping approaches. Because of this, I’ve been able to secure a fully-funded place on a DPhil programme in Data Science at Oxford. Without the Foundry, I never would’ve had the opportunity to enter this field. I can honestly say that it’s changed my life and lifted my future prospects in ways that even I don’t yet fully comprehend. What a team, and what a place!”

12,000+ Hours of experiential learning delivered to date

350,000 Website views

11,000

Odhran O’Donoghue studied medicine at Wadham college, and has been a member of OXFO since it opened. Through the Foundry he met students from other disciplines and formed a team that went on to win OXFO's AI Impact weekend and a trip to Silicon Valley, and learnt how to code and gain other critical tech skills. He and the team went on to enter and win other competitions and challenges and Odhran's OXFO experience motivated him to study for a DPhil at Oxford in Data Science, become President of the Oxford AI society and found a venture SkillsTree. He became a Venture Capital Fellow with Included VC and is now a Venture Analyst at Notion Capital following an internship as a Machine Learning Researcher at NASA's Frontier Development lab.

People in our social media community "Creating a digital infrastructure is a vital foundation for an organisation’s information technology and operations to continue; you simply can’t get by without it. We’ve been re-building our datasets for all Oxford Foundry touchpoints such as student and venture interactions and learning outcomes to totally upgrade our data infrastructure and integrate with our CRM system. As an example, for venture companies, we’re building intelligence on data such as job growth, capital raised, and diversity, which enables us to dashboard results across sectors and cohorts as close to real time as possible.”

“Our social media presence has grown throughout the year and provides us with further, innovative ways to reach out to our audiences. With many places still working from home, it’s important we utilise the power of social media to grow our networks and enhance our digital footprint.”

Aaron Aquilina, Content Manager, Oxford Foundry

Dan James, Head of Operations, Oxford Foundry 21

Our OXFO community 8% & space To date, 9,334 students and founders have interacted with the Foundry since its launch in October 2017. The current Foundry membership of 3,314 (approx. 13% of the student body) compromises of 145 nationalities, 37% undergraduate, 32% postgraduate/ DPhil, 27% Masters education level, and 4% other, with a 46.3% Female, 51.3% Male split, across all four divisions and 39 colleges.

A physical space to meet, exchange ideas, and collaborate across disciplines and colleges has always been a central ask from students. Pre-pandemic the Foundry would average up to 300 student engagements with the physical space each week, rising to 500 student engagements a week when offline workshops and events would take place.

Pre-pandemic, the Oxford Foundry was open 8am - 10pm, seven days a week.

Students stated the following reasons as their main motivation for joining the Foundry:

32% Interested in upskilling in entrepreneurship

22%

11%

Curious about entrepreneurship and technology

27% Interested in starting a business

Interested in scaling an existing business

8% Interested in upskilling in technology

600 Students signed up for our OXFO Foundry Fresher's Festival On 9 October 2020 we held our annual OXFO Freshers' festival - this year online. The day included sessions on 'Tools & Techniques for a Happier life with entrepreneurship expert Professor William Scott-Jackson, Gretchen Rubin New York Times Bestselling Author of The Happiness Project, Professor Tali Sharot, Cognitive Neuroscientist, UCL and Oxford alumna and Founder Esther Agbolade, along with talks, competitions and networking.

Outreach and speaker series Speaker series and Trailblazer Chronicles In 2021 we continued to engage students through our inspirational speaker series. Over 160 students signed up for our Trailblazer Chronicles discussion with Professor Sir Richard Sorabji CBE on the power of collective spirit and collaboration, in partnership with the Skoll Centre

8

for Social Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurship Centre at Saïd Business School, following the Foundry's previous event with explorer and motivational speaker Mark Pollock. Previous speakers at OXFO have included Evan Sharp, Co-founder, Pinterest, and Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.

Departmental Outreach talks

Delivered to departments this year across the University to continue to engage new students with entrepreneurship and change perceptions about who entrepreneurship is for.

OXFO Student Advisory Board and Booster grants 33 student societies re-joined our OXFO Student Advisory Board and took part in a fundraising roundtable led by OXFO and the central University fundraising team led by the central University's Chief Development Officer, Liesl Elder.

Booster grants of up to £2000 were rolled over to societies who were unable to spend their grant in 2020 due to the pandemic, upskilling over 500 students across all 4 Divisions. The grants were used to run student-led activities and initiatives that exposed fellow students to entrepreneurship, technology and alternative career pathways.

£40,000 Of OXFO Booster Grants given for outreach activities to date

33

Corporate partnerships We continued our partnerships with EY, Oxford Science Enterprises and Santander Universities and launched a new global partnership with FMDQ Group.

Student societies rejoined the Oxford Foundry Student Advisory Board Booster grant activities included an initiative led by the Engineers without Borders society (EWBOX) to support four projects spanning six months, such as building a drone designed for emergency relief aid in collaboration with Drone Society, and a Biohackathon led by Oxford University Biotech society (OUBT) society where two winning teams of six students were awarded £1,000 in grant funding including CyanoCapture which harnesses GM cyanobacteria for industrialscale carbon capture.

23

DEMOCRATISING ENTREPRENEURSHIP Making entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial endeavour accessible to people from all backgrounds.

OXFO Diversity Fellowships Yusuf Ben-Tarifite is an undergraduate in Medicine at Green Templeton College. He conducted his placement at SmashMedicine “I wanted to further develop my entrepreneurial skills so that I can apply and teach my team at my venture 'The Aspiring Medics'. The organisation is focused on helping students to get into medicine through academic and interview tutoring as well as through the website platform containing high-quality free resources. The roundtables with my peers and with impactful leaders have enabled me to really gain perspective. Through this, I’ve learnt how to unashamedly pursue my passion and feel empowered in my entrepreneurial journey. I’m so grateful to have been part of the inaugural OXFO Entrepreneurial Fellowship Initiative. It has been such an inspirational and insightful programme from the Oxford Foundry. The OXFO team have done an amazing job at orchestrating the eight-week Fellowship from workshops to roundtables to mentoring to coaching.”

Becky Hu is an undergraduate at Lady Margaret Hall studying Engineering Science. Her placement was at Mitra bio “Next year, I’ll hold senior committee positions in two exciting societies, giving me access to over 3,500 student peers. Through my learnings from the Fellowship programme, I want to support my student peers in their career paths.

This could range from improving my leadership skills to creating better quality workshops that’ll help up-skill them. The Fellowship highlighted a different career path as well as supported the self-development of its Fellows. The world of venture capital can be inaccessible to those who don't have an established social network, so this helped to bridge the gap. I had a great time meeting the OXFO team and other Fellows through this programme to share our experiences and grow towards a brighter future. It's also been great to work with a venture to experience the exciting world of start-ups. I've learnt so much about not only entrepreneurship but also about my self-development.”

Abthal Monir, is an undergraduate at Oriel College, studying History, with a placement at DroneStream “I wanted to use the skills and knowledge acquired through the Fellowship to help my peers by assisting them in realising their solutions and innovative ideas to problems. I’m extremely grateful to have been a part of the Oxford Foundry Fellowship. It’s been an incredible eight weeks in which I learnt so much from Harry Howe and Sergio Montes de Oca at DroneStream. The ability to take on responsibility and produce impactful work was incredibly fulfilling (although slightly nerve-racking at first!). The leadership workshops and mentorship sessions from leading entrepreneurs/investors organised by the Foundry were invaluable in instilling the confidence and skills needed for my future endeavours.”

2523 xxviii 25

OXFO Entrepreneurial Fellowship Initiative T

he Fellowships were announced in The Times and we had close to 100 applications across all four divisions from 32 colleges. Following 40+ interviews, 29 Fellowships were awarded to University of Oxford students from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, up from 20 following exceptional demand and subsequent increased funding from Santander Universities.

T

he Fellowships involve a funded, eight-week full-time training placement with a high-growth venture from the OXFO Elevate Accelerator portfolio working on key issues such as med-tech, cybersecurity, climate tech, and fin-tech; a coach to set bespoke and tailored professional and personal development goals, and a leadership curriculum of workshops and roundtables. Over 28 hours were delivered in the first three weeks alone; and a network of more than 60 ambassadors and mentors from our external network provided 1:1 strategic counsel, and advice

and guidance through roundtable discussions, including Ric Lewis, Executive Chairman & CIO, Tristan Capital Partners, Angela Ahrendts DBE - former SVP, Apple Retail, and CEO, Burberry, Baroness Shriti Vadera - Chair, Prudential plc, and Andrew Pearce, Managing Director at Accenture.

100

29

Applications

Fellowships awarded

50% 50% Of students who applied already had an entrepreneurial idea or were keen to build a startup in the future

|

Of Fellows are undergraduate and 50% postgraduate

2237+ 270+ Hours of 1-to-1 personal development

100% Of Fellows said they gained clarity on their future career plans, and said the Fellowship improved their self-confidence

30 Roundtables with Fellowship Ambassadors and interactive skills workshops

Hours of mentoring

87% Of Fellows said that one day they aspire to start their own business and are now equipped with tools to pursue and be successful in their desired career pathway

116+ Hours of learning

80% Said they were inspired to pursue a career in Venture Capital

6 Fellows have been offered a job or further opportunity to work with their startup

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Thank you to our Fellowship Ambassadors & Mentors Jeff Wong - Global CIO, EY, and Oxford Foundry Advisory Board member Biz Stone - Co-founder, Twitter, and Chair, Oxford Foundry Advisory Board Professor Peter Tufano - former Peter Moores Dean and Professor of Finance, Saïd Business School, and Oxford Foundry Advisory Board member and Vice-Chair of Oxford Foundry Academic Steering Committee Mohamed Amersi - Chairman, The Amersi Foundation, and Oxford Foundry Advisory Board member Toby Coppel - Co-founder and Partner, Mosaic Ventures, and Oxford Foundry Advisory Board member Alexsis de Raadt St. James - Founder & Managing Partner, Merian Ventures, and Oxford Foundry Advisory Board member Pete Flint - Founder, former chairman & CEO, Trulia, and General Partner of NFX Phil Libin – Co-founder & CEO, All Turtles, and mmhmm, and Oxford Foundry Advisory Board member Ana Bakshi - Executive Director, Oxford Foundry Professor Martin Williams - Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, University of Oxford, and member of the Oxford Foundry Academic Steering Committee

Professor Chas Bountra - Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation, University of Oxford, and Chair of Oxford Foundry Academic Steering Committee Miles Young - former British businessman and the incumbent Warden of New College, Oxford, and member of the Oxford Foundry Academic Steering Committee Baroness Jan Royall - Principal of Somerville College, Oxford Sara Beck - Chief Operating Officer, Saïd Business School Arunma Oteh OON - Academic Scholar, University of Oxford, and former Vice President & Treasurer, World Bank Ric Lewis - Executive Chairman & CIO, Tristan Capital Partners Angela Ahrendts DBE - former SVP, Apple Retail, and CEO, Burberry Shriti Vadera - Chair, Prudential plc and Chair-designate of the Royal Shakespeare Company Dr Acha Leke - Chairman, McKinsey’s Africa region Helen Riley - Chief Financial & Operations Officer, X, the moonshot factory Marcus East - Chief Digital Officer, T-Mobile USA Florence "Cuppy" Ifeoluwa Otedola - Nigerian disc jockey and record producer Andrew Pearce, Managing Director, Accenture

Entrepreneurial Fellowship Initiative Mentors Kal Patel - Global Business Executive Farzana Baduel - CEO, Curzon PR Srin Madipalli - Co-founder, Accomable Ben Legg - Co-founder & CEO, The Portfolio Collective Dawn L. Quinn - Director of Strategic Operations for the US-East Region, EY Rodrigo Madanes - Product Leader, EY Rhonda Hadi - Associate Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion Pinar Ozcan - Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Saïd Business School Vishal Punwani - CEO & co-founder, Sophya Dr Tinashe Chandauka - Associate, Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI) Dr Watu Wamae - Research Engagement Manager, Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx) Azeem Azhar - Founder, Exponential View Dr Zainab Kabba - Educator, Researcher, and Institutional Developer Jenny Tooth OBE – CEO, UK Business Angels Association Saqib Awan - Co-founder, Centric Mind Ventures Mehak Mumtaz - Co-founder & COO, iLoF Dr Edward Brooks - Executive Director, Oxford Character Project, University of Oxford Andreas Halner - Co-founder, Oxford Cancer Analytics Esther Agbolade - Executive, Campbell Lutyens Dr Elisha Ngetich - President of Oxford University Africa Society Mikesh Udani - Co-founder & CEO, Albus Health Ismail Jeilani - Co-founder & CEO, Scoodle Nikita Khandwala - Strategy Analyst, LinkedIn Dr Alexander Finlayson - Co-founder & CEO, Nye Health Dr Nick de Pennington - Founder & CEO, Ufonia Dr Kyle Grant - Co-founder & CEO, Oxwash Alice Curry - Founder & CEO, Lantana Publishing Nikul Vadgama - CEO & Head of Product, Sibyl James Thorogood - CEO, Boresha Technologies Odhran O’Donogue – President, Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society (OxAI) Peter Jianrui Liu - Co-founder & CEO, Oxford Cancer Analytics Natalia Anjaparidze - Vice President, Communications, Air Liquide Christian Holland - Co-founder & CEO, Appli Dr Imran Mahmud - Co-founder & Board Member, Nye Health Jaime Noain - Entrepreneur and Investor Mary McKenna - Technology Entrepreneur and Angel Investor, cofounder, Learning Pool Edward Lee - CEO, HelloAdvisr

Sam Edge - Leading Fintech Business Development & Strategy, Amazon Web Services across EMEA Frederick Blackford - Co-founder and General Partner, Future Positive Josh Leigh - Strategic Projects Analyst, Founders Forum Dr Peter Drobac - Director, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Saïd Business School Richard Böckel - Co-founder and Managing Director UK, myo Dan Channer - Advisor and Consultant Lorenzo Alberton - CTO, Software Engineering Manager, and Technical Architect Kevin Roberts - Founder – Red Rose Consulting Isabella Boscawen - Chief of Staff to Brent Hoberman, Founders Factory, Founders Forum, and firstminute capital.

Kathy Harvey - Associate Dean for the MBA and Executive Degree programmes, Saïd Business School Alexander Dial - Founders Keepers June Angelides MBE - Investor, Entrepreneur and Speaker Raif Jacobs - Tech Investor James Wong - Investment Principal, Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI) Kate O'Brien - Principal, Head of Legal & Company Secretary Rodney Appiah - Former investment banker, NED, and VC investor

29

Providing alternative career pathways for student talent “I have tears in my eyes. Everyone I’ve met or even just seen through this programme is incredibly bright and inspiring. I cannot even begin to imagine what we will do with our futures and how it will impact the world! The only way is up.

“I’ve never met such an inspiring group of people. Let’s keep believing in each other and ourselves. The future is amazing because WE are in it.”

Sekela Ngamilo “Thank you so much [the Oxford Foundry] for this opportunity! It genuinely changed my life!”

Emerald Ace-Acquah

“It's been nothing short of an absolute pleasure to get to know these peers and take part in the programme. Thanks to the Oxford Foundry and Santander Universities for the opportunity.”

Keivan Samani “A big thank you to Ana Bakshi and the rest of the incredible OXFO team for putting together the Fellowship, in which I have learnt so much and has enabled me to access many more opportunities.”

Abthal Monir

“I've had a great time meeting the Oxford Foundry team and other Fellows through this programme to share our experiences and grow towards a brighter future.

It's also been great to work with a venture to experience the exciting world of start-ups. I've learnt so much about not only entrepreneurship but also about my selfdevelopment.”

Becky Hu “So grateful to have been part of the Class 2021 OXFO Entrepreneurial Fellowship. What can happen with 29 fellows from diverse cultural backgrounds in eight weeks, with 70+ ambassadors/mentors, 24 ventures, countless cups of coffee and insightful discussions on innovation?

My answer is magic.”

Yingxian ‘Claire’ Tang (part of a larger thank you note) “This Fellowship and the people in it were the first time I properly felt like I fitted in at Oxford, thank you for the opportunity and the atmosphere you all created.”

Divya Popat

Connecting startups with student talent

The effect the Fellowships roundtable is having may be positively disproportionate to anything else we do. It was the most gratifying thing I’ve done this year.

Although only with us for a short time, Rosaria has made a huge impact and recently completed a twomonth entrepreneurial fellowship with OXcan in partnership with the Oxford Foundry.

At OXcan we want each team member to continue learning and developing themselves.

Alexsis de Raadt St.James, Managing Partner, Merian ventures | Oxford Foundry Advisory Board member

Following the completion of her fellowship, we are delighted that Rosaria will be returning to OXcan to resume her work as a Business Analyst.

We had a great experience with outstanding fellows who had a great fast paced experience that resulted in impactful benefits for the user and learnings for the Fellows.

Huge thank you to Oxford Foundry and University of Oxford for this incredible programme and to Tehillah Campbell and Daniel Goh for their impactful contributions to KindWorks.AI this summer!

OXcan

KindWorks.AI

Thank you for allowing me to work with these amazing fellows. It's been a blast so far! Great to share knowledge with these smart cookies!

Madeline McQueen It was a pleasure to sow a few ideas into such fertile minds, then to see in which way they grow…

Fantastic to have Yusuf on board who was a tremendous asset for the team - he's got a bright future! Thank you Oxford Foundry and SantanderUniUK. SmashMedicine I love being involved in @oxfoundry as a Resident Expert & it’s been a great honour this summer to mentor & get to know a few of our first Entrepreneurial Fellows - good luck all of you as the new term starts & thanks @b_anandana Mary McKenna Great programme!!

Thanks Oxford Foundry, we had a fantastic experience with Abthal Monir.

The work he did at DroneStream was of immense value.

DroneStream

Ben Legg 31

VENTURE CREATION Building and scaling highpotential, high impact startups, founded by purposeled CEOs leading diverse highly-skilled teams.

Cohort 4 of the OXFO Elevate accelerator T

en high-growth ventures joined us in April 2021 for Cohort 4 of the OXFO Elevate accelerator.

300 applications were received across all four divisions.

The ventures were rapidly scaled through a six-month bespoke programme with a business and leadership curriculum led by more than 50 leading external experts including Mike Smith, Former product and technical lead at Barclays, Raif Jacobs, former CFO of Deliveroo, Kevin Roberts, former exec-Chairman and CEO at Saatchi & Saatchi.

Phase 1: The foundations: Venture building, customer, product and validating assumptions.

Many ventures will come in with a focused problem to solve based on personal experience or a set of assumptions around a problem. The focus of this phase is to work closely with the ventures to remove all guess work and assumptions, and to validate their business model through extensive customer discovery and gain key insights/feedback that will help ventures course-correct earlier in the programme if needed.

Phase 2: Fundamentals.

In this phase, we focus on educating the ventures around market or customer segmentation, branding and communications, the basics of marketing and sales, technical infrastructure, pricing and go-tomarket-strategy.

300+ 10 Applications

6

Pre-seed to Seed stage startups

Months of support

£150k 50+ 130+ Of startup credits available

Workshops

Hours of workshops, oneto-one mentoring, office hours and coaching per venture

Following phase 1, we encourage all ventures to further segment their customer or market segments. Using frameworks from Bill Aulet and Ash Maurya, we have the ventures take a data-driven approach to validate who will/ should be their first set of customers/clients.

In addition, we run 101 workshops across all fundamental areas needed to begin operating an early-stage startup.

Phase 3: Client/user acquisition, running experiments & mentor matching.

In phase 3, we introduce ventures to their team of mentors, introduce them to potential clients/customers and support them to run key experiments to validate channels.

The ventures are in a better position to understand who should be their first set of customers. We support the ventures to build out their sales and marketing strategies, run experiments across channels and make relevant introductions for them to begin pitching. Mentors also play an important role in challenging venture business models, providing key insights and expertise, as well as make additional introductions to potential customers. Where ventures may still not be in a position to sell, we have ventures drive solution interviews to validate market or customer segments.

Phase 4: Getting investment ready & Demo Day. In phase 4, we work closely with the ventures around their investment strategy, data rooms, getting ‘pitch ready’ for Demo Day and building momentum in their investment rounds.

350+ 20 19

External industry experts

Resident Experts

Jobs created 33

Cohort 4 ventures

“We want to say a big thank you for what OXFO has built; from the amazing mentors and investors that they’ve gathered to creating a closeknit family-like community around the entrepreneurs and staff.

“Above all, everyone at OXFO is pouring their hearts and soul at us to make sure we have the best chance of success. It's not easy to create such a community and I salute them for it. Having been through a few accelerators, I can bravely say OXFO is at the top of our list.”

Shakiba Kaveh & Cristiana Banila, Co-founders & CEO/CSO, Mitra bio

All cohort 4 ventures had a funded diversity OXFO Entrepreneurial Fellow for an eight-week summer placement, in which six have been offered permanent jobs. They also had access to Oxford student consulting groups, that included undergraduates, postgraduates and DPhils.

Awards won by cohort 4 ventures since joining the programme include: • ngenius.ai were awarded an Innovate UK grant of just under £500k.

• Neumind were selected as finalists in the ‘Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge 2021’, and awarded the ‘Young Innovator’ award.

• Lorraine Wright, Co-founder and advisor of VOCSTA, received her MBE • Virgin featured ammonite in their ‘10 Groundbreaking Businesses’.

• Ammonite won PIMFA’s first diversity and inclusion awards.

• PIPRA was selected by Startup days for their ‘Pitching Battle’ (SUD21).

• Shakiba from Mitra Bio was named in the top 100 Asian Stars in Tech 2021 by Diversity UK.

35

Cohort 4 Demo Day A hundred international investors, along with Oxford Foundry advisors, Resident Experts and mentors joined us on 9th November 2021 at the University of Oxford Museum of Natural History, for our 2021 Demo Day. The evening was a huge success and the connections and introductions made on the day have resulted in direct investment in the ten ventures who pitched, offers to join advisory boards and offers to add value to ventures in different ways.

Cohort 4 venture Ammonite at Demo Day with Advisor Gary Dolman, Co-founder, Monzo and Venture Partner, Antler

Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter and Chair of the OXFO Advisory Board with team OXFO and cohort 4 ventures

“I really enjoyed the night; that was a wonderful experience. Thank you very much for organising everything.”

Investor

“Thanks Alex, Rose and all the team for the great event, it exceeded all my expectations!”

Investor

“What an amazing, and inspiring evening. I have two follow up investment conversations which I will pursue. Such a pleasure to be part of this wonderful ecosystem.

Thanks again for organising such a wonderful evening.”

Investor

“Demo day was a huge success and feedback is always that nothing can beat in-person live events and networking. The venue was incredible, and the ventures did an exceptional job at pitching their ideas in front of an incredible pool of investors (not to mention a life-size T-Rex!) and everyone should be very proud of what they’ve achieved over the year.”

Rose Talbot, Events and Community Manager, Oxford Foundry 37

OXFO Elevate Women In 2021, the Oxford Foundry introduced a Diversity and Inclusion curriculum as part of the core training for ventures on Cohort 4 of the OXFO Elevate accelerator.

The use of IDEA Women funding was proposed to support one key element of the bespoke Diversity and Inclusion curriculum – the Women’s Support Network.

Due to the online nature of the programming and high engagement from Cohort 4 women, OXFO Elevate Women's offering was expanded to the women involved in prior OXFO Elevate cohorts. This resulted in the women from Elevate cohorts 1-4 engaging with the programme.

The programme included a bespoke four-part workshop series with executive leadership practitioner and coach, Madeline McQueen. The design for the leadership curriculum was based on the core challenges faced by women in entrepreneurship, as well as asking the participants about their personal experiences and challenges.

"Being a founder can be challenging, and there are unique challenges for being a female founder. OXFO Elevate Women has enabled me to meet these head on. The sessions and coaching we’ve had have heightened my awareness of potential biases and empowered me with tools to overcome these, as well as generally building up my confidence” “The OXFO Elevate Women sessions were particularly helpful for me as I rarely step back to think about my own brand (even though I constantly tell others to do so) and it was really helpful to be pushed to think about my own story in ways I don’t usually take the time to do. It was also helpful to do the 1-to-1 break-out rooms with the other women in the program to connect over shared challenges and share stories of how we are each approaching our situations and how we might help each other” OXFO Elevate Women participation

18

15

Women engaged in the programme

Startups were represented

Learning hours delivered

2

35+ Hours of 1-to-1 coaching

252

Leadership roundtables

Following the programme:

80%

80%

Of women reported an increase in confidence of their leadership skills

Of women reported an increase in their self confidence

100% Of women felt more equipped with the tools to address the challenges commonly faced

39

OXFO Venture Portfolio Our OXFO Venture Portfolio showcases the growth and traction of all 42 ventures in our portfolio. To date they have raised £52.4m and created 270+ jobs since joining the programme, and are valued at over £175m.

Key recent traction includes:

• Nye Health has raised £4m as a pre-series A with investment from InHealth and industry-leading angel investors. (£5.4m since joining the accelerator) • Scoodle has raised £2m preseries A, including investment from Google for Startups. (£2.8m since joining the accelerator)

• Infogrid has raised $15.5M series A and are on track to raise their series B over the next 6-12 months following incredible commercial metrics.

• OXcan has raised £1.3m seed with investors including former CEO, GSK Europe, CDO, T-Mobile US.

• Oxwash has raised £2m preseries A with investment from Holly Branson, Sam Branson, Future Positive Capital and others, (£4.2m since joining the accelerator)

• TradeLink has raised £3m seed with investors including FlyVC and Point Nine.

• iLoF has raised £3m seed. (£4.1m since joining the accelerator)

• myo has raised £5.8m since oining the accelerator

£52.4m £176m Valuation

Investment raised by cohorts 1-3

£38m Raised by cohorts 1-2

270+ Jobs created

100% Of OXFO founders would recommend OXFO Elevate to another startup

“I was completely blown away by the quality of the programme and the effort put in by the team to help. It was definitely the right option for us at that point in time. Our growth has been so connected to OXFO that it’s hard to compare exactly how and where we would be now without them. The world-class experts and mentors were all excellent in what they did, provided candid advice, and added real value to the business.”

Mehak Mumtaz, Co-founder & COO, iLoF

“OXFO connects you with some absolutely incredible mentors, advisors, investors, and most importantly fellow founders.

These became close friends who I still speak with regularly. I would highly, highly recommend ventures join the programme.

It will undoubtedly have a huge impact on their business both for the duration and beyond.”

William Cowell de Gruchy, Founder & CEO, Infogrid

“The cohort and its mentors are so impressive that it makes you feel very humble and at the same time pushes you to perform at the same level. The Foundry team is a blessing for the program as they genuinely care about the individual success of the cohort participants. At least from my perspective the Foundry seems to focus even more on the founder and only sees the business as the result of it and I valued this very highly, especially given my numerous “pivots”.

Frederic Krahforst, CEO, Tradelink

“Our vision is to support the very best Oxford talent, working at the forefront of science, technology and innovation to solve big problems and build ventures that will positively shape our world, today and in the future. We focus not only on supporting societally and economically impactful ventures, but on working closely with founders to provide them with the vision and leadership training to become confident, purposeful CEOs, building and leading diverse, high-performing teams. Over the last four cohorts, we’ve used global best practice and feedback from ventures to consistently evolve and iterate the programme to deliver critical, personalised value to ventures at the points in their journeys they need it most. We leverage the unique resources, networks and capabilities of the University of Oxford alongside an exceptional curated external ecosystem of support that continues to grow and diversify.”

Alex Feyler Head of Ventures, Oxford Foundry

https://issuu.com/oxfordfoundry/docs/oxfo_ venture_portfolio

41

With thanks to our OXFO Elevate Resident Experts and Partners, including: Claire Davenport, CEO, notonthehighstreet.com Raif Jacobs, Former CFO, Deliveroo, Tech Investor

Startup partners include:

Kal Patel, Former CEO, Best Buy Asia, Investor and Advisor Robin Saunders, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Clearbrook Capital Partners Saalim Chowdhury, Former Partner, 500 Startups, CTO, Skillbridge (acq Toptal) Ben Legg, Co-founder & CEO, The Portfolio Collective, former COO, Google Europe Mary McKenna MBE, Co-founder, Learning Pool, Tech entrepreneur, Angel Investor Matthew Woolsey, Global President, 66°North, former MD, NET-A-PORTER Kevin Roberts, Former Chairman and CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi Mike Smith, Former CPO & CTO, Barclays Ventures, and Former co-CTO, Disney Marcus East, CDO, T-Mobile US & former Technical Director, Office of the CTO,

AWS Google Cloud HubSpot MathWorks Mixpanel Notion OVHcloud SeedLegals Twilio

Google Lorenzo Alberton, VP of Engineering, SenSat, and former CTO, DataSift (acq

Legal Partners:

Meltwater) Yu-Ting Kuo, Corporate Vice President of Research and Technology, Microsoft Srin Madipalli, former Co-founder and CEO, Accomable (acq Airbnb), Investor Dominic Jacquesson, VP Insight & Talent, Index Ventures Farzana Baduel, Founder and CEO, Curzon PR Rudi Sellers, Associate Partner, IBM iX Ed Lee, Founder & CEO, HelloAdvisr Stephen Scruton, Former MD, Head of Equity Research, (CEEMA), tech Investor Peter Garratt, Former Senior Partner, Mathys & Squire Niresh Rajah, Managing Director, Head of Data and Regulatory Change, Grant Thornton Major General Rupert Timothy Herbert Jones CBE, Senior British Army officer, and former Standing Joint Force Commander

Taylor Vinters Taylor Wessing Ignition Law

Thank you to our Advisory Board donors & partners, our work would not be possible without you: Reid Hoffman CBE, Co-founder, LinkedIn, Senior Advisor and Founding Donor, Oxford Foundry Biz Stone, Co-founder, Twitter, Medium, Jelly, and Chair of the Oxford Foundry Advisory Board Peter Tufano, former Peter Moores Dean and Professor of Finance at Saïd Business School Mohamed Amersi, Chair, The Amersi Foundation Jeff Wong, Global Chief Innovation Officer, EY Mark Evans, Partner, Kindred Capital Toby Coppel, Co-founder and Partner, Mosaic Ventures

University of Oxford Saïd Business School The Amersi Foundation EY Santander Universities Ripple OSI Meltwater DeTao Education Group FMDQ Group

Alexsis de Raadt St. James, Managing Partner, Merian Ventures Phil Libin, Co-founder, Evernote, CEO, All Turtles Pete Flint, Founder, Trulia, Managing Partner, NFX Brent Hoberman CBE, Executive Chairman, Founders Factory, Co-founder, Firstminute Capital

With thanks to The Amersi Foundation for The Amersi Foundation Accelerator space in Oxford.

Jørn Lyseggen, Founder and CEO, Meltwater

43

Oxford Foundry, University of Oxford 3-5 Hythe Bridge Street Oxford OX1 2EW

info@oxfordfoundry.ox.ac.uk

Twitter @oxfoundry

www.oxfordfoundry.ox.ac.uk

LinkedIn @oxford-foundry

Best post-graduate idea Fiquetex

Linacre College (Hilary term) Developed and patented a 100% biodegradable and sustainable range of textiles for various sectors of industry.

“If you’re thinking about applying next term then go for it - you learn so much and meet some very interesting people, so it’s 100% worth it!”

Peelsphere

St Anthony’s College (Trinity term) A bio-innovated material made - through advanced material engineering - using fruit waste and nd algae and is an ideal alternative to o leather and synthetic leather.

“The course is very engaging and d concise and during the Bootcamp, p, we learnt so much from the sessions. onss.

It was also a great pleasure to listen, ten learn, and get inspired by the other teams’ brilliant ideas.”

Bedqueue

LevelUp

Predicts a patient’s length of stay in the hospital with accuracy and precision.

An edtech company developing the first K-12 Educational Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) in the UK and Asia.

Linacre College (Trinity term)

“We found pitching online convenient and it was well-organised. It was also good to see other teams and share stories. It was an enjoyable experience.”

Best undergraduate idea

Merton College (Trinity term)

“Recalling the different stages of the competition, all the way from the Bootcamp to the finals, we were struck by the quality of the ideas, particularly the innovative and cutting-edge ways in which everyone’s ideas sought to target a pressing issue in the world.”

Unbox

Hertford College (Hilary term) A unique discovery hub, providing peer-to-peer peer pe e -t er -to to-pe o-pe peer er a advice, dvvic ice, e w work orkk ex or expe experience, peri pe rien ri ence en ce, ce upskilling opportunities, and upsk skkiilllliing ng o p ortu pp unities,, for fo or people with little young pe p eop ople le w iitth litt tle to no o experience. experien en nce ce. experience “The whole experie encce was everyone super vvery ve ery ry iinspiring, nspi ns piriin ng g, every yone is su upe per supportive, and you learn ssu up pp por ortivve e, a e, an nd yyo ou le earn a lo llot. ott.. IIt’s ts t’ together also fun coming g tog gether with friends to work on a solution to a problem you all identified.”

£45k

in pr prizes riz over the academic year

33

colleges colle ege participated

OXFOUNDRY

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