3 years of OXFO

Venture creation and growth

We've supported 32 ventures across three accelerator cohorts, generating 146 jobs and raising £40 million. The ventures have been valued at over £100m. 75% have gone on to raise investment in Europe and the US since joining the accelerator, and 80% of ventures are revenue generating. Ventures have been featured in the media over 100 times including Fortune, TechCrunch and The Telegraph and won awards including Forbes 30 under 30. The accelerator has a Net Promotor score of 9.1, on a par with commercial accelerators, with an 100% increase in applications each year. 100% of our OXFO venture portfolio have social missions at their core while being commercial, for-profit entities. We launched the L.E.V8 Women programme supporting 16 ventures - 21 women - through two cohorts. The programme is designed to support women to build and scale their ventures, addressing the unique challenges they face as women in entrepreneurship through workshops, 1-1 mentoring and access to networks. Ventures have gone on to raise a total of £6million in funding and created 7 jobs. Following the programme, 100% of participants said the programme increased their confidence to take risks, 88% said the programme increased their resilience in facing setbacks with their venture, and 100% of participants said the programme increased their confidence in their ability to move their idea forward.

Democratising entrepreneurship

We ran a successful pilot programme with The Prince’s Trust, giving access to the Foundry's learning programmes and the AllInnovate ideas competition to talent from challenged socio-economic backgrounds. We've worked with the University to launch the University’s first scholarship for Black students from disadvantaged backgrounds with US tech entrepreneur and Foundry Honorary Advisor Arlan Hamilton. We are working hard towards embedding diversity and inclusion across all our programmes and at all levels.

40 created 146 jobs

Creating entrepreneurial mindsets, closing the tech skills gap, and supporting student careers

We've formed industry partnerships including with EY, OSI, Ripple and Santander Universities. We've launched impactful educational, solution-focused programmes and initiatives including AI Impact Weekend and All-Innovate. These address world problems such as Climate Change, and fake news, through entrepreneurship and Institution-wide, multidisciplinary collaboration, bringing together students and academics, across all 39 colleges and 4 divisions. 300 students have taken part in AI Impact Weekends. Over 250 students have entered an idea to All-Innovate and £50,000 of prize money and follow-on support has been given to build winning ventures. We've delivered 10,500 hours of experiential learning. We've had 2,000 engagements across all Divisions with our Foundry's tech speaker series and workshops on coding in Python, blockchain and Machine learning. More women than men participated in the Python workshops, vitally supporting women in tech. 2,590 engagements with our entrepreneurial skills workshops and activities. We've introduced thousands of students to entrepreneurship through our OXFO booster grants and outreach activities. We've embedded entrepreneurship into the Physics curriculum through a successful seven week 'Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Graduate Physicists' course for undergraduates and postgraduates, and we are expanding this to other departments. We've facilitated student internships with ventures, for example Physics student Alex Cheema worked at OXFO venture Veratrak, Lantana hired Oxford interns, and Ufonia has taken on four interns following our OXFO Covid-19 Action plan.

Membership and community

There have been 15,600 engagements with the Foundry since we launched, including reengaging over 3,000 alumni, 560 staff, and 500 investors and external experts. This includes 13% of the Oxford student body from all 4 divisions and 38 colleges. The current Foundry membership of 3,300+ is made up of 145 nationalities, 37% Undergraduate, 32% Postgraduate/DPhil, 27% Masters education level, 4% unspecified with a 46.3% Female, 51.3% Male split. We've built a large and engaged online community with 10,000 followers on our social media and 300,000 website views.

Strategy and reputation

We've developed the Foundry's unique and successful five stage experiential learning and delivery methodology (formed from Oxford Foundry Director Ana Bakshi's research, and work building university startup hubs). We've built an Advisory Board, Academic Steering Committee and unique University-wide Student Advisory Board with 38+ student societies. We've led the Foundry to be featured in the press over 60 times including in the Financial Times, BBC, Sunday Times, USA Today, Forbes, Business Insider and The Guardian, including supporting the University of Oxford to lead the Guardian's graduate outcome rankings after 10 years. We've attracted high profile entrepreneurs, world leaders and advisors. We've developed and led the fundraising and donor strategy for the Foundry and Director Ana Bakshi published the White Paper 'Universities: Drivers of Prosperity and Economic Recovery, October 2020'. Our Impact reports and venture cohort Lookbooks are available online at Issuu.com