Oxford is home to the oldest university in the United Kingdom, the University of Oxford. It is one of the biggest hubs of science and technology for the surrounding cities as well. Its outstanding academic reputation and support for innovation for such businesses have made the city a digital hotspot.
The entrepreneurial spirit and extensive support network in Oxford make it a home for small businesses and aspiring startups. Eventually, despite being a city of architectural significance, Oxford is also a hotbed of tech startups. Particularly, the medical research, biotech and heathtech startups in the city are carrying out some of the most groundbreaking discoveries to serve patients and provide them with appropriate treatment options. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the promising tech startups in Oxford as sourced from Dealroom.
Osler Diagnostics
Founders: Connor Campbell, Jason Davis, Paulo R. Bueno
Funding: €38.4 million
Founded year: 2016
Why its hot: Osler Diagnostics is a healthtech startup that develops innovative biosensor technology as well as products. The core product in its portfolio is a universal healthcare diagnostic tool, which is a portable and handheld device that can take a drop of blood and test for a slew of biomarkers accurately and quickly in an affordable way. This diagnostic device from Osler can decentralise diagnostics and let anyone from anywhere at any time assess their health.
Ultromics
Founders: Paul Leeson, Ross Upton
Funding: €14.4 million
Founded year: 2017
Why its hot: Ultromics has garnered the attention of a team of scientists, clinicians, engineers, and healthcare professionals to develop and deliver their technology to the market. As of now, several notable companies and individuals have become trusted partners of Ultromics. This UK-based healthtech startup aims to set new standards for world-class cardiovascular diagnostic tools powered by Artificial Intelligence.
Oxbotica
Founders: Ingmar Posner, Paul Newman
Funding: €27.1 million
Founded year: 2014
Why its hot: Founded by Oxford professors, Oxbotica has progressed from being just another startup to one of the world’s leading autonomous driving software companies. Oxbotica builds software for real-world applications based on the priniciples of maths, physics, robotics, and Artificial Intelligence. This startup intends to build an ecosystem supporting the adoption of such autonomous vehicles.
Orbit Discovery
Founders: Graham Ogg, Terry Rabbitts
Funding: €8.3 million
Founded year: 2015
Why its hot: Biotech startup Orbit Discovery is a spin-off from the Oxford University. It identifies novel peptides as potential drug candidates. Its technology can display vast libraries of natural and non-natural linear and constrained peptides to drug targets such as protein-protein interactions, soluble proteins, cell surface receptors, etc.
Evox Therapeutics
Founders: Per Lundin
Funding: €58.2 million
Founded year: 2016
Why its hot: Evox Therapeutics is an Oxford-based biotech company focused on improving the natural delivery capabilities of exosomes. The company operates with the mission to leave a positive impact on the human health by creating novel exosome-based therapeutics for treating severe and rare diseases that have very limited treatment options. Evox has developed DeliverEX, an unparalleled proprietary technology platform that helps it modify exosomes, load drugs into the same, and target the delivery of exosomes to organs for treatment.
Oxehealth
Founder: Lionel Tarassenko
Funding: €2.4 million
Founded year: 2012
Why its hot: Oxehealth operates with the objective to help clinicians, custodians, and carers to save lives and enhance healthcare for everyone. This Oxford-based startup has secured the world’s first medical device certification for software enabling of optical sensor remotely in order to measure breathing rate and pulse rate. Its digital care assistant gives clinical staff with ample time to provide hands-on care whenever it is necessary.
Oxford PV
Founders: Henry Snaith, Kevin Arthur
Funding: €110 million
Founded year: 2010
Why its hot: Britain-based perovskite solar technology leader Oxford PV produces thin-film perovskite solar cells. Oxford PV’s technology has the potential to enable efficiency gains transforming the economics of silicon solar technology. It also helps accelerate the growth of solar energy generation. The solar panels produced with the help of Oxford PV’s perovskite solar cell technology will generate more power, deliver affordable clean energy, address climate changes and accelerate the solar adoption rate.
Exscientia
Founder: Andrew Hopkins
Funding: €38 million
Founded year: 2012
Why its hot: Exscientia unlocks the power of AI and human creativity to discover new drugs. It is one of the leaders in the pharmatech industry and the pioneer to automate drug discovery. The company aims to make more sophisticated and safer drugs available to all efficiently and quickly than ever before. With its revolutionary AI technology and superior data science expertise, the company transforms drug discovery to reduce the time it takes to provide treatments to patients.
MoA Technology
Founders: Clement Champion, Liam Dolan
Funding: €7 million
Founded year: 2017
Why its hot: MoA Technology has designed a crop protection discovery platform to create sustainable, economical, and excellent weed control for a wide range of crops, utilise the naturally occurring and synthentic sources and tackle resistance effectively. MoA Technology aims to leave a minimal impact on both humans and the environment. It has developed three proprietary platforms including MoA Galaxy, MoA Select, and MoA Target.
Accelerated Dynamics
Founders: Mantas Gribulis, Umar Javed Wani
Founded year: 2015
Why its hot: Oxford-based Accelerated Dynamics has developed an operating platform to simplify the management of multiple drones. Its software solution lets farmers use UAV vehicle fleets sans any training. Accelerated Dynamics’ platform integrates IoT devices such as moisture sensors and irrigation devices to monitor crops at all times and ensure farmers increase the quality and quantity of their produce. Animal Dynamics acquired this company in March 2019.
Stock photo from Pajor Pawel/Shutterstock
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