Oxford has historically trailed its Golden Triangle counterparts London and Cambridge in the UK when it comes to the amount of VC funding raised. But that’s not to say activity there isn’t catching the eye of investors.
This year, €455m has been raised across 28 deals in the city, according to Sifted data. (In London it’s €13.5bn across 712 deals; in Cambridge it’s €1.46bn across 57.)
Some of the companies that have brought in VC funding in Oxford this year include post-quantum cryptography startup PQShield, which raised a $37m Series B, immune therapy biotech Grey Wolf Therapeutics, which raised $50m in Series B funding (taking its total Series B to nearly $100m) and deployable space antenna manufacturer Oxford Space Systems, which raised £3m.
To find out which startups could be next, Sifted asked investors from Octopus Ventures, Parkwalk Advisors and Kindred Capital for the non-portfolio companies they’ve got their eyes on.
Owen Metters, investor at Octopus Ventures
Salience Labs
Existing data centre architectures have long-standing bottlenecks around how to move data between discrete racks of compute units. The only feasible way to do this is optics, which requires highly efficient, fast, high-bandwidth optical switches. This is what Salience Labs — spun out of research groups in Oxford and Münster — is developing with its photonic chips (which use photons, or particles of light, to process and transmit information).
Fluorok
Fluorok has developed a chemical toolbox that circumvents the need for hydrofluoric acid — a key precursor to important compounds like drugs and battery electrolytes — to synthesise a range of molecules. This has the potential to transform the chemicals industry and remove the need to use hydrofluoric acid — one of the most dangerous chemicals in the world.
The company originated from the lab of fluorination chemist Véronique Gouverneur and was developed by Fluorok’s CEO Gabriele Pupo, a post-doc researcher with Véronique.
Alun Williams, investment director, Parkwalk Advisors
Oxccu
Oxccu combines CO2 from a variety of sustainable sources with hydrogen and renewable electricity to make environmentally friendly fuels, chemicals and plastics. Its initial use case is to apply its novel processes to reduce the cost of sustainable aviation fuel.
Quantum Dice
Quantum Dice, a spinout from Oxford University’s quantum optics laboratory, provides trusted and secure random numbers by combining its patented protocol with the unique properties of quantum systems. The applications of these assured random numbers range from cryptography to seeding stochastic simulations.
Lumai
Lumai’s team of optical computing and machine learning experts is creating an AI accelerator with far greater compute speed and energy efficiency than traditional digital silicon processors, powered by 3D optics. It plans for its technology to become a key component of a data centre’s hardware stack, improving speed, efficiency and scalability.
John Cassidy, partner at Kindred Capital
Archangel Lightworks
Archangel Lightworks aims to shake up how data moves between space and Earth by developing deployable laser communication systems for better data transfer from satellites and other space systems back to Earth. It’s unlocking huge amounts of valuable information and could lead to much more efficient use of data, which is important in our increasingly digital world.
Ochre Bio
Ochre Bio is developing RNA therapies for chronic liver diseases by using liver organoids (tiny, lab-grown versions of the liver that mimic its complexity and functions) combined with computational biology for research. The startup’s work has helped liver organoids become an increasingly important contributor to medical research, drug discovery and understanding of chronic liver diseases.
Ochre’s work could lead to breakthroughs in how we treat liver conditions. I’m eager to see what it does next because its contributions could transform healthcare and improve patient outcomes.
