Oxford is a city in central southern England which revolves around its prestigious university, established in the 12th century. Today, Oxford is the home to many spin-outs, startups and businesses leveraging the University's technologies to solve some of the hardest problems. Starting a business in Oxford can be a great option as there are a number of coworking spaces and accelerators in addition to a deep pocketed investor network which can support your growth.
The Oxford investment scene is characterised by angels, institutional funds and innovation funds backed by the University of Oxford. The following funds invest heavily in Oxford startups:
A number of Oxford startups and spinouts have been backed by these investors. The most notable companies are listed below:
Different funding options exist in Oxford depending on the nature of your venture. Ventures affiliated with the University of Oxford can spin-out and secure funding from the Oxford University Innovation arm as well as potential funding from the institutional funds. These ventures can also apply to be accelerated at the Oxford Foundry.
Startups which are not affiliated with the University of Oxford can still pitch the institutional funds for investment as well as the angels in the Oxford network.
Growing a business requires hiring talent and Oxford can provide plenty of candidates in specialist fields such as machine learning and biosciences thanks to its University. There are also a number of software developers thanks to the startup hub and the presence of large software companies like Sophos. However, if you are looking to grow your software startup quickly you should also consider remote talent from abroad.
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