Oxford Sciences Enterprises

Last updated

Oxford Sciences Enterprises
Company typeVenture Capital
IndustryVenture Capital
Predecessor IP Group
Headquarters
Oxford
,
UK
Key people
Website oxfordscienceenterprises.com

Oxford Sciences Enterprises is an early-stage venture capital firm with over $800M in AUM based in Oxford, UK. [1] It operates in partnership with the University of Oxford, as the university's preferred investor, several prominent financiers back the firm, including Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Tencent, Huawei and Invesco. [2] [3] The firm uses academic research from the university's science departments to form commercial businesses, also known as spin-outs. [4] [5] [6]

Contents

Founding & Management

The company was founded in 2015 by David Norwood, who was previously the founder of the IP Group, which initially invested only in spinoffs from the university's chemistry department. [7] Oxford Sciences Enterprises initially raised £600m from investors, which included Lansdowne Partners and Google Ventures. [8] [9] [10] [11] Google Ventures partners Tom Hulme and Dr Krishna Yeshwant also joined OSI's advisory board, along with Google AI researcher Demis Hassabis, founder of DeepMind. [8] [12]

Charles Conn, previously CEO of the Rhodes Trust and former McKinsey partner, was appointed CEO in March 2019. Former Google CFO Patrick Pichette joined him as Chair of the board. [7] However, Conn departed in November 2019 and Pichette shortly after. OSI's CFO became acting CEO until the appointment of Alexis Dormandy, another former McKinsey partner, in October 2020 [13]

In September 2023 Ed Bussey was named CEO of the company, and at the same time Jack Edmondson was appointed to the newly created role of CIO. [14] [15] [16] [17]

Structure

OSE is structured differently from other venture capital firms, being an evergreen patient capital, privately held company and not bound by a limited partnership agreement. [18] [19] [20] As such, the company holds long-term investments, pursuing a patient capital model. OSI differentiates itself from classic venture firms because of its relationship with the university. [21] Unlike most university-linked venture firms, Oxford University is a shareholder in the company, with OSI receiving half of the university's stake in the intellectual property of a spinout. [22]

OSE works with the university's technology transfer office, Oxford University Innovation, which helps manage the intellectual property and patent estate of the university. [23]

In July 2019, The company announced an investment from Chinese telecommunications company Huawei owns £4.1m in OSI shares (approximately 0.7% of the total fund). [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Pontin</span> British-born venture capitalist and journalist

Jason Matthew Daniel Pontin is a British-born venture capitalist and journalist. He is a General Partner at the venture capital firm of DCVC in Palo Alto, and is a board member and seed investor in a number of life sciences companies. He is the former editor in chief and publisher of MIT Technology Review.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celltech</span> Former British-based biotechnology firm

Celltech Group plc was a leading British-based biotechnology business based in Slough. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Celltech was instrumental in changing the UK's system of technology transfer from research to business, and in creating the biotechnology industry.

MidOcean Partners is a New York–based alternative asset management firm that specializes in mid-sized private equity and alternative leveraged investments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivor Royston</span> Researcher

Ivor Royston is an American oncologist, researcher, scientist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, recognized for his efforts to develop treatments for multiple disease targets and to fund biotechnology companies with promising science, technology or medicines. He speaks regularly at healthcare conferences and symposia throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Pichette</span> Canadian business executive and entrepreneur (born 1962)

Patrick Pichette is a Canadian business executive and venture capitalist who was the senior vice president and the chief financial officer of Google from 2008 until 2015. He then became a venture capital fund manager, and is a director for several companies and a foundation.

Corporate venture capital (CVC) is the investment of corporate funds directly in external startup companies. CVC is defined by the Business Dictionary as the "practice where a large firm takes an equity stake in a small but innovative or specialist firm, to which it may also provide management and marketing expertise; the objective is to gain a specific competitive advantage." Examples of CVCs include GV and Intel Capital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxford University Innovation</span>

Oxford University Innovation Limited (OUI) is a British technology transfer and consultancy company created to manage the research and development (R&D) of University spin-offs. OUI is a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Oxford, and is located on Botley Road, Oxford, England. OUI was previously known as Isis Innovation (1988–2016) and Oxford University Research and Development Ltd (1987–1988).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East London Tech City</span> Human settlement in England

East London Tech City is a technology cluster of high-tech companies located in East London, United Kingdom. Its main area lies broadly between St Luke's and Hackney Road, with an accelerator space for spinout companies at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edinburgh BioQuarter</span> Office site in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Edinburgh BioQuarter is an initiative in the development of Scotland's life sciences industry, which, as of August 2020, employs more than 39,000 people in over 750 organisations.

Babak "Bobby" Yazdani is an Iranian-American entrepreneur and investor specializing in early-stage, private U.S.-based modern enterprise technology companies.

Arie S. Belldegrun, FACS, is an Israeli-American urologic oncologist, billionaire businessman and investor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles R. Conn</span> CEO, Investor, Author

Charles R. Conn is a Canadian and American CEO, conservationist and author. In 2021 he co-founded and is partner of Monograph, a life sciences venture firm. In 2019 he was the CEO of Oxford Sciences Innovation. Previously, he was the warden and global CEO of Rhodes House and the Rhodes Trust, the organization responsible for administering the Rhodes Scholarship from 2013 to 2018.

Mercia Asset Managment (Mercia) is a British venture capital and investment firm that provides venture capital to businesses focused on innovative technologies. Mercia offers investment under the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), both investment-based tax-reliefs, operating one of the largest such combined funds in the United Kingdom.

BioMotiv is an accelerator company associated with The Harrington Project, an initiative centered at University Hospitals of Cleveland. Therapeutic opportunities were identified through relationships with The Harrington Discovery Institute, university and research institutions, disease foundations, and industry sources. Once opportunities are identified, BioMotiv oversees the development, funding, active management, and partnering of the therapeutic products.

Looker Data Sciences, Inc. is an American computer software company headquartered in Santa Cruz, California. It was acquired by Google in 2019 and is now part of the Google Cloud Platform. Looker markets a data exploration and discovery business intelligence platform.

Sapphire Ventures is a venture capital firm with offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, Austin, and London. The firm is considered one of the world's premier venture capital firms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Termeer</span>

Henri A. Termeer was a Dutch biotechnology executive and entrepreneur who is considered a pioneer in corporate strategy in the biotechnology industry for his tenure as CEO at Genzyme. Termeer created a business model adopted by many others in the biotech industry by garnering steep prices— mainly from insurers and government payers— for therapies for rare genetic disorders known as orphan diseases that mainly affect children. Genzyme uses biological processes to manufacture drugs that are not easily copied by generic-drug makers. The drugs are also protected by orphan drug acts in various countries which provides extensive protection from competition and ensures coverage by publicly funded insurers. As CEO of Genzyme from 1981 to 2011, he developed corporate strategies for growth including optimizing institutional embeddedness nurturing vast networks of influential groups and clusters: doctors, private equity, patient-groups, insurance, healthcare umbrella organizations, state and local government, and alumni. Termeer was "connected to 311 board members in 17 different organizations across 20 different industries" He has the legacy of being the "longest-serving CEO in the biotechnology industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Section 32 (company)</span> American venture capital firm

Section 32 is a California-based venture fund founded by Google Ventures founder, Bill Maris. Section 32 funds technology, biotechnology, healthcare and life sciences companies and has approximately $1 billion under management.

Ed Bussey is a technology entrepreneur who has been named in the 2015 and 2016 Sunday Times list of Debretts’ 500 most influential people in Britain. He is currently CEO of Oxford Science Enterprises.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barinthus Biotherapeutics</span> Biotechnology company in Oxford, England

Barinthus Biotherapeutics plc is a biotechnology company developing immunotherapies for infectious diseases, cancer and autoimmune diseases such as hepatitis B, HPV and prostate cancer. Formerly known as Vaccitech plc, in November 2023 the company announced that it had renamed itself to Barinthus Biotherapeutics plc. As of 2024, the company employs more than 100 people.

References

  1. ↑ "$474M Fund Will Support Oxford University Spinouts". TechCrunch. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  2. ↑ "Backing from Google Ventures drives Oxford Uni spinout fund past £300M target". FierceBiotech. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  3. ↑ Walker, Owen (19 January 2020). "Oxford Sciences Innovation parts ways with chief executive". Financial Times.
  4. ↑ "The Valley of Death: the students vying to be millionaires". The Telegraph. 18 March 2018. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  5. ↑ "UK universities getting better at commercialising research". www.newelectronics.co.uk. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  6. ↑ "City tycoon Spencer backs £70m blood-testing start-up Osler". Sky News. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  7. 1 2 "Oxford Sciences Innovation Plc appoints new CEO and Chairman; prepares for next phase of growth | University of Oxford". www.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  8. 1 2 Burn-Callander, Rebecca (19 June 2015). "Google and Charles Dunstone back Oxford University spin-out fund". Daily Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  9. ↑ "Metaboards secures $5 million in funding led by Oxford Sciences Enterprises". Business Matters. 13 June 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  10. ↑ McKee, Selina (3 September 2018). "Evox raises £35m for exosome therapeutics". PharmaTimes. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  11. ↑ Ward, Andrew (10 May 2016). "Oxford biotech deals highlight stature of UK university spinouts". Financial Times. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  12. ↑ Price, Rob. "Google's European venture capital fund just made its second investment". Business Insider. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  13. ↑ "Oxford Sciences Innovation Plc appoints Alexis Dormandy As CEO".
  14. ↑ "New CEO vows to lead OSE into next phase of growth" Insider Media
  15. ↑ "Oxford Science Enterprises announces new CEO" The Business Magazine
  16. ↑ "OSE brings in Bussey as CEO" Global University Venturing
  17. ↑ "Oxford Science Enterprises names new CEO, first CIO" Biocentury
  18. ↑ "The missing ingredient in innovation: patience". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  19. ↑ Ahmed, Murad (1 November 2015). "Patient capital overtakes VC for UK tech groups". Financial Times. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  20. ↑ Ahmed, Murad (November 2015). "Patient capital overtakes VC for UK tech groups". Financial Times. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  21. ↑ "Big deal: OSI grows to $730m - Global University Venturing". globaluniversityventuring.com. 12 December 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  22. ↑ UK, Shona Ghosh, Business Insider. "An Oxford University artificial intelligence startup has raised £17 million to check code for errors". Business Insider. Retrieved 13 September 2019.{{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ↑ March 2019, Clare Sansom20. "Nurturing the next biotech generation". Chemistry World. Retrieved 13 September 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  24. ↑ Fildes, Nic (October 2019). "Huawei buys access to UK innovation with Oxford stake". Financial Times. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.