Oxford Seed Fund

🦠 CyanoCapture awarded a #horizongrant from the European Commission to scale up microalgae cultivation!

🎙️ “Ask anything, I am not afraid of the spicy ones!” - it’s not every week that Harry Stebbings from 20VC dials in to chat with our team - right after his $400m fundraise what a week to sit down with him → Hard to sum up all the nuggets, but our key take-aways: 🔢 “venture is about sourcing, selecting, servicing (and securing, or winning). You’ve either got to be a great ‘finder’ or a great ‘picker’ - it's going to be hard to be a great picker because it takes years to prove and so you have to show that you are unbelievable finder of founders.” 🔎 on sourcing - “think about building assets that show that you can find people better than other people. And do it in public - you need to be able to come and say, ‘Hey, look at this’ tangible thing”. 📥 on outreach - “a successful cold email strategy is probably the most important thing you can learn - more valuable than all three years of university” 😋 🙋♀️ on founder focus - “think very strategically about the customer experience, you deliver to them, the founders… the question becomes how do we win these companies?” 📈 on looking for upside - “optimists make money and pessimists are right: the question that you have to ask yourself is how big could this be?” ⏰ on being an ‘ambassador’ (and generally good advice for thinking about your career path) - “never do a job to get another job”. Thank you Harry for your time - we took your comments to heart on simplifying our value prop & internal processes, and appreciate the open and authentic sharing of your personal story (- and thanks Michael for setting up the chat)! 🖇️ If you’re an Oxford student or alumni starting a venture - or a VC looking to back Oxford founders - get in touch w/ Arif A. Wani & Michael H. or our team (Rebecca, Surayyah, Yash, Sophie, Scott, Ellena, Theresia, Raymond, and Isobel). Oxford Seed Fund is the student-and-alumni led venture fund of the University of Oxford investing up to £100k tickets into Oxford founders. We’re powered by the Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Centre and backed by Oxford Science Enterprises.

💡 #femalefoundersrise → proud to see portfolio founder (and alumni) Jas from luna lighting up London

🛰️ With Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Forum just around the corner, this week we're celebrating a portfolio company that got it's start at #OSEF2021 → that's Little Place Labs. 🎓 Founders Gaurav & Bosco met on their EMBA at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and pitched Little Place Labs at the 2021 Oxford Said Entrepreneurship Forum when the idea was still just a pitch deck! ⏩ Fast forward, and Little Place Labs is tackling the challenge of slow satellite imagery processing. Traditional methods can take hours or even days, impacting crucial sectors like defense, government, and finance. Their innovative solution? Edge computing in space. By processing data in orbit using AI algorithms, they reduce time-to-insight to under 7 minutes, offering rapid, actionable intelligence. Here’s why Oxford Seed Fund invested: 🏃♂️ First movers - Little Place Labs leads in real-time space insights, positioning them to secure key government and defense contracts. 🤝 Strategic network - their partnerships and advisors offer unparalleled access to government sectors. 📡 An exceptional team - Bosco and Gaurav's execution skills and industry relationships are top-notch, as recognized by Techstars and Amazon Web Services (AWS) space program. Every week, we look to celebrate a team in our portfolio. If you're an Oxford student, alumni, or researcher thinking about launching a venture (or already founded one!) get in touch, we would love to hear more. Oxford Seed Fund is powered by the Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Centre, based at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and backed by Oxford Science Enterprises.

🚀 Exciting news from University of Oxford's venture ecosystem! In the latest Beauhurst report, Oxford has been ranked as the UK's top university for spinout creation, boasting 210 spinouts since 2011. Notably, these ventures have collectively raised over £7 billion in investment, with 93 patent applications filed and 15 new companies launched in the last fiscal year alone. Some interesting analysis on #Oxford simplifying equity terms in recent years, the need for more diverse pools of angel funding, and pre-seed capital. https://lnkd.in/earF8z7e

🏦 Great to see portfolio company Sommos continue to scale - partnering with BancoSol towards financial inclusion for the unbanked in #LATAM. https://lnkd.in/e_HgqAgw

💥 News in quantum for this week's recommend reading - Oxford Ionics has achieved a new milestone in quantum computing, setting a world record in quantum state preparation and measurement (SPAM) with a fidelity of 99.9993%. This represents a significant 13x reduction in SPAM errors, enhancing the potential for reliable quantum computers. Read more below! https://lnkd.in/egZdYYaN

🎉 Great to see Limula featured in Venturelab's Swiss biotech venture list! https://lnkd.in/eU6Y_wJb

🛰️ Another feature for Little Place Labs - recommended reading in the Space Force Association magazine → Edge computing is revolutionizing space missions, enabling in-orbit data processing for faster, more efficient decision-making—crucial for national security and beyond. From disaster monitoring to maritime surveillance and automated space operations, Little Place Labs is at the forefront of these advancements. https://lnkd.in/estPkRKM

📙 If you're an aspiring VC, check out this handy terminology breakdown from Oxford Capital Mark Bower-Easton. https://lnkd.in/eR8x2cA7