Isis reports record proof-of-concept investment
8th January 2015
Over twenty new Oxford technologies and ventures received a record £2.6m in proof-of-concept funding in 2014, Isis Innovation has reported.
The funding came from three seed funds, and boosted fifteen new companies. These include:
- stroke-diagnostics specialist Brainomix which successfully raised £1.2m and won awards and grants including Innovate UK, Horizon 2020 and an Academic Enterprise ICT Award
- OxBotica, which is at the forefront of robotics and autonomous systems;
- First Light Fusion, spun out with seed funding from IP Group, Parkwalk Advisors and angel investors, and developing a radical new approach for generating energy from fusion.
- Perspectum Diagnostics, developing scanning technology to detect cancer and pre-cancerous liver disease, and currently running trials in Edinburgh and Birmingham.
In November, seed fund investee and Isis Innovation spin-out Genomics Ltd raised £10.3 million from Invesco Perpetual, Lansdowne Partners, Woodford Investment Management and the Wylie Family Trust, as well as existing shareholders including IP Group and the University of Oxford. Genomics is developing an analytical platform for genomic sequence data analysis.
The University of Oxford Isis Fund II – an Enterprise Investment Scheme Fund managed by Parkwalk Advisors with Isis acting as Portfolio Advisor – is now fast approaching its target close. It follows on from the success of the University of Oxford Isis Fund I which raised and invested more than its target £1.25m in 2014.
“We have again seen huge interest from investors in the University of Oxford Isis Fund II, both because of the high quality pipeline of spin-outs from Oxford and of course the excellence of its research, reflected in the recent REF result,” said Parkwalk’s Moray Wright.
Read the full article on Isis Innovation’s website here.
