Oxford Capital

University of Oxford has opened the £200 million Life and Mind Building, one of the largest projects in its history, uniting the Departments of Biology and Experimental Psychology under one roof. Developed through the Oxford University Development (OUD) partnership between the University and Legal & General, the facility spans over 269,000 sq ft and will host more than 1,400 researchers and students. Beyond being a world-class academic space, this is a major catalyst for Oxford’s innovation economy. By bringing together biology, psychology, and AI, the Life and Mind Building strengthens the city’s position as a global hub for deep-tech and life sciences. This is the kind of interdisciplinary research that feeds tomorrow’s most exciting spinouts. It also reflects growing institutional confidence in Oxford’s R&D ecosystem. As one of the first OUD projects to complete, it shows how investment in physical infrastructure fuels venture creation, talent retention, and long-term economic growth. Oxford’s momentum as a centre for science, innovation, and venture investment continues to accelerate and projects like this will shape the next generation of companies emerging from the city. #Oxford #Innovation #Research #AI #LifeSciences #UniversityofOxford #VentureCapital #OxfordCapital https://lnkd.in/dCr3G58h

More investment into Oxford from the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford, as featured in The Times, with President Santo Ono and COO Lisa Flashner highlighting the importance of collaboration between academia, venture capital, and industry.   Their recognition of the contributions from the many entities reflects the strength of the Oxford innovation ecosystem — where investors, founders, and researchers work together to turn breakthrough science into real-world impact.   Wishing the Ellison team continued success as they build on this vision. https://lnkd.in/ecRDR6g3

Great way to end the week - Oxford takes the No.1 spot again. For the tenth consecutive year, the University of Oxford has topped the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, reaffirming its position as the world’s leading university and key pillar of the UK’s innovation ecosystem. At Oxford Capital, we see this excellence reflected every day through the founders, researchers, and spinouts driving breakthrough technologies from this unique cluster. 📈 Ten years at the top and still pushing the frontiers of science, enterprise, and discovery. https://lnkd.in/e5NrWFgR #Oxford #Innovation #VentureCapital #HigherEducation #EIS #UKTech

Proud to see our portfolio company Ergodic recognised among Europe’s leading deep-tech ventures through the DeepTech Alliance network. A strong validation of their technology and a gateway to European industry and investment networks. #BackingFounders #VentureCapital #Startups #AI #EIS

Our latest run on SWE-bench Verified, one of the toughest real-world tests for AI coding, reached a 57 % verified score, nearly 2× our earlier result. Powered by Artemis Intelligence, not just model updates - We used Claude Sonnet 4, not 4.5, so the improvement reflects our system design and validation loop rather than model upgrades. No code execution - SWE-bench normally expects iterative test runs, yet Artemis hit 57 % using static reasoning alone. Our planner and inference layer mapped dependencies, simulated likely outcomes, and proposed fixes before a single test was run. Governed efficiency - A strict $10 limit per problem (only 5 hit the cap) kept the total cost to $2.3k. Many high-scoring systems burn multiples of that. Artemis reached comparable accuracy through intelligent inference paths instead of brute-force retries. These results show that how an AI reasons matters as much as which model it uses. Artemis’s reasoning before running and plan-first design let it generalize across codebases, reason through complex logic, and deliver verifiable fixes with minimal waste. Just runtime execution would get us >65%, newer models even higher. But the deeper story is about discipline over horsepower, proving that agentic planning, governed inference, and validation can push coding AI from “generate” to Optimize. Huge thanks to our team advancing the frontier of efficient, trustworthy (and planful!) AI engineering. 👉 Check it out here: https://www.swebench.com/

Ready Steady Grow returns to Oxford tomorrow, October 7 at 4pm, at the Saïd Business School. We’re proud to be sponsoring the event and registration is still open. The EIS Association will be bringing the local startup ecosystem together to expand their knowledge on the EIS and SEIS and connect founders, investors, advisers, incubators and more. The event will feature a carefully constructed agenda featuring opinions from SME industry experts and a panel of investors. Small businesses, investors, IFAs, entrepreneurs and business advisers are all welcome to attend - the session is designed for everyone in the investment space. Register for the Oxford event here: https://lnkd.in/epx9CBmb

Oxford’s innovation ecosystem is on fire. In the last year alone, two Oxford University spinouts – quantum computing startup Oxford Ionics and organ-preservation pioneer OrganOx – scored billion-dollar exits. What’s driving this surge in Oxford spinouts, and how is the university evolving from producing top scientists to producing top founders? Is Oxford’s identity now defined more by the startups it spins out, or by its globe-trotting alumni entrepreneurs (think LinkedIn, Eventbrite)?      Read our latest newsletter to explore Oxford’s spinout boom, the role of accelerators and venture funds, and where the next wave (AI? digital health? quantum?) might take this thriving ecosystem. 

📢 At Oxford Capital we're excited to be joining the investor base of Snowfox Discovery, backing co-founder and CEO Daniel McMahon, chairman Mark Gainsborough and all the brilliant team that are pioneering exploration into Natural Hydrogen and playing a role in the energy transition. 🔬 One of the great privileges of our work in the #Oxford cluster is to engage with some more unusual companies and Snowfox Discovery stands out with its scientific and exploration credentials in a market that is rapidly emerging and drawing attention from some of the biggest companies in the world. There is a lot of hydrogen under our feet - if you know where to look! 🫧🫧🫧 📈 We joining bp, Rio Tinto, AP Ventures, Oxford Science Enterprises and the Bamford Family to help Snowfox Discovery tap into an ancient and clean natural resource. Many congratulations on the $30m Series A round.

August’s Oxford Advantage is live – from UK startups breaking into the US to the latest portfolio wins and Oxford events you won’t want to miss. 📩 Read it here #venturecapital #EIS #UKtech #Oxford #BackingFounders #BackingGrowth

A huge thank you to the University of Oxford, Department of Engineering Science, for recognising NavLive in the 2025 MPLS Awards! The whole team is thrilled to see NavLive chosen as winners in the "Impact Award" category. Congrats to all the other winners, also! 👏 🎉 https://lnkd.in/eB3gxdEz