Oxford Early Investments: Current Investment Opportunities

Founded by a team of strong start-up and digital marketing experience, Company A is a wireless communications system that aims to revolutionise targeted networking at conferences, exhibitions and social gatherings. By using Product A attendees will be able to locate the people they wish to network with by seeing their picture based profile (name, company, position) on their mobile phone!

In a UK market of 5,000 conference centres that hold 1.37m events per year and bring together 17m visitors, Company A will operate white label services to the sponsors of the events. The event sponsors will be ‘dressing’ the application with their brand acquiring unique visibility amongst highly targeted audiences at £26 per participant.

The market strategy is two fold. Firstly, Company A will establish a foothold in the conference market and once the technology is optimised, the company will scale up the product in the social networking arena (airport and hotel lounges, universities, large businesses, concerts, festivals, cafeterias, clubs)

We are looking to secure investment of £150,000 for product optimisation, aiming to achieve turnover of £2.5m by year 3.
The product is patent pending in the UK.

Company B seeks to create infrastructure that puts you, the individual, in control of your own identity and personal information.

The project can be thought of as a grown-up and distributed version of social networking: the individual can invite new counterparties to ‘link’ to his broker account; and can then decide which ‘profile’ of personal information any new counterparty should see. Profiles can include not only information recorded by the individual himself (such as preferences), but also cached copies of, and pointers to, personal information (such as a qualification) held on the databases of existing counterparties (such as an examination board or professional body)
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The application road map starts with e-portfolio in the university sector, then rolls down to secondary education, out to various lucrative reverse marketing applications, and eventually reaches health records and proof of legal identity. Likely brokers include, initially, UCAS and Company B; and – eventually – the banks and mobile network operators.

Company B is a UK leader in this field, owning various relevant patents, and having advised the Information Commissioner and the Technology Strategy Board.

Company B is seeking £200k to fund a pilot scoping and costing exercise, in collaboration with a group of universities. A further funding round will follow in 6-9 months to fund pilot implementation. We estimate total industry revenues in the UK of some £500 million by 2018, and that Company B should retain about 30% of the wealth created.

Company C's products are designed to maintain sterile conditions on frequently used surfaces of unavoidable contact, such as door handles and push plates, where infections and potentially lethal bacteria might otherwise collect and be readily transmitted from one person to another in the few seconds it takes to pass through a door. The product snaps onto retro fit holsters, when touched, the weekly consumable the product releases a small quantity of antibacterial gel that immediately kills 99.9% of all known germs, effectively sterilising the surface instantaneously. The few competing products are far less effective and take up to 24 hours to kill bacteria.

Company C's Product is a vital missing secondary defence system that will compliment other infection control measures by filling a current gap in hospital defence systems. The implementation costs of the product for any organisation can be offset by internal and third party advertising.

The technology, product development, worldwide PCT patent pending filings and extensive market research have been self-funded by the sponsoring shareholders.

Infection control specialists in all the major market sectors have expressed a keen interest in the concept and we have already successfully conducted initial In-Vitro Clinical Trials in the NHS. The management team combines commercial, technical, financial and healthcare experience and is actively supported by internationally recognised academic professors with specialist knowledge of non woven materials and infection control.

Detailed research and analysis indicate potential annual demand across all sectors to be around 300 million units in the UK and over 4 billion units worldwide. Company C would be highly profitable with only a very small market penetration. Funding is now required to finalise the product design and finish the clinical validation trials with the NHS.

Having successfully raised a first round in 2008 with co-investment to develop its technology, Company D has now completed the technical development of its unique patented product.

The product is an innovative wireless management and control technology for photovoltaic (solar electric) modules providing unique performance and safety benefits to a huge global market.

The market for photovoltaics remains very strong, and Company D’s sector of enabling technologies is particularly dynamic with a number of new competing technologies. The company has established initial customer relationships, with trials over the coming months and a product launch later in the year.

There is an experienced management team in place and investment will be used to enhance business development scope and activity. The company is seeking £250k by Q3 2009, to commercialise the product and take the company through to profitability.

Company E has developed a revolutionary all terrain wheelchair (ATW) to enable adventurous paraplegics to explore the countryside. This exciting product stemmed from the founder’s love of the great outdoors, his engineering expertise, design flair and the realisation that current wheelchairs cannot travel off road, thus limiting their freedom to venture off the beaten track.

The ATW’s innovative design utilises patented propulsion, steering and suspension mechanisms, which combine to give the rider the ability to safely tackle almost any terrain. A pre-production prototype ATW has been tested by several users who have loved it. Company E is seeking £125k investment to support final development of a production model prior to commercialisation through manufacturing and sales agreements.