We wish all our founders, clients and friends a merry Christmas. We are grateful for all the discussions, debates, challenges interactions and support that you have offered this past year that have helped us invest in and grow brilliant British start ups. We look ahead to 2026 with much optimism. Let’s make it a great year, together!
David Mott, Founder Partner
Oxford went from promising to proven in 2025
2025 was a turning point for Oxford. The two strategic billion-dollar exits of OrganOx and Oxford Ionics were the clearest signals, but they are not the whole story. The bigger change has been in the start-up and business community here in Oxford. It feels more open than it used to. There are more chances to show up, more founders talking to each other, and more lab and innovation space appearing across the city. For the first time in a while, it feels easier to get involved, easier to meet the right people, and easier for the next generation of Oxford companies to grow.
That shift has been backed up by progress on the ground. Oxford saw the launch of Oxford North, the opening of the University of Oxford’s Life and Mind Building, and the Ellison Institute of Technology developing at pace. At the same time, capital has kept moving into the next wave of Oxford companies, which makes the exits feel less like an endpoint and more like a signal of what’s coming next. Put together, 2025 looks less like a one-off year and more like the start of a sustained phase for the Oxford community.
It also felt like there were more places for founders to turn up without needing an introduction. The calendar is more visible and easier to plug into, with EnSpire Oxford curating a running “What’s On” feed, regular meetups like Startup Huddle (BIPC Oxfordshire) at the Westgate Library, and more structured moments like the #StartedinOxford Showcase and EnSpired Founders Live. Flagship days like the Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Forum and Founders Day have helped pull people into the same rooms, and there is now a broader spread of founder-facing programmes and event series across Oxfordshire.
At Oxford Capital, 2025 has been a year of leaning harder into Oxford and backing founders at both early and growth stages, with more of that work visible in public. We co-led a $1m pre-seed in Egregious with Fuel Ventures, focused on defending against AI-driven deception, and we backed NavLive in a £4m round, a University of Oxford spinout using AI and LiDAR to create fast, accurate digital twins for construction and infrastructure. We also invested in Research Grid (R.grid) which is transforming clinical trial processes and patient recruitment with AI.
Through the Co-Investor Circle, we have also been clear that the direction from 2025 onwards is to open up access to more Oxford tech opportunities. We backed Snowfox Discovery’s £22m Series A round alongside BP Ventures, Rio Tinto and OSE. And we made a follow-on investment in Scan.com which closed a Series C round of over $25m plus a debt facility to $50m. The company has grown from £1m to over £100m annualised revenues in just 4 years since our first investment and has successfully expanded across 11 US States.
Alongside investing, we have been putting more of our perspective into the public domain on how fast the Oxford community is moving. In January, our Founder Partner David Mott told The Times that investor interest in Oxford is the strongest he has seen in 25 years, pointing to new university buildings and the pull of global capital into the city. In February, he took the “backing founders” message to TEDxOxford, drawing lessons from modern pentathlon for building resilient founder teams. In May, he spoke at length on the Oxford+ podcast about Oxford Capital’s 25-year track record, what makes early-stage companies work, and the gap between philanthropic wealth and venture funding for Oxford businesses. He also published policy-facing commentary, including an FT Adviser opinion calling for changes to strengthen EIS and unlock more growth capital into UK companies.
We are going into 2026 with more momentum, more places for founders to meet, and more capacity for companies to scale.