Oxford Investment Opportunity Network

The following seven companies are seeking investment via the Network as a result of the 30 June OION investment meeting at Venturefest 2008, Unipart House, Oxford. The descriptions available summarise the investment proposal made by the company. The information is provided by the company and has not been vetted in any way by OION.

If you are interested in receiving further information on any of the companies then please contact us.

Company A was founded in the USA as an open source company in February 2006, with the vision of becoming one of the most innovative health information service delivery companies anywhere.

Company A is accomplishing this goal by leveraging the quality and nature of open source software. We provide a “high quality – low cost” secure open source electronic health record solution for patients and clinicians.

Medical inaccuracies deprive patients of the best medical care, and costs healthcare systems across the world billions of wasted pounds and dollars each year. The adoption of e-health records can improve outcomes and help reduce expense.

Company B is a spinout from Southampton University and Cancer Research UK that is developing innovative medicines with best-in-class potential to treat cancer, psoriasis and RA. With a strong commercial and scientific team, Company B has adopted a creative strategy to rapidly create substantial value and an exit, without major investment. This strategy includes a corporate partner for one programme and grant funding for another.

Company B aims to secure £600K to augment existing commitments to a £1M fundraising. During this investment, Company B will be able to commence human testing in at least one programme and start regulatory toxicology in two others

Company C is a Birmingham-based vaccine development company. The Company's first project is targeted at preventing the deaths, infection and high healthcare costs from Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI), particularly due to Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The product is an innovative “whole organism” vaccine for which the company has patented the preparation method and has applied for other patents.

To date the Company has raised approximately £2.5m in equity and completed a double blind placebo controlled Phase I clinical trial of the product, its lead project, demonstrating safety and immunological response in human volunteers.

Company D creates and sells brain stimulation software products that apply world-leading neuronal-level science to alter brain function by design. A ‘hot industry of the future’ (Reuters, Mar ’08), opportunities exist for highly differentiated products across the human life-span.

Currently Company D is targeting 3 areas: brain fitness to slow, delay and protect against the effects of ageing and to stave off dementias such as Alzheimer’s; language learning; and hearing.

Already generating revenues, Company D is now seeking new funding to build sales and marketing for existing products, and to continue product development and trials.

Company E has developed an online recruitment platform (Applicant Tracking System) which is already being used by over 20 major FTSE/public sector organisations in this fast growing market.

The platform is fully modular which enables a 100% solution for clients, unlike major competitors who offer generally packaged solutions. We have already signed commercial agreements with two major UK agencies/portals to provide white label solutions for their businesses and more are in train, so have clear routes to market. The core team has significant experience at HR/IT Director level. We are looking for £500k to fund rapid expansion

Company F's technology was developed at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, researchers of marine and estuarine water environments for more than 20 years.

We offer a new and unique product for water quality assessment which is faster and lower cost than alternatives. It provides information on the effect of complex pollutant cocktails in water and the relative impact on the water ecosystem/environment. Market focus is changing to broad-band pollution monitoring but current approaches are slow and expensive, so there is a major competitive opening for fast, low cost biological monitoring technology.

The business model is highly scalable, with sales of base kits generating sales of profitable consumables as the established kit-user community grows. The key selling points of this company are:

1. Novel technology for large and growing market gap, offering significant added value at affordable price.
2. Scalable business.
3. Experienced, passionate team with good skills, experience and wide support network.

Further value opportunities for product development.
The global market size for this type of kit is estimated at US$1.45bn pa. Company F seeks investment for completion of product development, strategic marketing and to provide working capital for the business to profitability. £300,000 is needed in 2008, and a further £625,000 in 2009.