Oxford Investment Opportunity Network

The following five companies are seeking investment via the Network as a result of the 22 May OION investment meeting at the Ashmolean Museum, 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 is involved in the design and manufacture of novel materials that support the creation of functional tissue structures. The company’s technology platform is a new concept in tissue repair. It concerns the minimally-invasive delivery of materials that are formulated to solidify within the patient and then create a porous template for tissue formation. The unique features of this scaffold technology are:
• The material is injectable and shapes naturally within a void - rather than a solid or powder based product which must be either pre-shaped and implanted surgically or held in place
• The scaffold material solidifies, in situ, at body temperature - the reaction is not exothermic or dependent upon initiators
• Porous support structures are formed – providing an ideal space for tissue repair
These unique properties permit the addition of labile proteins and cells that would be damaged by heating. This opens a multitude of applications in both cell delivery and the use of drug-enhanced scaffolds to stimulate tissue formation.
The company’s lead product will target bone repair applications and is expected to reach the market by 2009/10. This will act as a precursor to drug and cell delivery products targeted at additional orthopaedic and cell therapy markets.

Internet networks have become embedded at the heart of modern commerce. However, achieving mission critical reliability remains an elusive goal, as such networks were never designed to be ‘as reliable as the telephone network’. Company B has developed a unique software technology that can solve this problem. Company B’s product accurately models routing and traffic flows on real world IP networks, both in normal operation and also under failure scenarios. For the first time, weak points in the network topology can be pinpointed, and the service levels that the network will actually deliver in practice can be quantified.
Company B’s technology was initially developed for Schlumberger, a major US based oil field services company. Company B recently secured a presales consultancy contract with BT Radianz, a global financial services network provider, and has a pipeline of customer prospects including major names such as General Electric of America.
Company B has been funded through a seed round by its management and founders. The Company is seeking bridging finance of £250k, which will fund salaries and expenses for 6 months. Company B believes it can close a second round funding of £2.5m with venture capital partners towards the end of 2007, once the first customer sale has been closed.

Company C is an industrial biotechnology company, a spinout from Oxford University, which exploits its patented, platform tech-nology and bio-catalysis expertise to develop and commercialise innovative, chemical pro-duction processes for our customers, enabling lower costs, greater product differentiation and the use of renewable resources.

The application of bioprocess technologies in the manufacture of natural chemicals, biofuels and biopharmaceuticals is rapidly growing. The company is seeking £750,000 of equity funding to deliver superior returns to shareholders by:
• Developing and commercializing a portfolio of bio-natural products: Our existing pipeline of bio-natural aroma and chiral building-block products aims to deliver £2.1m of annual sales revenue from 2008.
• Developing and commercializing novel bioprocesses in conjunction with our partners: Our biobutanol joint development programme aims to generate £4.8m of royalties or licence fee income annually from 2009.
• Extending and exploiting the portfolio of IPR currently held by the company: Our biopharmaceutical new venture could deliver royalties from 2012, with revenues building up to £31m annually within a few years.
We aim to achieve breakeven in 2009 and to hit sales revenue of £14m by 2011. No further requirement for equity investment is anticipated.

Company D has developed the next generation of molecular tools that gives the large bio-pharma research market (currently US$ 1.6 billion per annum growing rapidly at 20% CAGR) a step-change in its ability to rapidly and accurately exploit the opportunities that the genomics and proteomics revolution has heralded. The molecular tools that are currently available are inadequate for the requirements of the bio-pharma industry; they lack sensitivity, cannot test multiple-samples simultaneously and do not meet the quantification needs of researchers. Company D’s products solve all these problems:
• multiple samples can be tested at the same time;
• high sensitivity is retained so that even low abundant proteins can be detected;
• consistent data is delivered that can be quantified.
Following expenditure of well in excess of £2m, Company D has developed a range of products that are ready for commercialisation with the initial applications available for market launch immediately. The company controls an extensive patent estate over 12 patent families.
Although there are several competing products using differing technologies, apart from Company D, none of them deliver the critical unmet needs of testing multiple samples at the same time whilst retaining high sensitivity.
Company D needs to raise a total of £3m in a syndicated round to include private investors to reach operational break-even within three years and substantial profitability within five years. By achieving these aims, Company D will become a highly attractive acquisition target to an equipment, life sciences or diagnostics company e.g. Bruker, Invitrogen and Becton Dickinson respectively.

Company E is a revolutionary molecular diagnostics company developing ultra-rapid tests for infectious diseases such as meningitis, Chlamydia & the hospital super-bug MRSA. The products will address a large and rapidly growing market, and benefit patients by enabling hospitals, clinics and eventually GP surgeries to perform tests on the spot and make effective treatment decisions. The company has patent protected technology including a granted European patent covering the core technology.
The first product will comprise a compact low cost instrument and single use plastic disposable cartridge. The doctor, nurse or medical technician will load a clinical sample, such as blood or urine, directly into the cartridge, insert this into the instrument and receive a test result within 20 minutes, making this the fastest DNA diagnostic system available. Prototypes have already been evaluated successfully.
Company D is a spin-out from the University of Bath, and has a commercially and technically experienced management team that has raised £1 million to date from the Sulis Fund, SWVF, GEIFV & and private investors. The company and is now seeking £250K of private investment as part of a £2 million syndicated round.