Oxford Investment Opportunity Network

The following five companies are seeking investment via the Network as a result of the 26 September OION investment meeting at Said Business School, 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.

Market: Historically, internet phone systems with the ability to deliver a high degree of functionality and compatibility with Customer Relationship Management databases have been the domain of the Enterprise network (>100 phone extensions)
On Enterprise systems, this is achieved by incorporating these services at the network management platform level which must be purchased as a system solution.

Problem: Small to Medium sized Businesses are demanding these, and better features and services, at a lower cost (£150 per extension with £10s monthly fees for services vs. £700 per extension with £100s monthly fees)
Solution: Company A offers embedded functionality (software) at the device level which means that services and functions usually supplied from £50,000+ solutions are now available to the SME at a fraction of the cost.
The result is the opportunity for SMEs to achieve the efficiencies of an Enterprise solution without changing or upgrading to a more expensive solution.

Progress: Company A phones and software are fully operational, generating revenue and attracting recurring revenue partners.

Leadership: Management are experienced business developers with a track record in taking companies to a successful “exit”

Company B is a regenerative therapeutics company utilising human embryonic stem cell (hESC) technology.

Based in Sheffield, Company B owns the rights to 100% of any future stem cell IPR generated by the University of Sheffield, the UK’s top university for stem cell IPR. Company B’s technology is based on the work of two world leading stem cell scientists. The company will exploit these platform technology in two major consortium programmes:

o prevention of transplant rejection will be proven in a regenerative stent programme. Company B’s unique endovascular cells will be used to prevent scar tissue growing over a stent and re-blocking the artery (restenosis) and induce vascular healing. The market for regenerative stents is estimated to worth in excess of $5bn;

o curing degenerative blindness. Company B’s novel retinal cell technology will be used to cure dry AMD, the world’s most common cause of blindness. The market for dry AMD is estimated to be worth $4bn.

Company B is raising £1.5 - £2.0m to complete all of the pre-clinical programmes and be ready to move into first testing in man for the stent programme and to complete GMP manufacture of RPE cell lines for the start of Phase I/II trial.

Rollover Tyre Pressure Measurement and More

We all drive around on under inflated tyres and the increased rolling resistance wastes fuel generates unnecessary CO2, wears tyres and causes accidents.
The company’s tyre pressure sensor is bolted to the road surface and looks like a thin “Sleeping Policeman”. As a vehicle drives over the data is acquired. There is no equipment on the vehicle so every vehicle can be checked.
The initial market is the commercial vehicle fleet operator for whom this technology can save up to £1,000 per year per vehicle in fuel and tyres alone.

The information is sent wirelessly to the customer.

Only 12 months from commercial launch the company is seeking £900k in this final funding round before revenue.

Company D's business plan is to be the leading UK on-line retailer of organic, fairtrade, non sweat shop and other ethically sourced fashion. The company name encapsulates this. It is Swahili for ‘ethical and just’.

The growth in its market is being driven by the ever greater awareness of environmental issues and world poverty compounded by the growth in internet shopping.

The Company’s Directors are a co-founder of ASOS.com and EBTM.com (AIM market cap £83m and £12m); an ex Director of Operations and Internet Trading at sit-up, the on-line / TV based retailer sold to Telewest; a person, who until recently, was Brand Director of Miss Selfridge; and an OION Member and PwC qualified Chartered Accountant. They have invested over £300,000 in the business.

The Directors will seek to put Company D on AIM (of which they have experience) by the end of Q2 of next year. £50,000 of the £1.1 million of the round remains. Investors to date include the current or former Chairman or Chief Executive of John Lewis, Harvey Nic’s, Hobbs and Clarks Shoes plus the former Head of Menswear at M&S and a top City retail analyst.

Company E has taken proprietary process-control technology from the semiconductor industry and adapted it for use in the manufacture of implantable medical devices.

The total world market for such devices is currently estimated at around $82 billion and growing at upwards of 10% per annum. A high proportion of these devices carry coatings in order to optimize their surface properties and control their interaction with the body.

Manufacturers are under constant pressure from certification bodies such as the FDA to prove that their processes are well-controlled, but no satisfactory solution for measuring medical device coating properties during production is currently available. Instead, manufacturers must rely on ‘off-line’ laboratory techniques which are time-consuming, expensive and in many cases destructive. The result is slow product introduction time and long production ramp-up times. Company E’s proven technology has the potential both to reduce manufacturing costs and increase product quality. The company has a working prototype and customer letters-of-intent, and is seeking

£500,000 (in two stages) to take it to the point of product launch.

Brief Description of the product
Company F’s mobile broadband handset brings ADSL-quality broadband to pocket. Mobile broadband technologies combine ADSL-quality broadband with full mobility – i.e. 3G or WiFi can’t deliver this. Just like with ADSL, one can make VoIP-calls, browse the web, send and receive emails, instant messages and watch videos and listen to music online. The handset can also be connected to a computer to provide mobile broadband connection.

Addressable market
Company F’s addressable market are existing and emerging mobile broadband operators worldwide. Technologies are already covering more than 50 million people worldwide. The company’s first chosen technology (Flash OFDM by Qualcomm) is already commercially deployed in Slovakia (T-mobile), Finland (Digita) and Ireland (Digiweb), with 4 more European countries expected to deploy during 2008. Currently there are only modems available – no handheld devices available from other manufacturers anywhere.

Company Background
Company F was set up in late 2005. The company has received seed funding in 2006 from SEED Capital of Denmark (www.seedcapital.dk). First working prototypes are ready. Management team of 4 has sound experience in developing and bringing to market consumer and high-tech electronic products.

The company is seeking to raise £1million.

Company G addresses the market opportunity for comprehensive online industry research. We have established global traffic and sales for our principal trading brand, despite negligible marketing spend.

Operated by the team that established “product A.com” as the premier online commercial credit checking brand in UK, Company G is poised to take advantage of the global market opportunity for digitally delivered business information by cost effectively combining our technical, marketing and editorial knowledge with outsourcing data generation to India. While we count a number of blue-chip organisations among our customers, product B is primarily a retail offering taken up by individuals such as company executives, management consultants and MBA students who pay via credit card.

Product C is very price competitive at less than half the price of its closest comparator. Product C currently offers comprehensive industry surveys (and PowerPoint presentations) on 10 global sectors. The next stage of development is already well advanced and will introduce an interactive dashboard product in place of the current static PDF reports portal. As well increasing likely conversion rates, this also means that there is considerable scope for future price increases as we move to an annual subscription model.

We are seeking to raise £250,000 to push the company towards profitability, complete the rollout of industry dashboards, develop enhanced data feeds and to push out the marketing of our product and increase web presence.

Many software publishers lose revenue as a result of casual software piracy. It is estimated that 35% of all software in use is pirated
Software publishers often rely on a simple registration code and the honesty of their customers. However it is easy to use the same registration code to load the application on numerous PCs.

Exisiting anti-piracy technology is old and often doesn't work with the latest operating systems such as Vista. It is easy to bypass or if it is too stringent can result in aggrieved customers unable to use the software for which they have paid. Either way many companies find they need to employ a substantial number of technical staff to help users to register and use their programs, particularly when they upgrade their machines.
Company H, founded in 2005, have developed a modern solution to this problem, which strikes the right balance between protecting the publisher's intellectual property and enhancing the end user experience.

Company H now has over 50 active users of their anti-piracy solutions, with over 60% of their customers based in the US. Clients include companies such as Texas Instruments, Reuters and Unisys. Margins are up to 95%.