Developments

The city’s tech sector is closely connected to, and often funded by, the University of Oxford, which supports companies at all stages of growth, from idea to spin-out. Student-led entrepreneurship societies are also an active and critical component of this well-established ecosystem.

• Oxford University Innovation (OUI) has completed the 150th spin-out from Oxford University with Augmented Reality company 6Degrees, which is also notable for being the first Oxford University business to begin life on the other side of the Atlantic.
  

• Greater Change – a social enterprise startup aiming to enable the public to make secure, cashless donations to the homeless – has successfully raised £33,000 on the University’s crowdfunding platform, OxReach, with support from OUI. Its app is now in development and a trial is due to begin in the city this year. Oxford’s tech sector has seen rapid growth in such social enterprise startups.

• The Oxford Foundry, an entrepreneurial hub at the heart of Oxford University, was opened by Tim Cook in October 2017. The venue aims to create a community of innovation across the University, inspiring and supporting its 23,000 students to develop entrepreneurial skills or to create and scale commercial ventures.

Community perceptions survey findings

The Tech Nation 2018 Survey was conducted between January 2018 and February 2018, in partnership with Streetbees. This year’s survey received the largest response yet from members of the UK tech community. In a total of 3,428 submissions, people told us about the opportunities and challenges their local ecosystems face, and the digital tech leaders they admire. The majority of respondents (33%) were founders and CEOs.