Oxford forms Animal Dynamics to develop bio-inspired vehicles based on Department of Zoology research.

Oxford University’s tech transfer arm Isis Innovation has set up Animal Dynamics, a new spinout which is looking to develop bio-inspired vehicles based on research from Oxford’s Department of Zoology.

Animal has raised a seed round of unspecified size, and is being backed by Oxford Technology Management and Parkwalk Advisors. The cash will be used to build Animal’s first prototypes.

Previous research from Oxford’s zoology department led to the creation and subsequent sale of game animation spinout NaturalMotion, which returned $50m to the university.

Alex Caccia, Animal Dynamics’ CEO, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for [co-founder] Adrian and I to build a technology business based on a field that we are passionate about. Our engineering team will be focused on perfecting designs derived from evolutionary optimisations that produce significant speed and performance gains over current solutions. The process of forming the spin-out and raising seed capital has been done with great support from Isis Innovation, and we are looking forward to joining an ecosystem of successful companies that that have been germinated out of Oxford University.“