The total raised by Oxford’s spinouts was down from $229m year-on-year, though university tech transfer office OUI also marked its largest ever single exit during the period.
University of Oxford’s spinouts collectively raised £46.8m ($61m) across ten deals during the first quarter of 2019, down from $229m generated in the same period last year.
Of the quarterly total, $84,000 was attributed to seed-stage transactions, compared with $7.6m for the first quarter of 2018.
Five new businesses were initiated over the quarter by University of Oxford’s tech transfer office, Oxford University Innovation (OUI), including two spinouts, two startups and a social enterprise.
OUI’s Licensing and Ventures and Consulting Services units signed a total of 174 deals during the first quarter, essentially on trend with the 175 deals reported for the same period last year.
The TTO received 97 invention disclosures from university academics and filed 14 new patents during the period, compared with 84 disclosures and 23 patents agreed in the first quarter of 2018.
OUI also marked its largest ever single exit from a spinout during the first quarter, as biotechnology firm Biogen agreed to buy retinal disease therapy developer Nightstar Therapeutics for approximately $800m in March 2019.
Over the course of its history, OUI has now launched a total of 208 companies.
Businesses launched in the first three months of this year included Oxford Brain Diagnostics, which is working on software to help diagnose cognitive diseases, and CareCompare Services, which runs an online directory for carers and physiotherapists.
The other companies founded in the first quarter were synthetic compound producer EnantiOx, homeless donation payment platform operator Greater Change and creative thinking consultancy Rogue Interrobang.
