THE Oxford Foundry - a hub for Oxford University entrepreneurs - has announced the four new innovative start-ups it will support on an OXFO Covid-19 rapid solutions development programme.
The four critical solutions were chosen by a team of international judges from more than 100 entries after a rigorous selection process - based on their ability to have a real, tangible impact, their viability to be implemented and their potential for rapid growth.
Ana Bakshi, director of the Foundry, said: “Universities are homes of innovation that provide critical sources of income, impact, and job creation for government and the economy.
"With the onset of the pandemic it was vital that we mobilised our networks and leveraged our community as quickly as possible, this included repurposing nearly 100 per cent of the team’s time to the Covid-19 action plan.
"The ventures we support are having an impact in hospitals, care homes, schools and other sectors.
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"Cutting-edge innovation will be at the forefront of economic and societal recovery and resilience, so we must build and invest in solutions that respond to the secondary and tertiary challenges of the pandemic.”
Among the judges are Oxford Foundry Advisors including Mohamed Amersi, Chairman of the Amersi Foundation; Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter; Brent Hoberman CBE, Executive Chairman of Founders Factory, Founders; Arumna Oteh, former Vice President & Treasurer at the World Bank; David Buttress, Founder of Just Eat UK; Angela Ahrendts DBE, Former SVP Apple Retail & CEO of Burberry and Sir Terence Stephenson, Chair of the Health Research Authority (HRA).
The four winning solutions are:
Healthcare stream - My110: A saliva test for Covid-19, which is easier and non-invasive compared with other means of testing.
My110 went through Entrepreneur First and the team has deep diagnostics development knowledge, protein chemistry and nanomedicine expertise.
They hope to unlock the potential for more widespread daily screening through a rapidly scalable, reliable, low-cost screening tool, which can be taken at home and combined with tracking software to ensure the accuracy of each test result.
Diagnostics have been undervalued but immunoassay testing is now estimated to be a $18bn market. The team has a proof of concept and is working with leading industry partners.
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Education stream - Devie: an AI-powered coaching app to support parents of babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers.
The personalised platform helps parents actively to engage in their child’s development, address parenting challenges and improve wellbeing.
Devie is currently being used by 550 parents and has had very positive feedback from its 100 strong user-group. Devie targets the new generation of parents, who regularly use apps and technology for self-support.
With the closure of nurseries due to COVID-19, Devie provides a lifeline of support for parents and can help maintain best practice and stability for early childhood development.
Inclusive social engagement and mobility stream - Oblivious AI is building tools to enable AI to respect the security and privacy of sensitive data, transforming how data is processed by both governments and industry.
Oblivious AI is currently working in different states in India to contact-trace Covid-19 in hundreds of thousands of citizens, while maintaining their privacy.
It is in talks with other international governments about Covid-19 contact-tracing and is working with industry partners including Amazon Web Services, Oracle and Strategic Blue.
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Operations, Logistics and Supply chains stream - Crowdless: an app which shows the extent of crowds in supermarkets and shops, to help people avoid crowds and queues and be empowered to make decisions. Since launching on the App Store, the team has received thousands of sign-ups a day and has been featured on the BBC and in the Guardian and the international press.
Crowdless is also one of the 13 ventures the Foundry has been supporting rapidly to scale, following winning best postgraduate idea as Lanterne in the Foundry’s All-Innovate competition last year.
My110 and Crowdless have both been awarded Innovate UK funding aimed at fast-tracking the development of innovations borne out of the coronavirus crisis.
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The four solutions will each receive a £10,000 grant and a two-month programme of support, including masterclasses, and tailored expertise from a global network of 60 experts and advisors.
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