First Close of Oxford Alumni Venture Fund III Announced
Palo Alto CA, July 9, 2024
The Oxford Angel Fund, the leading early-stage investor in Oxford Alumni founded companies, announces the First Close of its $15 million, Oxford Alumni Venture Fund III, and has rebranded to Oxonian Ventures to reflect its investment focus on pre-seed, seed and Series A investments in Oxford Alumni founded companies.
Since its inception in 2016 the Oxford Angel Fund has invested, across two Funds, in 30+ companies founded by Oxford Alumni. Over this period the Fund has shifted its investment focus beyond angel stage to early stage venture investing. Now raising Fund III, Oxonian Ventures has completed its First Close and is open to Oxonians who are U.S. accredited investors.
“Fund III represents an important milestone as we scale up investments.”said Paula Skokowski, General Partner, Oxonian Ventures adding “With the growing emphasis by the University of Oxford on innovation and entrepreneurship we are excited at the companies that Oxford Alumni are founding.”
The University of Oxford has an 800 year history as an educational institution and has been ranked the #1 University in the World in 2022 and 2023 by the Times Educational. The word, “Oxonian” refers to a student or member of the University of Oxford.
The new name, Oxonian Ventures, reflects the unique focus on investing in Oxonian founded companies, using investment capital from Oxonians. An alma-mater relationship between founder and investor has been shown to afford ventures a higher likelihood of success, with alumni-connected investments 33% more likely to lead to an IPO. 1
The Fund is led by general partners, all Oxford Alumni: Neil Wolff (Management Studies, Lincoln), Paula Skokowski (Engineering Science, St. Edmund Hall) and Cameron Turner (MBA, Christchurch.)
“The University of Oxford is a leader in innovation - attracting some of the most brilliant, innovative and entrepreneurial students, researchers and faculty, from all corners of the world” says Chas Bountra, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Innovation. “We are fortunate to have great leadership and critical mass in medical sciences/ STEM subjects, social sciences and humanities. We are determined to use the might of our university, our brand name, our convening power and our global alumni/ industry/ government and funder networks to address the most pressing problems facing our planet. To date we have spun out more than 300 companies. We are now attracting more investors, corporates and scale up entrepreneurs into our local ecosystem. Another important priority is to enable many more female founders.”
News summary
Investment in Oxonian Ventures Fund III is now open to U.S. accredited investors who have studied at the University of Oxford.
The target size for Fund III is $15M.
With the announcement of the First Close of Fund III, Oxonian Ventures will now begin making investments.
About Oxonian Ventures
Oxonian Ventures is the leading early-stage venture fund investing in Oxford alumni founded companies, using investment capital from Oxford Alumni and affiliated institutions. With a portfolio of over 30+ companies Oxonian Ventures brings together Oxonian founders and investors to move ventures forward and elevate the visibility and reputation of Oxonian founded companies.
www.oxonianventures.com
Media Inquiries:
press@oxonianventures.com
1. Source: Garfinkel, Jon A. and Mayer, Erik J. and Strebulaev, Ilya A. and Yimfor, Emmanuel, Alumni Networks in Venture Capital Financing (Nov 24, 2021). SMU Cox School of Business Research Paper No. 21-17, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3970128 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3970128