Oxford Seed Fund

Oxford Seed Fund invests into startups where either a current Oxford student, alumni or researcher is part of the founding team.

We invest up to £100,000 into top Oxford-affiliated startups across the globe and provide them with the network and support to scale. Our team is primarily made up of students from Saïd Business School, as well as other departments of the University of Oxford, and an alumni team. Supported by Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Centre, we have sourced and evaluated hundreds of startups and made early investments into unicorns such as Onfido and Go1.

Our Fund I (2013-2023) made 23 investments across a variety of sectors, of which 12 are still active and two are unicorns - Onfido and Go1. Our next fund, Fund II (2023-2025), has made 27 investments to date, with several portfolio startups already raising further capital. Lastly, we have also made a further six investments via our impact funding initiative.

Applications will be open from Michaelmas term 2024 until mid-way through Trinity term 2025.

To be eligible to apply, you will need:

• An Oxford connection: Either a current student, alumni or researcher from the University of Oxford on the founding team.
• Venture-backable technology: We invest in high-potential, technology-enabled startups that can provide venture-scale returns.
• Company registration: We require that you have (or intend to have) a registered company in a country with secure governance.

The Oxford Seed Fund publicly commits to diversity, equity and inclusion on behalf of past, current and future Oxford Seed Fund teams. We seek to ensure that each term, from Directors to the startups in our portfolio, we share the same values and commitments to be self-aware and critical of our own diversity and biases, as well as the impact of our work.

We aim for this to be a continuing tradition and one that is reflected upon as the Oxford Seed Fund alumni base grows. We will continue to revisit our values and priorities as a fund and update them to match the available knowledge of the time. The following list is not exhaustive, but examples of ways in which we hope to be more responsible members of the VC community:

1. We commit to prioritising Diversity, Equity and Inclusion when selecting team members, sourcing new leads and when making our investments
2. We will actively reflect on biases and preconceptions during the sourcing, due diligence and selection processes
3. We will ensure continued education and awareness on the progress, or lack-there-of, with industry standards regarding hiring and investing in underrepresented groups
4. We will hold ourselves accountable for meeting specific metrics and goals that provide equal opportunities to members of the cohort
5. We commit to prohibiting and to be intolerant of any form of bullying, sexual harassment, or discrimination