Oxford University Innovation expects to form 10 spinouts each year from an initiative for impact-led businesses.
Oxford University Innovation (OUI), the institution’s tech transfer office, unveiled a social enterprise initiative on Tuesday anticipated to output at least 10 impact-focused spinouts each year.
The strategy has been designed to complement OUI’s existing resources for patent-orientated spinouts and student-run businesses by supporting entrepreneurs whose ideas might not be inherently patentable.
A new unit under the helm of Mark Mann, innovation lead for humanities and social sciences at OUI, will oversee the program.
The company already has a pipeline of more than 25 social enterprises, which generally combine profit-making strategies of business with the impact-led perspective of a charity.
Businesses now likely to receive a boost from OUI include cashless homeless donations app Greater Change and lifesaving procedure instruction platform Life.
The program will have access to a £550,000 ($720,000) social and environmental impact fund called SE2020 set up by OUI to help put…
