Autumn news from companies in our innovation centres

There have been many exciting developments for companies in our two innovation centres, the Wood Centre for Innovation and the Oxford Centre for Innovation In case you’ve missed any of the good news, we’ve put together a collection of highlights from the past few months.

New companies in our centres

We’re pleased to have welcomed two new companies to the Oxford Centre for Innovation this quarter. Oxford Sigma is working to enable fusion energy through developing fusion materials technologies and fusion design solutions. Read more about their work in our “Five minutes with Jonathan Musgrove, CEO of Oxford Sigma”. NavLive’s advanced 3D mapping technology will change the complex management of building sites and bring economic benefits to the building and construction sector. Read more in our “Five minutes with NavLive co-founders Dr David Wisth and Prof Maurice Fallon”.

Product launches and product development

Big news from Quantrolox in our Oxford Centre for Innovation was the August launch of their new product Quantum Edge, which automates the tuning and optimisation of superconducting quantum computers. This is set to have a major impact on the industry, pushing forward the possibilities for practical quantum computing and its multiple applications. Watch a video here to learn more.

In October, Oxford Centre for Innovation-based Quantum Dice announced the latest generation of its APEX quantum random number generator (QRNG), which is the world’s fastest at a rate of 7.5 Gbps post-processed random numbers and which will enhance cybersecurity in data centres and telecommunications hubs, among other applications.

Adding to the spurt of innovative new products coming from companies in the Oxford Centre for Innovation, Createc launched N-Visage Explore, their new robotic inspection payload for detecting and mapping gamma radiation in real-time. It was recently used at Dounreay, Scotland, in the most complex nuclear deployment in the UK in an area which had not been accessed in 25 years. The N-Visage Explore allowed real-time observation of the radiation environment and helped the team capture critical data in hazardous areas of the evaporator cell (read more here).

Visionary Machines launched Vanguard, the first reconnaissance system that provides eyes on the ground using their advanced camera-based Pandion™ sensor technology, and real-time information for critical operations in defence, emergency services and mining. The system rapidly captures rich 3D maps of changing environments in real-time from the front of vehicles.

RedShiftBio, a Wood Centre for Innovation company, recently launched two new products focused on protein analytics, their Aurora second-generation Microfluidic Modulation Spectroscopy (MMS) platform and HaLCon^TM Analyzer. The new Aurora is fully automated and used for ultra-sensitive biophysical characterisation of proteins, oligonucleotides and other biomolecules. The HaLCon^TM Analyzer is a liquid chromatography platform designed to provide protein titre results equivalent to traditional platforms, but is faster, easier, and more cost-effective.

New partnerships, funding and support

Habitat Energy is partnering with global clean energy enterprise TagEnergy in its Lakeside battery energy storage system, in North Yorkshire. Other TagEnergy partners in their endeavour include Tesla and RES.

Quantum Dice secured a project funding from Innovate UK to expand its Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) product set. The project, which is part of UKRI’s Commercialising Quantum Technologies Challenge supported by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, was awarded by Innovate UK through its investment partnership programme with IP Group.

Oxford Centre for Innovation-based CardMedic’s Rachael Grimaldi was selected for the IGNITE Health Accelerator programme, which supports women leading digital health companies to innovate and change the industry for good. CardMedic has also launched a collaboration with software engineering and design company Blüm Health Ltd to develop a communication solution purpose-built for the NHS. Blüm Health specialises in software development and deployment, and supports innovative companies like CardMedic to build high-quality, patient-centric digital health solutions for healthcare and the NHS.

Optellum, in the Oxford Centre for Innovation, has a new strategic partnership with TeraRecon (details here), which will integrate Optellum’s AI-powered early lung cancer diagnosis Virtual Nodule Clinic software into their Eureka Clinical AI platform, with the goal of helping clinicians drive more early lung cancer diagnoses and curative treatments. Eureka is the first such enterprise AI platform to integrate with Optellum.

Jack Fertility has been chosen as part of Oxford Seed Fund’s portfolio. The Seed Fund was impressed by their novel solution of at-home, mail-in male fertility testing kits to support couples’ family planning journeys as well as the strength, commitment and expertise of the founding team, Lily Elsner and Nick Shipley.

Lumai was selected as a member of Intel Ignite’s London cohort. Intel Ignite has a proven track record of helping deep tech companies build tailored go-to-market strategies and providing access to a world-class ecosystem of innovators and leaders in the deep tech space. Selected out of hundreds of other applicants, Lumai was chosen for its ground-breaking approach to accelerating AI.

Infleqtion, based in the Oxford Centre for Innovation, won a defense project award under Innovate UK’s Quantum Contextual Artificial Intelligence for Long-range Correlations. It will partner with QinetiQ in the Q-CALC data analysis project, focusing on quantum software tools (read more here).

Team growth and expansion

Createc announced the opening of its subsidiary company, Createc Norway, after over a decade of successful operations in the region, researching, developing, and applying robotics and sensing technologies for work in hazardous environments. This expansion will enhance its responsiveness to the growing needs of the Nordic region, providing tailored solutions and fostering stronger relationships.

Infleqtion recently announced the promotion of Tim Ballance to President of Infleqtion UK. Tim started out as Lead Scientist when Infleqtion’s Oxford office was set up in 2015 and has been instrumental in its growth. Their further growth is now also supported by the appointment of a new Director of Business Development, Marco Palumbo.

Other appointments in companies include:

• Habitat Energy have appointed CTO Richard Gormley and Kate Sherwood to lead their US business development.
• CardMedic have a new team member, Clinical Content Lead, Dr Francesca Testa. Read her conversation with Dr Rachael Grimaldi here.
• Optellum have appointed Santhana Rajamanickam as Lead Test Engineer and Conor Whitely as Data Research Engineer.
• Jack Fertility have taken on a new team member, Andrology Scientist Anna O’Hanlon.
• Lumai has appointed a new Head of Product, Phillip Burr, to drive product and go-to-market strategy and to develop and support the company’s commercial opportunities. He has over 30 years of experience in global product management, go-to-market and leadership roles and a proven track record of building and scaling products and services that drive business growth and deliver impact.

Awards and recognition

Habitat Energy won Trading and Optimisation team of the year at the inaugural Energy Storage Awards, which took place in London on Thursday 28th September, as they “showed judges plenty of evidence of its success in pairing artificial intelligence and human expertise to maximise revenues of its clients’ portfolios.”

CardMedic were winners of the Advancing Health with Technology award at the Zenith Global Health Awards .

Jack Fertility’s CEO Lily Elsner has been shortlisted for Women of the Future Awards, and the company has been shortlisted for the ‘Best Early Stage Medtech’ OBN award.

Lumai were shortlisted at this year’s UK Tech Awards, sponsored by HSBC and PwC, in the ‘Tech Innovation of the Year’ category for their ground-breaking work to create a scalable computing solution to underpin the growth of AI capability.

Lumai’s co-founder Xianxin Guo has been featured in the prestigious The Photonics100 2024 global list. The Photonics100 is a celebration of the brightest minds and innovators in the world of photonics. The list is curated by the team behind Electro Optics and features the leading players in the industry from inventors to manufacturers and end users.

Wood Centre for Innovation-based Samsara Therapeutics and PicturaBio have been nominated for an OBN award in the categories of ‘Best Emerging Biotech’ and ‘The BioSeed “One to Watch” categories respectively.

Our science & tech community

This quarter we have had several community-wide events for companies based in our centres – a leaders’ dinner in the Natural History Museum in October and a Big Lunch at the Oxford Centre for Innovation, with another coming up on 23^rd of November at the Wood Centre for Innovation – to ensure employees get together, meet and exchange ideas. Success is what we want to encourage and nurture!

Network activities

Optellum partners, GE Healthcare, have published an insights article about Optellum’s Virtual Nodule Clinic and the advantages clinicians have seen. The Optellum team has been attending various international conferences this season, including the American Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology (AABIP), the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), CHEST 2023, the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association (STSA) and will soon be at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) alongside our GE partners.

CardMedic’s Rachael Grimaldi has been on the road presenting, including at the Royal College of Radiologists annual conference, the Leeds Univeristy Hospitals NHS Trust Innovation Day with the NHS InSites programme, and the Royal College of Physicians annual conference. They will also be at the GIANT Health Tech event in London at the Academic Health Sciences Network stand, on 4^th to 5^th December.

Optellum is celebrating Lung Cancer Awareness month in November and has produced a video to explain what they do. Have you seen Helio Display Material’s video too, helping explain what they do? Watch that here.

Jack Fertility were featured in a British GQ piece on the male fertility industry. They are actively recruiting for sperm testing. Get in touch with them and sign up for free testing.

 

The bounty of news this quarter shows that we have an incredible community of science and tech businesses based in our centres. Congratulations to all!