Transforming Oxfordshire into a Breeding Ground for Unicorns
Ahead of its OxProp Summit in March, UK Property Forums held a round table with Sladen Estates, Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) and the University of Oxford, chaired by UKPF managing director Matthew Battle, to discuss how Oxfordshire can produce more unicorns: privately owned start-ups valued at $1 billion or more.
Chas Bountra, the university's pro-vice-chancellor of innovation, said Oxford has shown it can create unicorns and should now aim for far larger companies on the scale of AstraZeneca or GSK, generating jobs and tax revenue. He credited OSE, set up in 2015, with transforming the ecosystem: spin-outs rose from around four a year to more than 20, reaching 31 in one recent year, and OSE has helped attract some 300 investors. A generation of serial academic entrepreneurs has also inspired others, supporting clusters in life sciences, space, AI, quantum computing, motorsport, energy and more.
Andrew Hopkins, founder of Exscientia and now XYME, said UK investors showed little interest when Exscientia went public and lab space was scarce, but that Oxford is now a far better place to start a company. Pete Wilder of OSE said two million sq ft of space is now in the pipeline, though shareholders seeking maximum value may look to the US.
Several speakers highlighted barriers. Rachel Wood of Sladen Estates described the development funding market as flat and said planning must move faster to let growing companies expand. Peter McLintock of Mills & Reeve noted that 53% of unicorn investment goes to Cambridge compared with 5% for Oxford, while Placi Espejo of the Oxford-Cambridge Partnership questioned why Oxford ranks fourth in a global innovation index to Cambridge's first.
Infrastructure and inclusion were recurring themes. Robin Rogers of Oxfordshire County Council stressed the need for good state schools, health services, roads and trains, and described a new developers' forum. Hopkins argued that poor transport and parking make commuting difficult and raise equality issues for staff. Richard Venables of CBRE saw rail, including East West Rail and the Cowley branch line, as essential to growth, and Knight Frank's Andy Nixon warned that high rents could push start-ups elsewhere.
Chris White of White Commercial urged more attention for north Oxfordshire, and Sarah Haywood of Advanced Oxford noted that fewer than 20% of around 665 investment-backed science and tech firms were university spin-outs. Wood concluded that the aim must be for growing companies, and their benefits, to stay in the UK.
Source: UK Property Forums, original article (16 September 2025)
