COVID-19: OXFO Accelerates Innovative Solutions
OXFORD PRESS
By Oxford Foundry and Said School of Business
The Oxford Foundry (OXFO) has today launched a two-part action plan to accelerate entrepreneurial solutions to the problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to increase resilience and opportunity as we move forward into the post-pandemic era.
The Foundry team has convened a global taskforce of more than 60 leading entrepreneurs, policy-makers, investors, business leaders, and philanthropists. These include Foundry board members, advisors and supporters:
Mohamed Amersi, founder of the Amersi Foundation, Biz Stone, and co-founder of Twitter
Reid Hoffman CBE, internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist
Alexsis de Raadt St James, founder and managing partner of Merian Ventures, board member Oxford Internet Institute
Honorary advisor Arlan Hamilton, founder of Backstage Capital
Angela Ahrendts DBE, former CEO of Burberry and SVP retail at Apple
Arunma Oteh, former vice president and treasurer at the World Bank
The Foundry is leveraging the University’s extensive faculty, alumni and student networks, which provide support as mentors and champions.
Since it was opened by Saïd Business School two years ago, the Foundry has accelerated 32 start-ups, with 13 of these actively engaging in the fight against COVID-19. The ventures include a GP-to-patient remote platform that has scaled in three weeks to help hundreds of thousands of patients, fever detection cameras, sensors to monitor NHS hospital bed availability, a communication platform for care home residents and families to keep in touch, and a remote tutoring app for students.
The first part of the Foundry’s action plan is to dramatically scale-up support and access to networks and grant funding for these 13 start-ups. Through the generosity of the Foundry’s network of entrepreneurs and business leaders, the Foundry provides the crucial runway and resources needed to achieve the maximum impact, as rapidly as possible.
The second part is the OXFO COVID-19 Rapid Solutions Builder, an initiative designed to find and scale up innovative solutions to challenges that will arise from the pandemic in the foreseeable future.
The Rapid Solutions Builder is opening the call to all Oxford students and alumni who have innovative solutions within four critical areas: Healthcare, Education, Inclusive Social Engagement and Mobility, and Operations, Logistics and Supply Chains.
The four most viable solutions will be put onto a newly created two-month intensive programme, where they will be supported by a curriculum of masterclasses, a network of mentors, and public and private sector partners to provide critical operational, technical and infrastructural support.
Critically, the Foundry will also be making the call out to students and alumni to contribute time and expertise to proposed solutions and ventures. This will be done through partnerships with student societies such as Oxford AI Society, Engineers without Borders Oxford (EWBOx), and Oxford Biotech Society. The provision of grant funding will aid the vital growth and development of these solutions.
Participants will be further guided by industry experts who will ensure that their solutions are developed for integration into wider national and global systems with rapid implementation, including:
Colum Conway, Chief Executive of Social Work England
Dr. June Raine, Interim Chief Executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
Evan Sharp, co-founder of Pinterest
Sir Charles Godfray, Director of the Oxford Martin School
“The COVID-19 pandemic is shining a fierce light onto the areas of our society that urgently need fixing. It has highlighted the inequalities, the divisions, and the scarcities. Now more than ever, it has shown us that there is a huge need for us to be connected and supported by ties of community, empathy, and compassion. Right now, our world is being reshaped and reframed by this pandemic, presenting our post-COVID-19 society with multiple challenges,” said Ana Bakshi, Director of the Oxford Foundry.
“Universities are uniquely placed to address these, being home to multiple communities and having the capability to bring them together rapidly and effectively. We have repurposed the majority of the Foundry team’s time towards our COVID-19 response and are determined to feed into the huge efforts being made across the world,” added Bakshi.
Foundry senior advisor Reid Hoffman CBE said:
“The Oxford Foundry COVID-19 action plan combines two important elements: supporting a portfolio of ventures that are already directly responding to the pandemic crisis, and engaging Oxford’s talented entrepreneurial students and alumni to rapidly build practical solutions to the secondary and tertiary problems the crisis is bringing to the surface – challenges such as food scarcity, supply chain breakdown, coping with mass bereavement and trauma, and the remote delivery of education. At this time of global crisis, we all need to be leveraging on our respective communities and creating new ways for us to conceive and build the frameworks that our post-COVID society will need in order to function and flourish again. I'm heartened by the Foundry's swift and intelligent response to these huge societal challenges, and optimistic that the impact generated from this initiative will be deep and far-reaching.”
Foundry Advisor and Co-founder of Twitter, Biz Stone said:
“As an advisor to the Oxford Foundry, I am part of a talented multidisciplinary community. At this moment in history, it's imperative that we harness the ability of networks like Oxford for the greater good and for the future of society. We are currently engaged on two fronts. First, we are supporting our existing ventures already directly responding to the pandemic. Next, we are mobilising this vast network of great minds to come up with actionable solutions to the myriad problems that lay ahead. We can all, both individually and collectively, respond to the challenges the world is facing at this moment. In doing so, we give ourselves the greatest chance of standing stronger together on the other side.”
Advisor to the Oxford Foundry and Chair of the Amersi Foundation, Mohamed Amersi, said:
“Now is the time to put people before profit. Our goal is to relieve pressure on our vital services, save lives, and make sure the wellbeing, education and livelihoods of our populations remain supported. The Oxford Foundry is central in mobilising and directing talent towards these goals, from both within the University and outside. In these challenging times, the Foundry is a beacon of light and ultimately, when the pandemic will pass the learnings imparted by the Foundry will prevail and the world will be a better place as a result.”
Foundry Advisor and Founder, Managing Partner of Merian Ventures and board member of the Oxford Internet Institute and board member of the Fulbright US-UK Foundation Alexsis de Raadt St James, said:
“As a Board Member, I have consistently been impressed by the talent and ideas at the Oxford Foundry so I'm delighted to support their COVID-19 Action Plan. The world faces a myriad of challenges to address the pandemic of today and the uncertain world of tomorrow. But I know that these entrepreneurs, and the global network supporting them, will be fundamental to developing the solutions that will allow us to build a better future.”
Oxford’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for Innovation, Chas Bountra, said:
“'In recent weeks many brilliant researchers across the university, have tapped into their networks in academia, industry, regulatory agencies, government and funding organisations, and have rapidly built large scale partnerships in order to fast track new innovations, including for example the production of new vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics and ventilators. The Oxford Foundry has similarly engaged the full breadth of our student body, alumni and investor network to create practical solutions for the coming weeks and months. It is inspiring to see young talent using all their creativity, intellectual prowess, entrepreneurial skills and energy, to help patients across the globe in this period of global crisis.”
Foundry Advisor and Dean of Saïd Business School, Peter Tufano, said:
“One of the core strengths of Saïd Business School is our work in entrepreneurship. Through initiatives including the Foundry’s COVID-19 Action plan, , we have mobilised our entrepreneurial alumni, students, faculty, and global networks to respond quickly on many fronts. The actions we take and the decisions we make at this moment may deeply influence the future of our society and global livelihoods for generations to come.”
Thank you to our partners and supporters:
Verizon, Gyana, WPM, Oxford Engineers without Borders, Oxford Biotech Society, Oxford Strategy Group, Oxford Women in Business, OxRam (Robotics and Additive Manufacturing) Society, Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society.
OXFO is looking for Oxford students, alumni and external experts to join the Action Plan. Here's how you can get involved:
1. Support the exponential scaling of Oxford Foundry ventures who are responding to COVID-19
Help give them the crucial runway and resources they need to achieve the maximum possible impact, as rapidly as possible.
The ventures are particularly interested in hearing from sector specific experts, potential partners and clients, researchers, and investors.
2. Submit a solution to the OXFO COVID-19 Rapid Solutions Builder (visit OXFO for deadlines)
Oxford student and alumni teams are invited to submit solutions to the Rapid Solutions Builder, designed to find and scale innovative solutions to challenges that will arise from the pandemic in the foreseeable future.
Four solutions will be taken forward and provided with a full two month programme of support.
3. Volunteer your time and expertise to a team (visit OSFO for deadlines)
Venture and solution teams are urgently looking to connect with talented people for voluntary roles who have skills including, but not limited to: technology (software developers, data engineer/scientist, AI expertise), business (marketing, sales, strategy, PR, operations), branding and design, engineering, finance, research, legal, and sector-specific knowledge e.g. healthcare providers and scientists.
Please do register your interest to volunteer. Should venture or solution teams need your specific support, a member of the Foundry team will be in contact with you by mid-May.
4. Donate to the OXFO COVID-19 Action Plan Grant fund (visit OXFO for donation information)
We are asking for your support for the OXFO COVID-19 Grant fund. This provides urgent grant funding to ventures and solutions in the OXFO COVID-19 Action Plan, and gives them the crucial runway and resources they need to achieve the maximum possible impact, as rapidly as possible.
All funding will go directly to ventures and solutions responding to the pandemic.
Direct links to information in this article:
OXFO Ventures Responding to COVID-19
OXFO COVID-19 Action Plan Global Network
OXFO COVID-19 Action Plan Donations
OXFO COVID-19 Action Plan FAQs
Learn more about OXFO.
Your help spreading the word about this program by sharing this post’s link is appreciated:
Merian Ventures is a venture firm founded by Alexsis de Raadt St. James that invests in women-founded and co-founded tech innovation in the US and UK.