While the race is on to produce more ‘unicorn’ businesses – companies worth at least $1 billion – in the UK, what is needed to create the right conditions for this essential growth? That was the hot topic in a roundtable debate attended by Rachel Wood, managing director of Sladen Estates, who hopes to see such enterprises flourish at its new Oxfordshire development, Bicester Arc
With over 40 UK-based companies each valued at more than $1 billion across fintech, e-commerce, and artificial intelligence, the nation is widely regarded as a prime breeding ground for achieving the coveted tech ‘unicorn’ status.
With a rapidly developing reputation as a world-leading technology hub, the UK’s tech companies are an attractive proposition for investors. Finding the right locations and developing high-quality support services and networks is essential for this burgeoning sector.
Our recent roundtable discussion – arranged by UK Property Forums (UKPF), with Sladen Estates, Oxford Science Enterprise (OSE) and the University of Oxford – sought to discover how Oxfordshire could be transformed into a breeding ground for unicorns.
The University of Oxford has produced the highest number of tech unicorn founders across Europe, a report found. Eight of the world’s largest unicorns have been founded by Oxford graduates since 1984, including LinkedIn and Eventbrite.
The university said the findings reinforced Oxford’s position as a leading innovation hub. Chas Bountra, the university’s pro-vice chancellor of innovation, told the roundtable that while it had been shown to create unicorns, there now needs to be a proliferation of firms valued at up to £100m.
“That’s when we really have a massive impact – we change people’s lives, we change the planet and importantly, we create thousands of jobs, and therefore tax revenue, to get this country out of the mess we’re in,” he said. “I think that’s got to be our ambition.”
Andrew Hopkins, who founded Oxford-based unicorn Exscientia AI, a technology-driven drug design and development company, said that talent, ideas and the ecosystem created in Oxford in the past 10 years had been ‘incredible’ and praised its nurturing environment.
“The best way to create jobs is creating these companies,” said Andrew. “Companies employ hundreds of people, many of them with six-figure salaries. The tax bill that goes back into the economy is very significant.”
Mr Hopkins described how there was almost no interest from UK investors when Exscientia AI went public and suitable laboratory space was hard to find. He added: “There just isn’t the capital or the appetite for creating major high-risk tech companies in the UK.”
Rachel Wood, whose company is developing the Bicester Arc development near Oxford as a site to promote businesses advancement, described the current funding market for development as ‘challenging’.
“Somehow funding needs to be unlocked and, hopefully, with the Government announcing the new super pension facility fund, it may actually mean that funding can be directed to projects, which would not have been on the target list for UK capital” she said.
Mr Bountra said that Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) had been ‘transformative’ in enabling the growth of Oxfordshire firms.
“The important thing is it’s not just that they brought money into the ecosystem, it is that we now have, in the university, a number of academics who are serial entrepreneurs,” he said.
“They’re on their third or fourth company, so now what’s happening is that many students, researchers and faculties are looking at these individuals and saying ‘well if they can do it, I can do it’.”
This helped to develop clusters, such as in life sciences, space and satellite, AI and quantum computing, motor sport, autonomous vehicles, energy and publishing. He added: “There are not many places on the planet that have got so many clusters. If we can build on that, we can bring even more investors into our ecosystem.”
Robin Rogers, Oxfordshire County Council’s director of economy and place, said it was essential that jobs created extended to the wider community and that the local infrastructure, including roads, transport and health services, could support people.
Charles Butters, the council’s strategic property advisor, said Oxfordshire had a ‘powerful and compelling’ alliance which supports infrastructure improvements. He added: “You want to feel that Oxford is global, thinks of itself as global and delivers an experience and infrastructure of a place that is taking itself seriously within that context.”
Peter McLintock, real estate partner at law firm Mills & Reeve, said more ‘non-resident’ venture capital is needed to help support the county’s clusters of expertise. Currently, 53% of unicorn investment goes to Cambridge, with just 5% to Oxford.
Peter said: “Somehow our communication channels are not operating as they could be. I think that the Oxfordshire story is one of the things that may well be the bridge that gets us more into the spotlight.”
The roundtable, held at the headquarters of investment company Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE), and chaired by UKPF managing director Matthew Battle, discussed the elements necessary for future success:
Richard Venables, senior director for CBRE, said: “I think the train is essential to our growth because there’s no way we’re going to build 300,000 houses in the next five years. But we can get 14 million people within an hour of Oxford on East West Rail and the Cowley branch line.”
Rachel, from Sladen Estates, said planning remains a major obstacle to unlocking development funding: “We’ve got to be more fleet of foot if companies want to expand – we can’t have planning taking years when there are companies (that) need to grow today.”
Mr Rogers said the county council was looking to convene a new relationship with developers: “It is a place where we can come together about the issues we need to pick off. We are seeking to get together as place champions across sectors so that we are having these conversations.”
Sara Haywood, managing director of Advanced Oxford, said its research had identified around 665 science and technology companies that raised private capital investment in the last decade to support their growth, with less than 20% being Oxford University spin-outs. She added: “I think we need to be really conscious that sometimes, if we overly focus on what is happening in the University of Oxford, we miss a very significant part of the economic activity of the whole of our economy.”
Rachel concluded that there is fantastic work going on in Oxfordshire but added: “It’s about trying to make sure that the whole of the UK benefits and that new jobs are created. As these companies grow, it is essential that they stay here, the growth stays here so the country benefits from these companies as opposed to (them) maybe going elsewhere.”
The 48-acre Bicester Arc site, just 11 miles from the University of Oxford, has outline planning permission for 645,852 square feet of business uses – and its own on-site power supply.
Nestled within a huge growth area popular with organisations and businesses in innovation, advanced engineering, deep tech and new technologies, the site is ripe for investment. It is in a highly accessible location, with Oxford just 14 minutes away by train, and London Marylebone reachable in 46 minutes.
