Oxford University launches 2008 venture capital fund for own students
Oxford’s business school, the Said Business School, has Venture Capitalist ambitions. It has put together a £1m seed stage venture capital fund, the SBSVF, and is looking to invest in businesses launched by members of the biz school itself, or members of the Oxford Entrepreneurs (OE) network. They’re looking to put in £50k to £100,000 to early stage ventures.
They did something similar in 2007, and ended up investing in Jambase, a frankly underwhelming live music portal (recommending and reviewing concerts, with none of the elegance or simplicity of the excellent Songkick) after reviewing over eighty applications. The copyright notice on the Jambase site states that its been around in 1998, so I’m not really sure how that would classify it as a seed stage startup.
The money for the fund has been put up by Sir Philip Green and David Bonderman. Philip Green is a giant of the retail space, notably famous for catalysing the turnaround at Marks & Spencers. David Bonderman is a venture capitalist who found the Texas Pacific Group private eq firm.
Interestingly, and somewhat fittingly, SBS students are involved in vetting, reviewing and doing due diligence on applicants to the SBSVF. This somewhat betrays its perhaps weak money making ambitions and VC credential, but on the other hand it’s nice to see a ‘double bottom line’ (ROI and education). No real evidence of them providing you with the other inputs founders often look for from a seed stage investor - mentorship, contacts with Series A-capable VCs, etc.
EDIT: many thanks to the ever watchful adamski, who points out below that his increased chocolate consumption is in fact responsible for the M&S turnaround, not Philip Green, who I seem to have swapsied with Stuart Rose. Balls.
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