Oxford Innovation Finance has history on the side of the angels

Innovation Director Gary Jennings says this is the oldest and largest angel funding network in the UK. And it transcends geographical boundaries as its tentacles spread way beyond Oxford and the centres of excellence that fall under the umbrella of Oxford Innovation - including The EpiCentre at Haverhill.

One of its most recent beneficiaries has been Active Needle Technology Ltd, based at the Culham Innovation Centre in Oxfordshire.

Active Needle's innovation enables clinicians to safely and efficiently perform highly accurate needle-based interventional procedures whilst cost-effectively benefiting patients and healthcare providers.

As Jennings is swift to explain, the range of business propositions supported by OI Finance runs broad and deep. And where a supported business is physically based never outweighs the potential of its science, technology or general business proposition.

Jennings is a superb leader for the venture. His experience within the international healthcare sector is of particular benefit to those kindred souls based at The EpiCentre but his broad-based industry experience helps those no bio babes there and elsewhere across the UK.

For example, he sits on the Norfolk and Suffolk Innovation Board, as well as the Connected Innovation Board across the region. He also runs his own consultancy and his common sense approach to business growth feeds nicely into the Oxford Innovation agenda.

The organisation will often scale down a starting field of, say, 120 applicants to around 20 initially and then six to eight of the best to pitch to potential backers. Such pitch events are held across the UK every six weeks or so to maintain the pool of talented businesses destined to sustain the UK's innovation pool.

Handsome tax relief provides encouragement for potential investors in this ongoing and growing cohort of entrepreneurs, boosting the UK economy on a regular basis.

The prime stipulation is always to ensure that companies chosen to pitch are genuinely innovative in their entire approach to bringing new propositions to market. The propositions at the heart of the startups must be scaleable and the entrepreneurs behind them should have a growth mindset and be able to focus on core markets rather than scatter-gunning because they believe their proposition has multiple potential markets.

It is a strategy he insists on building throughout his own businesses as well as through the support he offers to enterprises anchored at The EpiCentre.

There are several pitching events approaching across the region and up and down the UK so Oxford Innovation Finance is always open to receiving approaches from new generations of startups.

You can find out more about Oxford Innovation Finance via the website - www.oxfordinnovationfinance.co.uk or via The EpiCentre at www.epicentrehaverhill.co.uk