Steve Silvey

Steve Silvey is Deputy Head of Licensing & Ventures - Life Sciences at Oxford University Innovation (OUI). OUI describes him as responsible for managing a portfolio of Oxford spinouts, representing the University’s equity interests, contributing to company growth, and representing the University in the wider investor community.

Before OUI, Silvey was an investment manager at Powerhouse Ventures, an ASX-listed IP investment company, where he generated and managed a portfolio of university spinouts and built relationships with New Zealand universities. Earlier, he was chief executive of Dunedin’s Upstart Business Incubator, which merged with Powerhouse Ventures in 2014 to provide seed funding and support to research-based technology companies.

His operating and governance background spans chair, board, CEO, and incubator roles across high-value manufacturing, consumer goods, biotech, and medical devices, from startup through exit. He holds a Biology degree from the University of Sussex, an MBA from the University of Otago, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

• Focuses on University of Oxford spinouts and startups where research can be translated into high-growth companies with strong IP, commercial potential, and credible paths to external funding.
• OUI’s investment role is to connect institutional investors with Oxford companies, invest directly in early-stage companies through specialist funds, and manage the University’s equity stakes in spinouts.
• OUI supports founders with investor mapping by sector, stage, and mission; warm introductions; pitch-deck and business-case refinement; and preparation for due diligence.
• OUI’s stated investor-preparation criteria include IP position, market validation, financial assumptions, patents, finances, market traction, and founding team.
• Silvey’s own public advice to life-science SMEs at BioTrinity 2024 emphasized ambition in fundraising: “think differently about how we raise bigger sums for more ambitious plans.”
• In a 2017 Photonic Innovations article, he highlighted IP protection as value creation for investors, stating that IP protection is “part of the value for investors.”