Oxford Spinout Led by Professor Claire Vallance Secures £3M to Revolutionise Chemical Sensing

23 April 2025

A cutting-edge spinout from the University of Oxford, Mode Labs, has secured a £3 million investment to bring a powerful new chemical sensing platform to market—poised to transform environmental monitoring and industrial applications worldwide.

Co-founded by Hertford Professor Claire Vallance and based at Begbroke Science Park, Mode Labs is a remarkable example of academic research translating into real-world innovation. The company is the culmination of over 15 years of collaborative research between Oxford’s Chemistry and Materials Science departments.

The newly announced funding will allow Mode Labs to expand its engineering team and move from laboratory prototypes to commercially available products. Their first focus? Real-time water quality monitoring, targeting Total Phosphorus and Ammonia levels in rivers and streams – critical metrics in tackling pollution from wastewater and agricultural runoff.

Mode Labs’ patented technology delivers 10,000 times greater sensitivity, six times longer deployment durations, and 90% cost reductions compared to conventional sensing systems. The platform uses microcavity-based photonics, originally developed for quantum computing, to analyse fluids with exceptional precision—all while consuming 400 times less power and 1,000 times less reagent than current methods.

With new regulations such as the Environment Act 2021 mandating extensive chemical monitoring across the UK, Mode Labs is entering the market at a pivotal time. The act requires the installation of 40,000 chemical sensors by 2035 – underscoring the urgent need for scalable, robust solutions like Mode Labs’.

The founding team includes not only Professor Vallance but also Professor Jason Smith from the Department of Materials, CEO Dr Dean James, and Head of Engineering Dr Daniel Miles-Barrett.

Well done Claire and the team at Mode Labs! We are looking forward to seeing how the company progresses.