Otago Innovation Ltd — University of Otago's Research Commercialisation Company

Otago Innovation Limited (OIL) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, established in the early 2000s with exclusive responsibility for commercialising university research IP via licensing, spin-out formation and proof-of-concept investment.

A July 2009 Otago Daily Times investigation found Otago Innovation had been expected to return about NZ$1 million to the university from royalties and IP sales but returned only NZ$100,000, with company revenue falling from NZ$1.2 million (2006) to NZ$1.1 million (2007) and a budgeted 2009 surplus of NZ$258,000 revised to a NZ$745,000 loss a month later. More recently, in July 2021 Otago Innovation co-led its largest-ever investment: a NZ$14 million raise for Amaroq Therapeutics, a University of Otago spin-out developing lncRNA-targeted cancer therapeutics, alongside Brandon Capital, NZ Innovation Booster and Cure Kids Ventures, independently reported by Brandon Capital, the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund and multiple New Zealand and Australian outlets.

University deputy vice-chancellor Harlene Hayne characterised commercialisation as 'early days' for Otago in 2009, noting biomedical innovations typically take five to twenty years to reach market and citing Stanford's enterprise arm taking fifteen years to break even — a useful caution against judging young university TTOs on short time horizons.