A university spin-out with no revenue, and a Home Office test that asks about trading

An Oxford spin-out building clinical software for NHS maternity units needed to sponsor a researcher before his visa expired. It had investors, a product in regulatory certification, and no income at all.

At a glance

• Client: University of Oxford spin-out developing regulated medical software for NHS maternity care
• Product: A clinical decision support tool giving midwives and obstetricians a standardised risk assessment at the onset of labour
• Matter: Sponsor licence, full service
• The obstacle: Pre-revenue at the point of application, funded by investors rather than trading income
• Instructed: 13 April 2026

How they found us

A returning client. We had previously obtained a sponsor licence for another of his companies, and he came back to us directly.

The challenge

• The company was pre-revenue, which runs straight into the Home Office question of whether an applicant is a genuine trading business or a shell.
• The company was completing UK medical device regulatory certification ahead of a planned commercial launch, so it was real but not yet selling.
• The worker it needed to sponsor was already on a Skilled Worker visa with another organisation, with a fixed expiry date approaching.
• Everything had to be in place before that visa ran out.

What we did

• Escalated the eligibility question internally before advising. The pre-revenue position was checked with our head of legal operations and signed off, rather than assumed either way.
• Answered the trading question with funding evidence. Investor backing, including a confirming letter from the university as an investor, used to establish substance where trading income could not.
• Planned the sponsorship around the existing role. Same occupation code, at a salary above the worker's existing level, so the move was straightforward to justify.
• Worked to the visa expiry, not the licence timetable. The sequencing was driven by the date the worker's current leave ran out.

Why it matters

Early-stage research companies are exactly the employers Britain says it wants, and they are structurally awkward under a test built around trading history. The answer is not to argue with the test. It is to evidence substance in the form the test will accept.