Our Story

Why 'Divine Ox'?

The name comes from the Zen Buddhist 'Ten Bulls' parable—a series of illustrations depicting the stages of enlightenment through the metaphor of searching for an ox.

In the parable, the ox represents truth—something that's always been there but has become obscured. The seeker must first recognise that something is missing, then track it down through increasingly difficult terrain, before finally taming and integrating what they've found.

That's what we do with impact. The social and environmental value created by small organisations is real—it's always been there. But it's hidden, scattered, hard to see. We help our clients find it, capture it, and make it visible.

Divine Ox: making the hidden visible.

Oxford Roots

Divine Ox is a University of Oxford startup. The University holds a 5% shareholding, and our articles of association commit us to promoting positive social and environmental impact in what we do and how we do it.

Our methodology emerged from real problems. Mark Mann built Oxford's social venture startup programme from the ground up, developing practical approaches to measuring and predicting impact for ventures that don't fit the traditional tech transfer mould. That work—supporting over 100 projects and 13 startups—became the foundation for Divine Ox.

We remain deeply connected to world-leading academic research, but we're not an academic consultancy. We're practitioners who've run small firms, worked at the coalface of impact measurement, and got frustrated with the gap between what's needed and what's available.

Our Founders

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Dr Mark Mann

Mark set up Oxford University's social venture startup programme, building extensive experience of how SMEs can capture their impact data and how the organisations around them can develop strategic programmes. He grew the SHAPE pipeline from a handful to over 100 projects and directly supported 13 Oxford startups. Mark is also Managing Director of Divine Ox's sister company, NetSocialNow OÜ, providing strategic innovation services across Europe with a focus on impact management, social innovation, and arts, humanities and social sciences commercialisation.

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Arnab Dutt OBE

Arnab is national policy champion for public procurement and social value at the Federation of Small Businesses, the UK's largest small business organisation. He chairs the working group on social value policy and net zero on the UK government's Cabinet Office SME Panel and sits on the steering group of the National Social Value Task Force. A trustee of a charity focused on anti-racism and inclusivity, Arnab is an Oxford University Saïd Business School alumnus and continues to partner with the business school on innovative public/private sector partnerships.

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Campbell McDonald

Campbell has worked for over 20 years with teams across public, private and not-for-profit sectors to enhance social, environmental and economic impact. He sits on the Cabinet Office's Small Business Panel advising central government on procurement with SMEs and VCSEs, and on the Steering Group for the National Social Value Taskforce. Campbell is an External Associate of the Centre for Sustainable Business Practice at the University of Northampton. He was former MD and co-founder of Baxendale Advisory, ranked a Best in the World B Corp since 2017.

What Drives Us

The big problem that keeps us up at night: how to make global small business impact visible and develop the means to improve it at scale.

There are over 350 million small businesses in the world, responsible for almost two thirds of GDP. Together they directly affect the lives of billions. Yet their social and environmental impact is almost entirely invisible.

That's what we're here to change.