Unlocking new opportunities and scaling Oxa

Collaborating with its Executive Leadership team and founding engineers, Sheelpa unified the company around core marketing and branding principles; clarified its narrative for investors, customers and talent; led a massive rebrand (Oxbotica → Oxa); and spearheaded global marketing communication efforts behind a successful funding round, Oxa’s first commercial product launch in the US, and its next stage of growth.

The Challenge

Oxa, spun out from Oxford University, was eager to accelerate commercialisation of its AI-based autonomous vehicle (AV) software. However, the marketing expertise needed to achieve its goals in the fast-evolving AV landscape was not yet in place. With a Series C funding round imminent and a growing need for agile market, investor, and regulatory communications, the company sought an expert leader who could refine its positioning and help put it on the global map.

Impact

Oxa achieved several new milestones under Sheelpa's leadership as Chief Marketing Officer, including:

• A successful Series C campaign that secured US$140 million in funding
• The launch of Oxa’s initial commercial product deployments with high-profile customers in the UK and US
• Oxa was the first UK exporter of deployment-ready self-driving vehicle software.
• Oxa was listed in Bloomberg's Top 25 Startups to Watch and Forbes' Top Five AI Companies to Watch
• Strategic collaborations with Google and key industry organisations, which helped consolidate Oxa’s role as a trusted authority in vehicle autonomy, as well as in related public policy, insurance, and regulatory spheres.

Solutions

Expert narrative development & a global rebrand

Sheelpa recognised that a crisp narrative around the promise of industrial autonomy was vital to attract investor and customer interest. She worked closely with the CEO, Founder and Executive Leadership to craft core messaging and a distinct, compelling story around its AV technology. As Oxa matured, Sheelpa spearheaded a comprehensive rebranding grounded in a tactical evaluation of target customers, investors, and the competitive landscape. Securing executive buy-in at every stage, she led the process to define core brand values and leadership principles that convey Oxa’s unique identity and guide its people. Then, having harnessed experts across her network to create a new name, logo, and visual assets, she ran brand training sessions that engaged Oxa’s global workforce in unifying behind the new brand.

Visionary marketing leadership

As Chief Marketing Officer, Sheelpa performed an Executive Leadership role, influencing cross-functional business decisions and fostering collaboration across departments to ensure marketing resources met the growing demands of the business.

Sheelpa established strategic partnerships with industry stakeholders to drive sector growth and launched joint initiatives with customers to advance shared goals. To build understanding of the evolving AV sector, shape public policy, and promote the potential of UK spinouts, she guided Oxa in productive collaborations with government and regulators. In parallel, she led her team in crafting targeted thought leadership, podium, and media strategies to elevate the profile of Oxa and key executives and technical experts.

Watch - First zero occupancy self-driving vehicle in Europe, on open road:

Agile strategies to accelerate scaling and category leadership

Built from the ground up, Sheelpa’s strategy equipped Oxa to scale rapidly and advance its market ambitions. 

Sheelpa guided collaborations with Oxa’s product and engineering teams to create customer-focused marketing assets that would drive scalability. Working together under her leadership, Oxa’s Marketing and Commercial teams uncovered vital customer insights and pathways to deliver added value. Sheelpa proved key to fostering a cohesive organisational culture too, working with the CEO to define brand values and leadership principles that would anchor Oxa through rapid expansion, and collaborating with the People team to attract and retain top talent across its offices in Oxford, Toronto and Florida.

From Code To Road - first commercial deployment of Oxa software on US roads: