London | January 23, 2026
UK startups closed a strong funding week, raising £200.6 million across 15 companies, as investor appetite concentrated on artificial intelligence, healthtech, fintech and climate solutions. The week saw participation from 66 venture capital firms and angel investors, backing 22 founders across Series B–D, early-stage and pre-seed rounds.
The flow of capital highlights a clear theme: investors are prioritising scalable platforms, international expansion and verifiable outcomes, rather than speculative growth.
AI Funding Spans Agents, Platforms and Next-Gen Compute
Artificial intelligence once again led the funding charts, with capital flowing across the full technology stack—from agent marketplaces to specialised compute infrastructure.
Emergent secured £50 million in Series B funding to expand its autonomous AI app platform, enabling users to build and monetise software without traditional development. The company plans to scale ARR, grow teams and expand internationally.
Optalysys, based in Leeds, raised £23 million in a Series A extension to commercialise photonic chips designed for power-efficient generative AI and encrypted computing workloads.
LaunchLemonade closed a £357,000 pre-seed round to grow its no-code AI agent marketplace, focusing on creator tools and monetisation.
Investor takeaway: Capital is being deployed simultaneously to front-end AI adoption tools and back-end infrastructure, signalling confidence that both usability and compute efficiency will define the next phase of AI growth.
Fintech Bets Focus on Scale, Partnerships and Regulation
Fintech funding this week reflected a maturity shift, with investors backing companies that are embedding financial services into workplaces, platforms and regulated ecosystems.
Stream raised £67 million in Series D funding to expand its workplace finance platform, with US growth and pension products as key priorities.
Wrisk secured £12 million in Series B capital to scale its embedded car insurance offering across Europe in partnership with automotive OEMs.
Fimple raised £7.45 million to accelerate rollout of its cloud-native core banking platform across the GCC region.
TeamFeePay closed a £9 million round to expand its grassroots football payments and administration platform across the UK and Europe, creating approximately 75 new jobs.
Investor takeaway: Fintech capital is increasingly tied to international rollout, regulatory readiness and enterprise partnerships, rather than experimental pilots.
Healthtech and Biotech Blend Clinical AI with Lab Innovation
Healthcare funding spanned both digital tools for clinicians and next-generation manufacturing technologies.
Eolas Medical raised £8.9 million in Series A funding to expand its AI-powered NHS knowledge platform and enhance point-of-care clinical search tools.
Gutology secured £1.8 million to scale microbiome-friendly oral care products, fund clinical trials and enter the US and German markets.
Anzen Industries raised £1.7 million pre-seed to commercialise cell-free enzyme manufacturing for high-value molecules, with US expansion planned.
Investor takeaway: There is sustained confidence in healthtech models that either improve clinical efficiency or unlock scalable biological manufacturing.
Greentech Funding Shifts to Verification and Circularity
Climate-focused funding this week leaned toward practical, measurable impact rather than speculative climate tech.
Equitable Earth raised £10.93 million (€12.6 million) to scale digital certification of nature-based carbon projects using remote sensing and data-driven methodologies.
LabCycle secured an undisclosed investment to expand recycling of contaminated laboratory plastics into high-grade pellets for reuse in research and healthcare.
Investor takeaway: Demand is growing for high-integrity carbon credits and circular solutions that align sustainability with procurement and compliance.
Vertical AI Targets Compliance and Cybersecurity
AI-driven automation for enterprise risk and compliance also attracted fresh capital.
Antidote raised £3.72 million to automate legal billing compliance using AI, targeting cost reduction and invoice accuracy for law firms.
Asymmetric Security secured £3.13 million pre-seed funding to develop AI agents that reduce cyber incident investigations from days to hours.
Investor takeaway: Vertical AI tools delivering immediate cost and risk reduction are emerging as a preferred investment theme.
