This week’s UK tech funding deals include LLM training startup Oriole, clean energy developer WASE, AI recruitment tool Metaview and more.
UKTN tracked £32.15m worth of funding deals this week (25 March to 29 March) with AI and clean economy startups dominating.
Here’s your weekly roundup of UK tech startup funding.
Oriole – £10m
Sector: AI
HQ: London
Round: Seed
Funding type: –
Investors: UCL Technology Fund, Clean Growth Fund, XTX Ventures, Dorilton Ventures and Innovate UK Investor Partnership
Founded in 2023, Oriole is a UCL spinout claiming to have developed a more time and energy-efficient method for training large language models via its “super-brain” GPUs.
WASE – £8.5m
Sector: Energy tech
HQ: Bristol
Round: Early VC/grant
Funding type: Equity/grant
Investors: Extantia Capital, Hitachi Ventures, WEPA Ventures, Engie New Ventures, Elbow Beach Capital and Empirical Ventures
Founded in 2017, WASE is developing technology to generate sustainable fuel from waste materials. WASE claims its electro-methanogenic reactor sources biogas from plant matter and organic wastewater.
Metaview – £6.3m
Sector: AI/recruitment
HQ: London
Round: Seed
Funding type: Equity
Investors: Plural, Coelius Capital, Vertex Ventures US, Seedcamp, Village Global
Founded in 2018, Metaview is an AI assistant designed to support the hiring process. Metaview records and analyses hiring information from applications and interviews, taking the burden of the administrative side of hiring and providing insights based on the data.
Belong – £2.95m
Sector: Fintech
HQ: London
Round: Pre-seed
Funding type: Equity
Investors: Viola Fintech, Connect Ventures, Portage Ventures and January Ventures
Founded in 2021, Belong is a fintech startup that has built what it describes as a wealth-building app. Belong aims to increase access to investment opportunities for young professionals. The app offers ISAs and investment accounts with optional loans to scale up investment goals.
Clean Food Group – £2.5m
Sector: Food tech
HQ: London
Round: Seed
Funding type: Equity
Investors: Clean Growth Fund
Founded in 2021, Clean Food Group develops cooking oils from food waste in an effort to bring sustainability to an industry notorious for deforestation.
Ayora – £1.3m
Sector: Fintech/legaltech/AI
HQ: London
Round: Pre-seed
Funding type: Equity
Investors: J12 and Twin Path Ventures
Founded in 2022, Ayora is an AI platform to support the work of lawyers as revenue managers. Ayora translates financial data into insights for tasks such as budget monitoring and billing schedules.
Fieldwork Robotics – £600,000
Sector: Agtech/robotics
HQ: Cambridge
Round: Grant
Funding type: Grant
Investors: DEFRA and Innovate UK
Founded in 2016, Fieldwork Robotics builds vertical robots to harvest soft fruits. It is aiming to address a shortage of fruit pickers using automation.
