Atlian raises £600k led by Fuel Ventures and SyndicateRoom's Access EIS
This article covers Atlian, a construction startup that has raised £600k in a pre-seed funding round to support its commercial launch, expand its construction data and make its first senior hire. The development aims to help independent construction insurance brokers find planning-stage projects earlier, affecting lead generation and underwriting across the UK construction sector.
Atlian, a construction startup building software to help independent construction insurance brokers find and win business, has raised £600,000 in a pre-seed funding round to support its commercial launch, expand its construction data and make its first senior hire. The move matters because Atlian aims to replace slow, manual workflows that leave brokers reacting to opportunities rather than finding them earlier.
Why it matters
Construction is one of Britain’s largest industries — the sector builds roughly £200bn a year and has hundreds of thousands of active projects at any one time. Brokers frequently learn about jobs late, via phone, email or unstructured PDFs, which limits their ability to quote and place cover competitively. Atlian’s product addresses that timing and data gap, which could reshape how brokers source and underwrite construction risk.
Inside the product
Atlian uses AI to identify planning-stage construction projects across Britain, often flagging opportunities before physical work on site begins. The company then delivers those leads to brokers in structured formats, aiming to compress weeks of business development into minutes.
Ahead of full commercial roll-out Atlian has launched WhoWritesThis.co.uk, a free market-finder tool for brokers that the company says handled nearly 1,000 searches in its first month and received coverage from Insurance Age. The funding is earmarked to deepen construction data feeds, take the product through commercial launch and hire Atlian’s first senior sales leader from within the broker market, boosting its ability to convert early interest into paying customers. The startup expects its initial broker cohort to come on board in November.
Who are the investors?
Atlian raised £600,000 in a pre-seed round. The round was led by Fuel Ventures and included participation from SyndicateRoom's Access EIS, the GI Network (GIN) and angel investors, among them Chris Mairs.
The funding will be used to support Atlian’s commercial launch, expand construction project data capture and make key hires to accelerate broker adoption.
In the announcement, Mark Pearson, Founder & Managing Partner at Fuel Ventures, said:
We’re thrilled to lead Atlian’s pre-seed round and back James. Having built multiple successful tech businesses and raised over £17m across his career, he is uniquely positioned to take on the massive opportunity in construction insurance. Britain builds £200bn a year and it’s an industry ripe for AI-driven transformation. Atlian is building the critical software layer that will power this market, and we're excited to support them on this journey.
In the announcement, Mark James, Syndicate Lead at GI Network, said:
We wanted our first investment to show exactly what our members can back: a founder who has done it before, going after a huge market that technology has barely touched. Atlian is that company.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
- Explore our list of construction venture capital firms in the UK
- Browse our directory of construction angel investors in the UK
Founder perspective
James Buckley-Thorp, founder and CEO, has a track record of building businesses in insurance and technology. He co-founded retail brand Rupert and Buckley, founded Bequest (described as Britain's first life insurance app), and was an early team member at Zego, which became Britain’s first insurtech unicorn. Across his career he has raised around £17m and was named a Gaingels Top 100 global VC-backed founder in 2024.
In the announcement, James Buckley-Thorp, Founder & CEO at Atlian, said:
I went quiet for a year because I was looking for a problem big enough to spend the next decade on. Construction is it. Britain builds £200bn a year and still insures it like it’s 1995. AI has come for lawyers and bankers. The building site is next, and Atlian will see every building in Britain before it exists.
The bigger picture
Atlian sits at the intersection of construction and insurtech, applying AI and structured data to a traditionally low-digitisation part of the market. Its approach reflects growing investor interest in applying data-driven underwriting and lead discovery to long-tail, fragmented industries.
If Atlian can reliably surface planning-stage projects and integrate cleanly into broker workflows, it could reduce friction in how construction risk is sourced and priced. The early traction from a free finder tool and planned broker onboarding will be an important test of whether brokers will adopt a new data layer for their pipelines.
This deal is another sign that UK startups using AI to modernise legacy markets are attracting early capital, with investors placing bets on founders who combine sector knowledge and prior exits. The outcome will be watched by brokers, insurers and construction market participants across the UK and Europe as they consider how data and automation reshape risk placement.
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