AI startup Gigaton raises £20m led by Plural with Planet A Ventures
This article covers Gigaton, an AI startup, which has closed a series A funding round of £20m to grow its team and scale deployments of its autonomous control platform into steel, glass and chemicals. The funding is intended to support operators in energy-intensive industries by reducing operational costs and carbon emissions at large industrial plants.
Gigaton, an AI startup that replaces the control software used in energy‑intensive industries, has closed a series A funding round of £19 million to grow its team fivefold and push beyond cement into steel, glass and chemicals. The cash will be used to scale deployments of its autonomous control platform that aims to cut costs and carbon at large industrial plants.
Why it matters
Heavy industries such as cement, steel and glass consume a large share of global energy and remain dependent on control systems that were not designed for today’s volatile fuel markets and decarbonisation demands. Gigaton’s raise arrives as those pressures intensify: operators face rising energy costs, a shift to alternative fuels with inconsistent properties, and growing regulatory and customer expectations on emissions.
Current deployments claim annual operational savings and carbon reductions that, if replicated across multi‑site customers, could shift cost and emissions baselines for major manufacturers. The announcement also underlines a broader trend: industrial operators and investors are looking for software-led solutions that go beyond monitoring and optimisation to provide more autonomous process control.
Inside the product
Gigaton spent five years working inside control rooms before building its platform. Rather than acting as a layer on top of legacy systems, the company says its AI replaces the existing control stack. The platform simulates process behaviour, forecasts the impact of candidate actions, and can autonomously adjust parameters such as fuel mix, kiln speed and oxygen levels. Operators receive explanations for each action and the system continuously retrains from live plant data to adapt to changing conditions.
Current deployments with Mannok Holdings DAC, Adani Cement, Heidelberg Materials and Holcim are positioned as proofs of concept: these are large cement and materials groups whose operations represent high‑impact targets for efficiency and emissions gains. Gigaton reports per‑plant savings in the region of $1–3 million a year and around 30,000 tonnes of CO2 reduction per site, scaling up to much larger sums across multi‑site contracts.
In the announcement, Kevin Lunney, Operations Director at Mannok Holdings DAC, said:
We've had to look at all levels of innovation to improve our carbon footprint. Moving to alternative fuels like solid recovered fuel is genuinely harder to operate with - it's not the clean, consistent product that coal is, and varies in calorific value and moisture content. But the CO2 and cost benefit is enormous. The real challenge is making that transition with your operators in the control room, so they feel comfortable and understand why they're being asked to do something so different. That's where we've needed real support - and Gigaton provides it.
Who are the investors?
The series A was led by Plural. Participating new and returning backers include 2150, Semapa Next, Planet A Ventures, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, the UCL Technology Fund (managed by AlbionVC with UCL Business), and the Clean Growth Fund. The company says the latest injection brings total funding to more than £26 million.
Plural’s involvement signals interest from investors seeking software plays that deliver industrial decarbonisation and cost savings. The fund’s partner, Carina Namih, framed the investment around both energy and operational scale.
In the announcement, Carina Namih, Partner at Plural, said:
Cement, glass, and steel are the materials civilisation runs on, but producing them consumes about a quarter of global energy. The Gigaton team combines deep AI expertise with years spent inside these plants understanding how they actually operate. By running a single facility using Gigaton's AI, Adani, Heidelberg, and Holcim are already saving millions a year. The scale from here is enormous.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
- Explore our list of AI venture capital firms in the UK
- Browse our directory of AI angel investors in the UK
Founder perspective
Gigaton was founded in 2020 as Carbon Re and spun out of UCL and the University of Cambridge. The team presents its approach as a pragmatic route to immediate cost and carbon reductions while building the software infrastructure needed for more autonomous operations in future.
In the announcement, Josh Vernon, CEO, said:
Every cement executive I speak to is facing the same challenges: costs they struggle to control, carbon they struggle to reduce, and plants that weren't built for the world they're operating in today. The underlying software infrastructure most plants run on today was never built to manage the complexity plants are forced to deal with today. We have built Gigaton to deliver real cost and carbon savings now while building the AI infrastructure these industries need in a fully autonomous future.
The bigger picture
Gigaton’s funding and customer list put it at the intersection of two trends: the push to decarbonise heavy industry and the wider application of AI to physical‑world control systems. As a UCL and Cambridge spinout, the company is part of a pipeline of UK deep tech startups translating academic research into industrial products. The move to replace legacy control stacks — rather than retrofit them — raises technical, regulatory and workforce questions that the sector will need to address as autonomous plant operation becomes more common across Europe and beyond.
They've invested in Gigaton
Get to know these AI investors
| Investors | Investment Focus | Startup Investments | Round Size | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Plural( ) | ||||
 2150( ) | ||||
 Semapa Next( ) | ||||
 AlbionVC( ) | ||||
 UCL Business( ) | ||||
| All investors | All investor sectors | All funded startups | All funding rounds |
Click here for a full list of 7,589+ startup investors in the UK