AI deal origination platform Handshaik closes £1.7m pre-seed funding
This article covers Handshaik, a London-based AI startup that has closed a £1.7m pre-seed funding round to build analyst-grade startup profiles and a collaborative workflow for M&A and business development teams. The development aims to accelerate product development and support origination, prospecting and contact-enrichment workflows for M&A teams, accountants and other B2B firms.
Handshaik, an AI-native platform for deal origination, has closed a £1.7m pre-seed funding round to build analyst-grade company profiles and a collaborative workflow for M&A and business development teams. The London-based startup was founded by 26-year-old Joshua Port and says the cash will accelerate product development after 15 months in stealth and an early roll-out that has compiled 5.5 million company profiles and attracted hundreds of users.
Why it matters
Deal origination remains a labour-intensive, fragmented process. Handshaik targets a clear pain: teams spend hours turning raw data into an actionable pipeline rather than building relationships and closing deals. If the product delivers on its claims, it could shave significant time from target identification and outreach, and reduce reliance on expensive, manual research.
The raise is notable for coming from more than 20 angel investors at pre-seed stage, signalling early appetite for AI tools that combine data enrichment with workflow automation. The platform is already being trialled beyond M&A teams, including by accountants, software vendors and other B2B firms, suggesting a broader market for prospecting and contact enrichment.
Inside the product
Handshaik says its engine has indexed 5.5 million UK company profiles, drawing on Companies House filings, company websites, news sources and other public signals. The startup’s AI analyses and cleanses that data to produce what it calls analyst-grade profiles and a proprietary data layer that underpins recommendations.
Key features described include:
- Match scoring that surfaces best-fit opportunities based on a user brief and explains why each company is a fit.
- Contact enrichment with verified emails and mobile numbers.
- A collaborative pipeline workflow that tracks targets through outreach and nurturing, aiming to remove manual admin tasks.
The product logic is straightforward: combine a broad, regularly updated dataset with models that translate signals into human-readable rationale, then wrap it all in workflow tools used by origination teams.
Who are the investors?
Handshaik’s £1.7m pre-seed was provided by more than 20 angel investors. The announcement does not name lead institutional backers, indicating this is an early, founder-led round funded primarily by individual angels. Such syndicates often back pre-seed AI bets for founder strength, domain experience and data advantage.
In the announcement, Joshua Port, Founder at Handshaik, said:
After three years I started working in deal origination and realised quickly how inefficient the process was. The technologies on offer were expensive, often lacked focus, delivered low-quality data and, crucially, failed to support the way originators actually work. From speaking to my peers in the market, it was obvious the problems I was encountering weren’t unique to me and that technology could offer a solution.
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Founder perspective
Joshua Port developed the idea while working in M&A at KPMG and built the product in stealth for 15 months before launching earlier this year. Port comes from an entrepreneurial family—his father is Martin Port, founder of BigChange—but presents his product as born from on-the-job frustration.
In the announcement, Joshua Port, Founder at Handshaik, said:
Handshaik is a variation on the word ‘handshake’ because deals are built on relationships. That first introduction right through to completion is exactly where we come in. Because AI is at the centre of what we do, it’s also at the centre of our company name. In the announcement, Joshua Port, Founder at Handshaik, said: We saw an opportunity to rebuild that entire experience and create the first operating system for deal origination.
The bigger picture
Handshaik sits at the intersection of two trends: wider availability of company-level data and the adoption of AI to make that data actionable. The announcement highlights continued momentum among UK AI startups building verticalised tooling for traditional functions such as M&A, sales and professional services.
The pre-seed angel backing reflects investor interest in founder-led teams that can stitch together data, models and workflow into a defensible product. For incumbents and new entrants alike, the next test will be whether Handshaik’s recommendations and contact enrichment are consistently accurate enough to replace existing workflows.
This outcome matters to the UK and European deal ecosystem because tools that reduce friction in origination can increase deal flow and lower transaction costs, benefiting advisers, corporates and service firms across the market.
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