Sheffield-based Kinematic Trees raises £585k led by Haatch with support from D2N2
This article covers Kinematic Trees, an AI startup that has raised £585k in a pre‑seed funding round to develop a nature‑inspired, robot‑agnostic software layer it describes as a "universal robot brain". The funding will support hires across London, Nottinghamshire and Sheffield and advance initial factory and warehouse deployments, aiming to provide a reusable intelligence layer to support industrial and consumer robotics.
Kinematic Trees, an AI startup, has raised £585,000 in a pre-seed funding round to develop a nature-inspired, robot‑agnostic software layer it describes as a “universal robot brain”. The funding will be used to expand commercial, robotics and software engineering teams across London, Nottinghamshire and Sheffield, and to push toward initial factory and warehouse deployments as robotics hardware and AI capabilities advance.
Why it matters
Robotics hardware — sensors, motors and compute — is advancing rapidly, but software that can run across different machines and preserve value from older hardware remains scarce. Kinematic Trees aims to provide a reusable intelligence layer that lets robots be repurposed, coordinated and customised for industrial and consumer settings. If it works, the approach could reduce waste from idle equipment and lower the barrier for businesses to adopt robots.
Inside the product
Kinematic Trees says its software is robot‑agnostic and inspired by biological systems, combining modular software, a cognitive architecture and AI‑accelerated design. The company plans tools for deploying advanced control systems and orchestrating multi‑robot teams, with an emphasis on portability across different robot embodiments so the same “mind” can be reused on many machines.
The team argues this modularity will let manufacturers, integrators and smaller users recombine capabilities for specific tasks — for example, automating production‑line steps, warehouse workflows or domestic assistance — without rebuilding software for each new robot model. The startup also highlights a practical use case: restoring older robots whose original software has become obsolete.
Who are the investors?
The round is led by Haatch (via its SEIS Fund) and includes the D2N2 Early‑Stage Angel Investment Fund and the British Business Bank Syndicate Fund.
Haatch is providing follow‑on strategic support, and public‑sector backed funds such as D2N2 and the British Business Bank signal both regional and national backing for the venture. The mix of investors combines early‑stage risk capital with syndicate support intended to help the company hire and commercialise quickly.
In the announcement, Fred Soneya, General Partner and Co‑founder at Haatch, said:
Robotics hardware is advancing at an extraordinary pace, but its wider adoption still depends on having flexible, intelligent software that can work across different machines and environments.
Stuart and Daniel combine deep expertise in computational neuroscience, robotics and commercial technology, and we were immediately impressed by both the ambition of their vision and the practical commercial applications already emerging.
Kinematic Trees has the potential to become a critical intelligence layer for the next generation of robotics, and we are delighted to support the team as they bring that vision to market.
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Founder perspective
The company was founded in 2025 by Dr Stuart Wilson, a Senior Lecturer in Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield and now CEO, and Daniel Camilleri, CTO, an exited co‑founder of Cyberselves Universal (later Bettering our Worlds). The pair trace the idea to work on adaptive control and a shared experience at Living Machines, Stanford, in 2017.
In the announcement, Dr Stuart Wilson, Co‑founder and CEO at Kinematic Trees, said:
Advances in sensors, motors, and AI are now bringing robotics to people and businesses at exceptionally low cost. We’re providing the intelligence layer to make those robots useful, inherently safe, and – perhaps most importantly – customisable. Robots should be able to do whatever we want them to, rather than what any particular company thinks we might want them to.
With that layer for deploying advanced control systems, and orchestrating multi‑robot teams, we will first build out specific expertise on production lines, in warehouses, within advanced manufacturing, in businesses and in homes.
That expertise will then become useful for all, through modular software that can be reused, recombined, and elaborated – much like how natural intelligence evolves – to help get the most out of personal robots.
The approach has an added benefit. Factory floors and research labs across the world are littered with hardware gathering dust because the original software no longer works or the people trained to use it have moved on. We can bring those robots back to life and ensure they never gather dust again.
Our growth has been catalysed by this pre‑seed investment from Haatch who saw the vision and potential immediately. The Haatch team is also supporting us with the strategy, networks, and resources we need to scale and that’s what it’s all about; robotics that delivers at scale.
In the announcement, Daniel Camilleri, Co‑founder and CTO at Kinematic Trees, said:
The technology has been 10 years away for about 40 years. While conducting research at the University of Sheffield over 10 years ago, I saw many contenders come and go: All promising incredible hardware at great prices, but in the end not gaining enough traction to take off.
At the same time, by applying psychology and neuroscience to robotics, I came to understand that minds and bodies are separable. The mind learns through the body it has been given but minds adapt in ways that translate across different embodiments, and are resilient across different environments.
At Kinematic Trees this is the enabler: Bringing robots into mass adoption needs portability of software across different robots and an ecosystem of software capabilities so robots can become personal. Our robot‑agnostic intelligence layer is inspired by nature and integrates software modularity, cognitive architecture, and AI accelerated design, making that ecosystem possible.
We are creating the software needed for one mind to evolve through many different embodiments. In doing so, we want to bring advances in industrial robotics into emerging businesses and the growing consumer space.
The bigger picture
The investment is modest by venture standards but typical for early commercialisation milestones in robotics software. Public and regional funds taking part reflects ongoing UK interest in bridging academic research and industry, especially in AI and robotics. Kinematic Trees’ emphasis on software portability echoes a broader industry shift: as robot hardware becomes cheaper, the differentiator moves toward software that enables flexible, long‑lived deployments.
Kinematic Trees says it will use the funds to hire and to announce first customer factory deployments and partnerships in the second half of 2026. The company’s university links and founders’ prior exit provide technical credibility; execution will depend on landing real‑world integrator deals and proving software portability across a range of robot hardware.
This deal sits alongside other early AI and robotics bets in the UK and Europe that aim to turn laboratory advances into deployable systems, and it highlights the continuing role of blended private and public funding in scaling deep tech from research into industry.
They've invested in Kinematic Trees
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| Investors | Investment Focus | Startup Investments | Round Size | Connect |
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 Haatch( ) This award-winning UK-based venture capital firm focuses on pre-seed and seed in... Stamford  | ||||
 D2N2 Early-Stage Angel Investment Fund( ) | ||||
 British Business Bank (BBB) Syndicate Fund( ) | ||||
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