Sainaptic raises £1m led by Cornerstone VC and Ufi Ventures
This article covers Sainaptic, an edtech startup, which has raised £1m in a series A funding round co-led by Cornerstone VC and Ufi Ventures. The funding will extend its AI-assisted assessment marking technology into quality assurance, analytics and personalised assessments, targeting exam boards, training providers and apprenticeship assessors.
Sainaptic has raised £1 million in a series A funding round co-led by Cornerstone VC and Ufi Ventures to extend its AI-assisted assessment marking technology for vocational and professional qualifications. The investment, which also included participation from Elm Venture Partners and Brighteye Ventures, will be used to broaden the product from automated marking and feedback into quality assurance, analytics and personalised assessments, and to grow engineering, product and sales teams.
Why it matters
Automating elements of assessment for apprenticeships and vocational routes touches a growing pain point in UK education: high volumes of written and spoken evidence that must be reliably evaluated against standards. Sainaptic’s tools target short answers, essays, reports and professional discussions — formats that are time consuming to mark at scale. The company’s roadmap into quality assurance and analytics could shift how assessment organisations manage consistency and workload.
The deal also comes with a route to market: a partnership with assessment software provider Skilltech Solutions that will make Sainaptic’s technology available to a number of the UK’s largest apprenticeship assessment organisations. That distribution channel could accelerate adoption across regulated apprenticeship standards.
Inside the product
Founded by Cambridge-trained educators and data scientists Kavitha Ravindran and Rajeshwari Iyer, Sainaptic builds AI tools designed for exam boards and training providers that assess vocational and professional qualifications. The current focus is on marking and generating feedback for open-format responses. The company says the next stage is adding quality-assurance capabilities, richer analytics for assessors and personalised assessment options for learners.
The partnership with Skilltech Solutions will begin with portfolio evaluation across selected apprenticeship standards and is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2027. The new funding will support hiring across engineering, product and sales to prepare for that deployment.
Who are the investors?
The round was co-led by Cornerstone VC and Ufi Ventures, with participation from Elm Venture Partners and Brighteye Ventures.
Cornerstone VC and Ufi Ventures led the financing, signalling continued interest in tools that help institutions manage assessment at scale. Elm Venture Partners and Brighteye Ventures participated in the round. Together the investors provide financial backing and potential sector connections that could help Sainaptic reach assessment organisations and apprenticeship providers more quickly.
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Founder perspective
Sainaptic’s founders combine classroom and research experience with data science, positioning the company at the intersection of assessment practice and machine learning. Their stated aim is to reduce assessor workload while preserving—or improving—consistency in judgement across large cohorts and workplace-based evidence.
The bigger picture
The funding sits within a broader uptick in investment in edtech companies building AI-driven assessment and learning tools. As vocational and apprenticeship pathways expand in the UK, demand for scalable, robust assessment solutions grows alongside it. That creates an opportunity for firms that can integrate with existing assessment software and meet regulatory expectations for reliability and fairness.
This deal highlights how UK edtech investors continue to back startups that aim to remove administrative bottlenecks in education and vocational training. If Sainaptic’s pilot with Skilltech reaches large assessment organisations, it could become a reference point for AI-assisted assessment across apprenticeship standards in the UK and beyond.
They've invested in Sainaptic
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| Investors | Investment Focus | Startup Investments | Round Size | Connect |
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 Cornerstone VC( ) Cornerstone is a venture capital firm that focuses on investing in the sectors o... London  | ||||
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 Elm Venture Partners( ) | ||||
 Brighteye Ventures( ) Brighteye Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in startups aimed at e... London | ||||
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