Weekly Briefing: Greentech, fintech and AI attract £1.07B in UK startup funding (29 Dec–2 Jan 2026)
It's Friday, 2 January, and this is your Startupmag Weekly Briefing.
This week saw a mix of giant energy deals and targeted hardware and fintech raises. Total disclosed funding across the featured rounds reached £1065.2M.
Greentech: software meets project delivery
Large, capital‑intensive energy plays dominated the week as firms push AI and project delivery services for renewables and utilities. Investors wrote sizeable cheques for businesses that marry software scale with heavy project execution — a combination increasingly necessary as the sector moves beyond pilots into full deployment, driven by grid modernisation and offshore wind expansion.
Kraken secured £1 billion led by D1 Capital Partners as it prepares to demerge from Octopus Energy Group, backing a global roll‑out of its AI‑powered utility operating system that already serves tens of millions of accounts. Venterra raised £40 million of equity to accelerate delivery of offshore wind projects through integrated survey‑to‑operations services, funding scaling across the UK, Europe and international markets. Together these rounds underline capital flowing to both platform software at scale and hands‑on project delivery businesses.
The pattern suggests investors will favour asset‑heavy, software‑enabled models able to move quickly into construction and operations. Regional demand for offshore wind and utility modernisation is an obvious driver. It will be worth watching how newly independent platforms such as Kraken deploy large capital allocations in competitive utility markets.
This week's Greentech / Energy deals:
Kraken secured a £1bn investment led by D1 Capital Partners as it prepares to demerge from Octopus Energy Group and operate independently. The funding backs global roll‑out of its AI-powered utility operating system, which already serves tens of millions of accounts.
Venterra raised £40m of equity to accelerate delivery of offshore wind projects through its integrated survey-to-operations services. The capital will support scaling across the UK, Europe and international markets as demand for offshore wind grows.
Fintech: regulation‑ready infrastructure takes priority
Fintech funding this week emphasised regulation‑ready infrastructure and AI‑assisted accounting as MiCA and Making Tax Digital begin to crystallise. Investors favoured firms that reduce compliance friction or provide bank‑grade rails, a pragmatic bet while rules take shape — and one that places a premium on revenue predictability and regulatory readiness.
ANNA Money secured £10 million in growth debt from Flashpoint to scale its AI accounting product and Auto Accountant ahead of Making Tax Digital changes; the loan is intended to expand its MTD‑ready offering. Nodu closed a £1.1 million pre‑seed round to build compliant stablecoin rails for banks and fintechs across Europe, using the capital to grow engineering and compliance teams as MiCA develops. These rounds show appetite for both debt and equity solutions that bridge regulatory transitions.
Investors are balancing growth with regulatory certainty through a mix of instruments. Which firms will translate compliance readiness into broader market adoption remains unclear, but for now there is steady support for infrastructure and specialist payments rails.
This week's Fintech deals:
ANNA Money secured £10m in growth debt from Flashpoint to scale its AI accounting and Auto Accountant product ahead of Making Tax Digital changes. The loan will help the platform expand its MTD-ready offering and push towards its next revenue milestones.
Nodu closed a £1.1m pre-seed round to build compliant stablecoin rails for banks and FinTechs across Europe. The capital will expand coverage, grow the engineering and compliance teams, and deepen partnerships as MiCA brings clearer regulation.
AI & Software: targeted bets on workflow and consumer platforms
AI‑first tools continued to attract modest, early‑stage rounds across enterprise and consumer experiences, from HR and legal automation to AI‑native device software. Investors are allocating focused cheques to teams that can demonstrate quick product‑market fit and clear adoption pathways — a dynamic that favours rapid iteration and narrow use cases.
Deltabase raised £1 million from River Capital and EHE Ventures to scale an AI platform that maps competitor culture and workforce signals, using the funds to grow data science and engineering capacity and accelerate enterprise adoption. Ranking Copilot took £110,000 from ZAS Ventures to scale an AI tool automating submissions, proposals and rankings for law firms, integrating with Chambers to speed bid preparation. Nothing raised over £6 million from more than 5,000 community investors to continue building an AI‑native operating system across consumer devices, emphasising context‑aware device software.
Taken together, these rounds show appetite for both niche workflow automation and broader consumer AI platforms. Community‑driven capital is emerging as an alternative route for hardware‑software hybrids; the key question is which startups convert early traction into sustained enterprise contracts.
This week's AI & Software deals:
Deltabase secured £1m from River Capital and EHE Ventures to scale its AI platform that maps competitor culture and workforce signals. The funding will grow data science and engineering capacity and accelerate enterprise adoption.
Ranking Copilot raised £110k from ZAS Ventures to scale its AI tool that automates submissions, proposals and rankings for law firms. The startup is already working with dozens of firms and integrating with Chambers to speed up bid preparation.
Nothing raised over £6m from more than 5,000 community investors to continue building its AI-native operating system across consumer devices. The raise follows the company’s recent Series C and underlines its focus on context-aware device software.
Deeptech & Hardware: moving from lab to pilot
Deeptech and hardware teams are shifting from R&D towards commercial qualification and pilot deployments, particularly in satellite communications and autonomous marine robotics. Investors remain prepared to fund the longer runways required to reach operational pilots and early customer validation; qualification is the critical step that converts engineering progress into revenue opportunities.
Sofant Technologies closed around £6.25 million to transition from R&D into commercial production of low‑power RF MEMS beamforming solutions for satellite communications, using the funding to qualify first products and prepare for customer deployments in SatCom and defence. ScrubMarine raised £740,000 to develop autonomous cavitation‑powered robots for hull cleaning and inspection, with plans to complete prototypes, expand the engineering team and move towards pilot deployments with ferry and fleet operators. Both rounds underline the push to convert lab work into tested hardware in operational environments.
Investors appear willing to back capital‑intensive schedules while expecting near‑term qualification milestones. Regional hubs with marine and aerospace clusters are benefiting from targeted funding, but it remains to be seen which teams will secure the early pilot contracts that validate their technologies.
This week's Deeptech & Hardware deals:
Sofant closed around £6.25m to move from R&D into commercial production of its low-power RF MEMS beamforming solutions for satellite communications. The funding will be used to qualify first products and prepare for early customer deployments in SatCom and defence.
ScrubMarine raised the equivalent of £740k to develop autonomous cavitation-powered robots for hull cleaning and inspection. The funds will complete prototypes, expand the engineering team and move towards pilot deployments with ferry and fleet operators.
🎧 That's this week's Startupmag Weekly Briefing.
See you next Friday for another look at the UK startup scene.