Weekly Briefing: biotech, saas and greentech drive £131.9M in UK startup funding (12–16 Jan 2026)
It's Friday, 16 January, and this is your Startupmag Weekly Briefing.
This week saw heavy investment into life sciences, software and nature-tech, with several large rounds supporting scale-ups and platform plays. Total disclosed funding for the period was £131.9M.
Platform biotech focuses on automation, AI and manufacturing
Platform biotech, genomics and AI-enabled protein workflows dominated this week’s activity as investors backed companies that promise faster discovery and reduced reliance on animal testing. The deals underscore sustained interest in lab automation, AI model training and the scale-up of cell manufacturing — capabilities that can accelerate pre-clinical research and create routes to commercial cell products.
Cambridge-based bit.bio led the headlines with a £40 million Series C from M&G Investments to speed the global rollout of its human cell programming platform and expand into toxicology and manufacturing; the funding will support scale-up, dataset generation for AI model training and work to replace animal testing in pre-clinical research. Nuclera raised an £8.91 million extension to advance antibody expression and validation on its benchtop eProtein Discovery system and to integrate end-to-end antibody workflows. Axol Bioscience secured £2.08 million to expand US operations, scale cell manufacturing and develop disease models across neuroscience, ophthalmology and cardiovascular research. OutSee closed £2.5 million to validate AI-discovered genomics targets and to begin a collaborative drug-discovery programme with o2h discovery.
Taken together, the rounds point to a UK cluster — notably around Cambridge and Oxford — where investors are funding tightly integrated platforms that bridge wet-lab automation, AI and manufacturing capacity. That combination of capabilities is becoming central to efforts that aim to shorten development timelines and move from exploratory research to deployable, regulated products.
This week's Biotech & Healthtech deals:
Cambridge-based bit.bio closed a £40m Series C led by M&G Investments to speed global rollout of its human cell programming platform and expand into toxicology and manufacturing. The funding will support scale-up, dataset generation for AI model training and strengthen its position replacing animal testing in pre-clinical research.
Nuclera raised an £8.9m extension to its Series C to advance antibody expression and validation on its benchtop eProtein Discovery system. The funding will help integrate end-to-end antibody workflows and accelerate AI-enabled protein engineering for faster biologics discovery.
Axol raised £2.08m to expand US operations, scale cell manufacturing and develop disease models in neuroscience, ophthalmology and cardiovascular research. The investment will support commercial growth and increased production capacity for its iPSC-derived products.
OutSee closed a £2.5m seed follow-on round to validate AI‑discovered genomics targets and start a collaborative drug discovery programme with o2h discovery. The funds will advance experimental validation of targets found by its Nomaly platform.
AI and enterprise tooling attract both deep‑tech and revenue plays
This week’s rounds highlight investor appetite for automation that plugs directly into business workflows, from reinforcement learning platforms to quantum-aware operating systems and continuous cyber risk monitoring. Backing is flowing to both foundational tooling and specialist vertical applications, reflecting a dual focus on long-term R&D and immediate commercial utility.
AgileRL raised £5.5 million in seed funding to commercialise a reinforcement-learning platform that it says can cut RL training time and cost by tenfold; the round will support international hires and a San Francisco office. Quantum software firm Haiqu secured £8 million to ship a hardware-aware operating system intended to lower the cost of running near-term quantum applications while validating workloads in finance and healthcare. Cyb3r Operations took £4 million in a round led by Octopus Ventures to build continuous third-party cyber-risk monitoring that replaces static audits with automated, real‑time oversight of suppliers and SaaS tools. Trybe closed a £23 million Series A from Five Elms Capital to scale its spa and leisure management platform, add AI-driven workflows and expand internationally while embedding payments.
The combination of deep tech such as quantum and practical enterprise tooling shows investors are prepared to fund both R&D-heavy bets and businesses with immediate revenue. It will be worth watching whether the larger Series A rounds pursue inorganic growth to accelerate market entry, or prefer organic expansion as they push into new territories.
This week's AI, ML & Enterprise Software deals:
AgileRL raised £5.5m in a seed round to commercialise its reinforcement-learning platform that claims to cut RL training time and cost by 10x. The funding will support international hires and the launch of a San Francisco office as the company targets enterprises building RL systems.
Quantum software firm Haiqu secured £8m in a seed round to launch a hardware-aware operating system that reduces the cost of running near-term quantum applications. The money will be used to ship the OS, expand the team and validate quantum workloads across finance, healthcare and other sectors.
Cyb3r Operations raised £4m led by Octopus Ventures to develop continuous third-party cyber risk monitoring for organisations. The platform replaces static audits with automated, real-time oversight of suppliers, SaaS tools and other external dependencies.
Trybe closed a £23m Series A from Five Elms Capital to scale its spa and leisure management platform, expand internationally and add AI-driven workflows and embedded payments. The injection will support product innovation across scheduling, payments and guest experience tools as the company targets larger resort and hotel customers.
Greentech shifts from analysis to implementation
Investors this week favoured greentech projects that turn environmental data into verifiable action or direct energy savings, signalling a shift from diagnostic tools towards solutions that can be piloted and scaled with measurable outcomes. Funding spanned biodiversity software, novel energy harvesting and models for climate risk.
Verna secured £3 million to scale its nature‑recovery software and build AI features that convert nature data into verifiable actions rather than reports. Oxford-based Ionech raised £2 million to pilot its Air Voltaic Cell technology, which converts ambient air energy into electricity for applications such as commercial fridges and HVAC systems. Insurtech BirdsEyeView took an undisclosed seven‑figure investment to develop a machine‑learning wildfire model and expand its climate‑science team for faster international growth. Replacer raised £200,000 to expand its marketplace and cost‑modelling tools that help organisations swap single‑use plastics for circular alternatives, simplifying procurement and ROI modelling.
Taken together, the deals show a preference for solutions that can be trialled with clear commercial partners — from fleets of refrigeration units to insurance clients — and for software that produces verifiable environmental outcomes rather than solely reporting metrics.
This week's Greentech, Climate & Energy deals:
Verna secured £3m to scale its nature-recovery software that helps organisations plan, implement and monitor biodiversity programmes. The funding will develop AI features to turn nature-data into verifiable actions rather than just reports.
Ionech raised £2m to pilot its Air Voltaic Cell technology that converts ambient air energy into electricity, targeting integration in commercial fridges and HVAC systems. The seed will fund real-world pilots and partnerships, including initial work with a major drinks cooler fleet.
Insurtech BirdsEyeView secured an undisclosed seven-figure investment to develop its machine-learning wildfire model and expand internationally. The company will use the capital to grow its climate science team and accelerate product development for real-time risk assessment.
Replacer raised £200k pre-seed to expand a marketplace and cost-modelling tools that help organisations swap single-use plastics for circular alternatives. The platform connects buyers with vetted suppliers and simplifies ROI modelling to speed procurement decisions.
Consumer gaming: large rounds for scale‑focused operators
Consumer-facing gaming and betting platforms drew a headline round this week, underlining continued investor interest in scaled operator models. Larger growth rounds are being used to fund product development, international expansion and the development of proprietary stacks — often with embedded payments — to support rapid scaling.
London sportsbook operator Midnite raised £26 million in a Series C led by Raine Partners IV to accelerate international expansion. The company says the funding will support the build‑out of its in‑house sportsbook and casino platform, product development and hiring, as it aims to compete with larger global operators.
How regulation and changing user preferences will reshape which operators succeed at scale remains unclear. For now, the pattern is evident: substantial capital is available to consumer platforms that can demonstrate rapid international traction and own their product stack.
This week's Gaming & Consumer deals:
London sportsbook operator Midnite raised £26m in a Series C led by Raine Partners IV to accelerate international expansion and build out its in-house sportsbook and casino platform. The capital will fund product development, hiring and growth as it aims to compete with larger global operators.
🎧 That's this week's Startupmag Weekly Briefing.
See you next Friday for another look at the UK startup scene.