Weekly Briefing: healthtech, AI and greentech drive £200.6M in UK startup funding (19–23 Jan 2026)
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It's Friday, 23 January, and this is your Startupmag Weekly Briefing.
A busy week for UK startups as multiple sizeable rounds closed across healthtech, AI and greentech. Investors backed growth and international expansion, with a mix of Series A–D and earlier-stage deals.
AI investment spans agents to photonic compute
Investment into AI platforms, agent marketplaces and specialised compute hardware dominated this week’s rounds. Deals ranged from no-code agent builders to photonic chips designed for generative models, underscoring investor appetite across the stack and the recognition that scaling models requires both developer tools and bespoke compute.
Emergent closed a £50m Series B to develop its AI app platform that enables anyone to build monetisable software using autonomous agents, with the capital earmarked for product development, team growth and international expansion as it scales ARR and its user base. Optalysys raised £23m in a Series A extension to commercialise photonic chips for generative AI and other compute‑heavy workloads, targeting low‑power solutions for cloud and encrypted computing. LaunchLemonade took a £357k pre‑seed round to expand a no‑code platform and marketplace for building and selling AI agents, with funding directed at marketplace development and creator support.
Taken together, these rounds show investors backing both front‑end agent marketplaces and back‑end compute innovation. The coming months should make clear which segment attracts follow‑on capital as customer needs and infrastructure choices evolve.
This week's AI deals:
Emergent closed a £50m Series B to grow its AI app development platform that helps anyone build monetisable software using autonomous agents. The capital will accelerate product development, team growth and international expansion as the business scales its ARR and user base.
Optalysys raised £23m in a Series A extension to commercialise photonic chips for generative AI and other compute‑heavy workloads. The Leeds company will use the funds to accelerate product development, expand into the US and bring its low‑power photonic solutions to cloud and encrypted computing markets.
LaunchLemonade closed a £357k pre‑seed to grow its no‑code platform for building and selling AI agents. The capital will fund marketplace development and support a community of users who create and monetise specialised agents.
Fintech funding targets expansion and partnerships
This week’s fintech rounds covered workplace finance, embedded insurance, core banking and grassroots payments. Capital is being deployed to deepen product suites and to support regional expansion, with many founders pointing to international ambitions and partnerships with banks and OEMs as routes to scale.
Stream raised £67m in a Series D to scale its workplace finance platform, expand in the US and broaden employee financial tools including pensions. Wrisk secured £12m in a Series B to extend its embedded car insurance platform across Europe and invest in data and product development while working with major OEMs. Fimple attracted the equivalent of £7.45m to accelerate deployment of its composable, cloud‑native core banking platform across the GCC, financing regional rollout and regulatory preparedness for banks and fintech partners. TeamFeePay closed £9m to professionalise grassroots football administration with payments, attendance tracking and club management tools, planning UK and European expansion and the creation of around 75 jobs.
Taken together, these rounds point to a pattern: capital aimed at getting products into new regions and embedding services with larger partners. The emphasis on commercial partnerships and regulatory work suggests investors are prioritising scale and repeatable revenue over one‑off pilots.
This week's Fintech deals:
Stream raised £67m in a Series D to scale its workplace finance platform and push international expansion, with the US a priority. The London FinTech will use the funding to deepen its pensions offering and broaden employee financial tools to reduce reliance on high‑cost payday lending.
Wrisk raised £12m in a Series B to expand its embedded car insurance platform across Europe and invest in data and product development. The insurer‑tech, which works with major OEMs, will use the cash to scale commercial operations and support international growth.
Fimple raised the equivalent of £7.45m to accelerate deployment of its composable, cloud‑native core banking platform across the GCC. The follow‑on round will fund regional expansion, regulatory readiness and product development for banks and fintech partners.
TeamFeePay closed a £9m round to professionalise grassroots football admin with payments, attendance tracking and club management tools. The Belfast company will use the funding to expand across the UK and Europe and create around 75 new jobs.
Healthtech and biotech: clinical tools meet lab manufacturing
This week’s health and biotech rounds spanned clinical AI, microbiome consumer products and cell‑free manufacturing. Investors backed both software aimed at clinicians and wet‑lab teams developing new therapies and materials, signalling ongoing interest at seed and Series A stages across clinical and consumer health.
Eolas Medical raised £8.9m in a Series A to roll out its AI‑powered NHS knowledge platform, giving clinicians faster access to local guidance and funding further development of point‑of‑care AI search features. Gutology secured £1.8m to scale sales of microbiome‑friendly oral care products, support clinical trials and enter the US and German markets. Anzen Industries picked up £1.7m pre‑seed to commercialise cell‑free enzyme manufacturing for high‑value molecules, with plans to establish US operations and build a first manufacturing facility.
Taken together, these rounds underline a regional push to commercialise clinical tools and lab innovation. It will be worth watching which playbook — software for clinicians or novel manufacturing approaches — attracts follow‑on capital first.
This week's Healthtech / Biotech deals:
Eolas Medical raised £8.9m in a Series A to roll out its AI‑powered NHS knowledge platform that gives clinicians fast access to local guidance. The capital will support UK and international growth and further development of point‑of‑care AI search features.
Gutology raised £1.8m to scale sales of its microbiome‑friendly oral care products and to fund clinical trials and international expansion. The funds will support entry into the US and German markets and further product development.
Anzen Industries secured £1.7m pre‑seed to commercialise cell‑free enzyme manufacturing for high‑value molecules. The startup will use the money to establish operations in the US and build its first manufacturing facility.
Practical greentech focuses on verification and circularity
Funding this week targeted nature‑based carbon project certification and lab plastics recycling. Investors appear to favour tools that boost the supply of high‑integrity credits and improve circularity within research and healthcare sectors, tying environmental impact to measurable product and service outcomes.
Equitable Earth secured £10.93m to accelerate digital certification of nature‑based carbon projects and expand its platform, supporting methodology development and the use of remote sensing to scale high‑integrity credits. LabCycle raised an undisclosed investment from Angel Academe EIS Fund and SyndicateRoom to scale recycling of contaminated laboratory plastic into high‑grade pellets, with the cash to expand operations and increase adoption across research and healthcare organisations.
These rounds point to a pragmatic climate agenda: verification and circularity rather than speculative technology. If investors continue to back verifiable outcomes, procurement by institutions could shift faster towards credits and recycled materials.
This week's Greentech deals:
Equitable Earth secured £10.93m (reported as €12.6m) to speed digital certification of nature‑based carbon projects and expand its platform. The funding will support methodology development, remote sensing tools and scaling certification to increase the supply of high‑integrity credits.
LabCycle raised an undisclosed investment from Angel Academe EIS Fund and SyndicateRoom to scale recycling of contaminated laboratory plastic into high‑grade pellets. The funding will help the team expand operations and increase adoption across research and healthcare organisations.
Vertical AI for compliance and incident response
A pair of rounds this week applied AI to enterprise risk and professional services, demonstrating how startups are automating compliance tasks and speeding incident investigations with agent‑style tools. Both propositions are aimed at enterprises seeking to cut time and cost from recurring workflows.
Antidote raised £3.72m in a seed round to automate billing compliance for law firms using AI, with funding to accelerate product development and US expansion while helping firms reduce write‑offs and improve invoice accuracy. Asymmetric Security picked up £3.13m in a pre‑seed to build AI agents that shorten cyber incident investigations from days to hours, directing the cash to expand engineering and incident response teams and broaden enterprise capabilities.
These investments suggest investors value quick wins that reduce measurable risk and cost. If the pattern persists, expect more capital to flow into verticalised AI tools for professional services and security.
This week's Other (Legaltech & Cybersecurity) deals:
Antidote raised £3.72m (reported as $5m) in a seed round to automate billing compliance for law firms using AI. The London startup will accelerate product development and US expansion while helping firms reduce write‑offs and improve invoice accuracy.
Asymmetric Security raised £3.13m (reported as $4.2m) in a pre‑seed round to build AI agents that speed cyber incident investigations from days to hours. The funding will expand engineering and incident response teams and broaden the platform’s capabilities for enterprise incidents.
🎧 That's this week's Startupmag Weekly Briefing.
See you next Friday for another look at the UK startup scene.