Weekly Briefing: AI, Healthtech, Proptech drive £1.3bn in UK startup funding (23–27 Feb 2026)
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It's Friday, 27 February, and this is your Startupmag Weekly Briefing.
A heavy week for UK venture capital as large AI rounds dominated the headlines alongside steady healthtech and proptech deals. Investors committed more than £1.33bn across a broad mix of stages.
AI funds embodied autonomy and infrastructure
Large and varied AI financings this week ranged from embodied autonomy to model and data infrastructure, generative simulation and agentic workplace automation. A headline robotaxi raise dominated coverage, while a stream of infrastructure and enterprise deals underlined investor appetite for both hardware-aware stacks and application-layer automation. The mix matters because capital is flowing into the physical systems that sense and move and the software that makes them predictable and deployable.
Wayve closed a package worth £1.11 billion to accelerate commercial robotaxi trials with Uber and to licence its onboard embodied AI to automakers, supporting launches from 2026 and wider deployments from 2027. Encord secured £44.42 million to scale AI-native data infrastructure for physical AI, helping teams manage video, sensor and 3D data as it expands internationally. SolveAI raised £33.34 million to allow non-technical employees to build enterprise-grade apps from natural-language prompts while meeting security and compliance needs. BeyondMath brought in £14.08 million to commercialise a generative physics model that speeds engineering simulations for automotive, aerospace and data-centre customers.
Taken together, these rounds suggest investors are backing both the sensors-and-vehicles side of AI and the data and modelling layers that make those systems practical. Smaller seed and pre-seed bets in multi-model runtimes and agentic workplace automation point to ongoing interest in infrastructure that reduces dependence on single-chip architectures and automates internal workflows. It is notable how many of the companies are UK‑based, underscoring London as a hub for both embodied autonomy and enterprise AI tooling.
This week's AI & Machine Intelligence deals:
Wayve closed a £889.1m Series D as part of a £1.11bn capital package to accelerate commercial robotaxi trials with Uber and to license its onboard embodied AI to automakers. The funding will support launches from 2026 and wider deployments from 2027 as the company scales its end-to-end autonomy platform.
Encord secured a £44.4m Series C to scale its AI-native data infrastructure for physical AI, helping teams manage video, sensor and 3D data for production robots and autonomous systems. The funds will accelerate product development and international expansion as demand for production-grade physical AI grows.
SolveAI raised £33.3m in a Series A to let non-technical employees build enterprise-grade apps from natural-language prompts while meeting security and compliance needs. The company will use the capital to grow the team and deepen enterprise partnerships.
BeyondMath closed a seed extension bringing total seed funding to £13.7m to commercialise a generative physics model that speeds engineering simulations by orders of magnitude. The money will scale commercial deployment and research, targeting automotive, aerospace and data-centre customers.
Healthtech: targeted capital for clinical and manufacturing progress
This week’s healthtech and biotech financings targeted clinical progression, device manufacturing scale-up and AI-enabled diagnostics and operations. Investors backed programmes from antibiotic immunotherapeutics to imaging AI and NHS operations optimisation. Such bets fund the regulatory, manufacturing and clinical steps needed to turn lab ideas into deployable healthcare tools.
Centauri Therapeutics took a £6 million investment from the AMR Action Fund to extend its Series A and to progress CTX-187 towards and through Phase I trials, supporting clinical studies and preclinical work. Eco-Inject raised £5.2 million to move its bio-based autoinjector into commercial-scale manufacture and to meet GMP standards, aiming to simplify self-injection while reducing component count and carbon footprint for pharma partners. Brainomix secured £4.8 million in a Series C extension to support US expansion and wider deployment of its AI imaging platforms for stroke and lung fibrosis. Tetra AI raised £450,000 to pilot AI software that optimises NHS surgical theatre lists and improve scheduling predictability during further NHS pilots.
The picture is of modest, targeted rounds aimed at de-risking regulatory and manufacturing steps rather than broad consumer plays. Investors appear focused on companies that can show clinical traction or immediate NHS and pharma partnerships.
This week's Healthtech & Biotech deals:
Centauri took a £6m investment from the AMR Action Fund, extending its Series A to £30m to progress CTX-187 towards and through Phase I trials. The capital will support clinical studies and preclinical work as the company advances its immunotherapeutic antibacterial programme.
Eco-Inject raised £5.2m to move its bio-based autoinjector into commercial-scale manufacture and meet GMP standards. The device aims to simplify self-injection while reducing component count and carbon footprint for pharma partners.
Brainomix raised a £4.8m Series C extension to support US expansion and wider deployment of its AI imaging platforms for stroke and lung fibrosis. The follow-on funding complements prior capital as the company scales clinical adoption.
Tetra AI raised £450k to pilot AI software that optimises NHS surgical theatre lists and improves scheduling predictability. The early funding will support product development and further NHS pilots to increase theatre utilisation.
Proptech and greentech steer retrofits and lettings digitisation
Rounds in proptech and greentech signalled a renewed push to digitise lettings and accelerate energy-efficiency retrofits. Investors backed both platform roll-ups and product-level hardware plays intended to cut household energy use, reflecting twin commercial drivers of decarbonisation and consolidation in housing services.
Dwelly raised £69 million in equity and debt to roll up and digitise independent letting agencies and to scale an AI-enabled rental marketplace across the UK, with capital earmarked for further M&A and product investment. Tewke secured £150,000 in pre-seed funding to continue development of Tap, a sensor-rich retrofit switch that helps households cut energy use and supports AI-led home energy features. Sero received investment from Innovation Investment Capital to accelerate retrofit and energy-management services for social housing landlords, helping scale deployment and deepen partnerships to improve energy performance across tens of thousands of homes.
The emphasis on retrofits and landlord-focused services suggests funding is aligning with policy and commercial demand for home decarbonisation. It indicates private capital sees scope for scale in both M&A-driven platforms and modest hardware plays.
This week's Proptech & Energy / Greentech deals:
Dwelly raised £69m in equity and debt to roll up and digitise independent letting agencies and scale an AI-enabled rental marketplace across the UK. The capital will back further M&A and product investment as it aims to consolidate a highly fragmented lettings market.
Sero received investment from Innovation Investment Capital to accelerate retrofit and energy-management services for social housing landlords. The capital will help scale deployment and deepen partnerships to improve energy performance across tens of thousands of homes.
Fintech, Web3 and market infrastructure favour back-office tooling
Early-stage funding in fintech, Web3 and market infrastructure this week backed tooling for private markets intelligence, hospitality finance and blockchain infrastructure for gaming. The rounds were largely pre-seed and seed, aimed at building shared infrastructure rather than consumer-facing apps — a sign that investors see durable demand for back-office clarity and token-level utilities serving operators and institutions.
Thema raised £4.59 million in a pre-seed round and grant to build contextual AI tools that map market structure for private equity expansion decisions, funding R&D and early commercialisation. Power Protocol secured £2.22 million to expand blockchain infrastructure for gaming and cross-title token utilities after beta traction, using the capital to scale shared infrastructure and token features. Alpa raised £2.6 million pre-seed to deliver real-time profit-and-loss visibility for hospitality operators by structuring POS, banking and supplier data to give restaurant groups live financial clarity.
Collectively these rounds back firms helping institutional and operator customers make faster, data-driven decisions. Expect more small, focused raises as these products move from beta to wider customer traction.
This week's Fintech, Web3 & Market Infrastructure deals:
Thema raised £4.6m in a pre-seed round and grant to build contextual AI tools that map market structure for private equity expansion decisions. The funding will support R&D and early commercialisation of its portfolio expansion infrastructure.
Power Protocol secured £2.2m to expand blockchain infrastructure for gaming and cross-title token utilities following beta traction. The funds will help scale shared infrastructure and token features across multiple game titles.
Alpa raised £2.6m pre-seed to deliver real-time profit-and-loss visibility for hospitality operators by structuring POS, banking and supplier data. The product aims to give restaurant groups live financial clarity to improve margins and operational decisions.
Security attracts larger checks; creator platforms remain seed-stage
This week’s enterprise and security funding supported cyber asset discovery and creator collaboration platforms. A significant Series A in security sat alongside smaller, founder-led bets in social and creator tooling, highlighting investor interest in critical enterprise tooling while nascent social products continue to prove monetisation.
ThreatAware raised £18.46 million to scale its agentless cyber asset discovery and AI workspace as it expands into North America, with the round intended to accelerate the product roadmap and wider deployment of its cyber asset management platform. Luupli closed a £444,000 angel-backed pre-seed and opened an institutional seed round to scale a collaboration-first social platform for creators, reporting strong organic beta uptake as it builds creator monetisation and cross-border payout tools. The disparity in ticket sizes underlines how security attracts larger expansion capital while creator platforms still rely on smaller seed checks.
Investors appear to be allocating larger pools to security firms that can serve regulated and North American customers while keeping an eye on small, high-potential creator plays. The market still prizes both scaled enterprise offerings and nascent social products.
This week's Enterprise, Security & Creator Platforms deals:
ThreatAware raised £18.5m to scale its agentless cyber asset discovery and AI workspace as it expands in North America. The round will support product roadmap acceleration and wider deployment of its cyber asset management platform.
Luupli closed a £444k angel-backed pre-seed and opened an institutional seed round to scale a collaboration-first social platform for creators. The startup has seen strong organic beta uptake and is building creator monetisation and cross-border payout tools.
🎧 That's this week's Startupmag Weekly Briefing.
See you next Friday for another look at the UK startup scene.