Weekly Briefing: AI, healthtech and ecommerce drive £321.3M in UK startup funding (26–30 Jan 2026)
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It's Friday, 30 January, and this is your Startupmag Weekly Briefing.
A busy week for UK startups saw several large AI and healthtech rounds alongside ecommerce deals, with £321.3m raised across the market. Major growth and series rounds dominated activity as companies scaled product and international plans.
Applied AI continues to attract enterprise capital
Platform and model‑driven startups are increasingly focused on embedding AI into enterprise workflows — automating content, contracts and advertising — and this week’s larger rounds underline sustained investor appetite for applied solutions.
The biggest headline was Synthesia, which raised £150 million in a growth round led by Google Ventures to accelerate conversational agents for workplace learning and to scale agent‑based products across learning, marketing and sales. Summize secured £40 million to expand its AI contract lifecycle management platform internationally, with Maven Capital Partners named among its backers and proceeds earmarked for product development as ARR grows. Dragonfly AI raised over £5 million from investors including 24Haymarket to develop its neuroscience‑led predictive AI for advertising, supporting US expansion, product innovation and enterprise integrations for creative testing.
Taken together, these deals underline a clear pattern: investors are prioritising AI that delivers measurable commercial outcomes by plugging directly into existing enterprise processes.
This week's AI deals:
Synthesia closed a £150m Series E led by Google Ventures to accelerate development of conversational agents for workplace learning. The funding will be used to expand its agent-based products and scale enterprise use across learning, marketing and sales functions.
Summize secured £40m to grow its AI contract lifecycle management platform and expand internationally. Investors include Maven Capital Partners, with proceeds earmarked for product development and scaling the team as it grows ARR rapidly.
Dragonfly AI secured over £5m from investors including 24Haymarket to expand its neuroscience-led predictive AI for advertising. The round will fund product innovation, US expansion and enterprise integrations for its creative testing platform.
Fintech focuses on stablecoins and AI‑native wealth tools
Activity this week centred on cross‑border payments and AI‑native tools for private‑client workflows, signalling investor interest in infrastructure that blends crypto rails with professional services.
Bleap raised about £4.36 million in a seed round led by Blossom Capital to build stablecoin‑based cross‑border payments and self‑custodial accounts, with plans to scale across Europe and Latin America and accelerate product development. WealthAi closed roughly £724,000 at pre‑seed to build an AI‑native operating system for wealth managers, family offices and private banks, aiming to automate front, middle and back‑office workflows.
The mix of stablecoin payments and AI for high‑value client segments suggests backers are favouring infrastructure plays that can operate across regulated markets and serve sophisticated customers.
This week's Fintech deals:
Bleap raised about £4.36m in a seed round led by Blossom Capital to build its stablecoin-based cross-border payments and self‑custodial accounts. The funding will be used to scale across Europe and Latin America and accelerate product development.
WealthAi raised £724k pre-seed to build an AI-native operating system for wealth managers, family offices and private banks. The modular platform aims to reduce operational friction and automate front-, middle- and back-office workflows.
Clinical services and R&D automation draw capital
Funding in healthtech and biotech this week spanned NHS‑facing clinical services, creator‑led consumer health platforms and lab automation tools aimed at accelerating research and development.
Evaro raised £18.3 million in a Series A led by AlbionVC to expand its NHS‑licensed healthcare‑as‑a‑service platform that embeds prescription services into consumer apps, with the capital intended to support product development and market expansion. Automata closed about £4.5 million to scale AI‑ready lab automation across pharma and biotech, while SOLVE Chemistry secured £4 million in seed funding to scale AI‑driven ultra‑high‑throughput chemical R&D and grow lab capacity and commercial work with larger partners. Emerald and other early‑stage teams also raised pre‑seed and seed rounds aimed at UK expansion and product launches.
Taken together, the rounds show investors balancing bets between immediate clinical services and the automation tools that speed drug and chemical discovery.
This week's Healthtech & Biotech deals:
Evaro raised £18.3m in a Series A led by AlbionVC to expand its NHS‑licensed healthcare-as-a-service platform that embeds prescription services into consumer apps. The capital will support product development and market expansion while easing pressure on primary care.
Automata raised £32.6m in a Series C to build AI‑ready lab automation and scale deployments across pharma and biotech. The funding will accelerate platform development and broaden global operations and customer deployments.
SOLVE Chemistry raised £4m seed funding to scale its AI-driven ultra-high-throughput chemical R&D and speed up drug and agrochemical development. The capital will grow lab capacity and expand commercial work with large chemical and pharma partners.
Emerald raised £1.5m pre-seed to build a GP‑led preventive care platform that unifies health records and pairs members with clinicians. The funding will support UK expansion and launch of coaching protocols alongside CQC registration.
Carbon removal and next‑generation fuels secure early deployment funds
Investors in climate and energy continue to back both early deployments and the measurement capabilities required to validate negative emissions and new fuel technologies.
Gigablue closed a first tranche of its Series A, raising around £14.49 million to scale marine carbon removal using microalgae and to extend monitoring, measurement, reporting and verification capabilities toward commercial carbon removal issuance. LUX raised about £280,000 in a pre‑seed round to advance on‑site hydrogen production, storage and dispensing technology, with funds earmarked for early deployments and technical development.
These rounds highlight a dual focus: deploy pilots that remove carbon now, and build the measurement systems needed to turn those removals into tradable, verifiable outcomes.
This week's Greentech & Energy deals:
Gigablue closed a first tranche of its Series A, raising around £14.49m to scale marine carbon removal using microalgae and extend monitoring capabilities. The funds will accelerate deployments, MMRV capability and progress toward commercial carbon removal issuance.
LUX closed a £277.5k pre-seed round to advance on-site hydrogen production, storage and dispensing technology. The investment will support early deployments and further technical development.
Operational SaaS and proptech seek scale and productisation
Rounds this week favoured operational SaaS, property digitisation and ecommerce infrastructure, with capital targeted at productisation and geographic expansion.
Oribtal raised approximately £44.03 million in a Series B to scale its AI platform that digitises real‑estate legal work with mapping and spatial visualisation, funding expansion in the US and UK and further product investment. Flowla closed a £1.8 million seed round led by Revo Capital to automate follow‑ups and the buyer journey through no‑code digital sales rooms and to add automation and AI content features for a US go‑to‑market push. Levellr raised £1.8 million in a seed round led by Fuel Ventures to convert community conversations into real‑time product and sentiment insight, while Raylo raised £30 million alongside a partnership with LG, with equity led by Citibank and debt from NatWest to expand device subscription infrastructure and plan a US launch.
The deals point to capital flowing to product plays that speed transactions and to platforms that add operational leverage across markets.
This week's SaaS, Proptech, Ecommerce & Consumer deals:
Oribtal raised approximately £44.03m in a Series B to scale its AI platform that digitises real estate legal work using mapping and spatial visualisation. The round will support US and UK expansion and further product investment to speed transactions and improve transparency.
Flowla closed a £1.8m seed round led by Revo Capital to automate follow-ups and the buyer journey through no-code digital sales rooms. The investment will fund automation, AI content features and US go-to-market expansion.
Levellr raised £1.8m in a seed round led by Fuel Ventures to convert Discord and community conversations into real-time product and sentiment insight. The funding will be used to build data infrastructure and agentic features for enterprise customers.
Raylo raised £30m in funding alongside a partnership with LG to expand its device subscription infrastructure. The capital, including equity led by Citibank and debt from NatWest, will support category expansion and a planned US launch.
🎧 That's this week's Startupmag Weekly Briefing.
See you next Friday for another look at the UK startup scene.