ThoughtRiver, the market leader in automated contract review and pre-screening, has announced $10M (£7.5M) in Series A funding. The round is led by Octopus Ventures, a leading European venture capital firm which invests in technology innovation leaders.   The investment comes after ThoughtRiver achieved record growth over the past twelve months. It recently signed contracts with some of the world’s leading companies, including giants such as G4S, Singtel, and DB Schenker. 

Bristol-based tech startup Geollect is one of 10 companies chosen to take part in a special mentoring programme being run by the UK’s intelligence, security and cyber agency.  The aim of the scheme is to develop creative products based on data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques that have the potential to help communities and businesses. 

Turquoise, the London-based merchant bank specialising in energy, environment and efficiency, has announced its latest investment through Low Carbon Innovation Fund 2 (LCIF2) in Spark EV Technology.  The investment, worth £160,000, is part of an ongoing £530,000 funding round for Spark EV Technology. This will support the company’s automotive market growth, assist business development efforts into China and expand its reach to European and North American customers. Harnessing live data and machine learning, Spark’s AI-based software produces highly accurate, personalised range predictions for electric vehicles. 

Humanloop, a game changing UCL spinout, has attracted investment from UCL’s Technology Fund (UCLTF). Based on the world-leading research of two notable academics at UCL’s AI Centre Humanloop is teaching AI to improve performance with 10 times less human training than existing systems.  The UCLTF has invested in Humanloop to help the team, which includes Professors David Barber and Emine Yilmaz, to build software that can train AI models to reach high levels of accuracy while using smaller datasets through better interaction with their human users.

Machine Labs has raised a Seed Extension round of £1 million ($1.25 million) lead by Techstart Ventures alongside the founders, the angel investors Bill Dobbie and Richard Freedman, and the British Business Bank. An additional £100,000 was provided in grant funding by Amazon and Scottish Enterprise.

BrainWaveBank Limited, an artificial intelligence (‘AI’) company focused on developing a machine learning-enabled neurocognitive platform for in-home assessment and remote monitoring of central nervous system disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, and psychiatric conditions such as depression and schizophrenia, has closed a £1.1m financing round led by Par Equity and supported by current investors Techstart Ventures, Co-Fund II managed by Clarendon Fund Managers, Angel CoFund, and new investment from British Business Investments. This is the second investment that Par Equity has made in BrainWaveBank.

SLAMcore, a UK company developing spatial AI algorithms for robots and drones, has secured$5million in a funding round led by Octopus Ventures and MMC Ventures, with participation from Amadeus Capital Partners. The funding will allow SLAMcore to meet the increasing demand of the robotics market, which has seen demand skyrocket due to COVID-19. This has occurred particularly in drone, robots and AR/VR usage, as effective robotics solutions that can support the ‘new normal’ of a post-COVID-19 crisis world are accelerating. Existing investors Toyota AI Ventures continue to provide strategic support to SLAMcore.  

Service Robotics Limited, a health and wellbeing business focusing on supporting the vulnerable and elderly through innovative technology, has raised £600,000 in their latest funding round. The funding includes a £300,000 equity investment from the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF) and investment from Britbots and the Enterprise 100 Angel Investment Club.  The company has created an intelligent companion robot that will assist the elderly via patient-centred interactions. GenieConnect® helps users by providing companionship and support by offering services such as prescription management, medication reminders, daily welfare checks, video calls and music entertainment.

 Aberystwyth based Agxio has completed a £750,000 equity investment round to support the development of advanced data science and AI solutions in agri-tech and agri-fintech.

The £750,000 investment comes from a mix of existing investors and the Development Bank of Wales plus match funding from new professional investors.

The Silicon Valley Bank’s Future of Robotics Report, which looks at emerging topics in the industry, including VC appetite for robotics, how automation affects the labour market and the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic might have on the next wave of automation, has been published.

Continuum Industries, which provides AI tools for engineering professionals to rapidly design linear infrastructure projects and reduce their costs, has raised £1.5M in seed funding to make its technology widely available to infrastructure planning and design teams around the world.

The round was co-led by Playfair Capital and Credo Ventures with participation from Techstart Ventures, Simon Blakey, Michael Blakey and others.

Lifebit Biotech, a leading innovator in bioinformatics and cognitive software solutions, has closed its Series A funding round of US$7.5M (£6 million) led by Idinvest Partners, to fuel ongoing product innovations and global market expansion. Previous investors Pentech Ventures LLP, Beacon Capital, and Connect Ventures also participated in the round.