Automata
GrowthLondon
Builds modular lab-automation robotics with orchestration software to run experiments in life-sciences and diagnostics laboratories. Headquartered in London.
RoboticsHealthcare AIAI for Science
UK AI in AI for Science
UK companies applying AI to scientific discovery, from biology to materials.
Companies (14)
Basecamp Research
GrowthLondon
Builds a very large biological database by sampling genetic diversity from nature, then uses it to train generative foundation models for biology and drug discovery. Headquartered in London, with a laboratory in Boston.
Healthcare AIAI for ScienceFoundation Models
Causaly
Early-stageLondon
Builds an agentic AI platform over a biomedical knowledge graph to help life-sciences teams accelerate research and drug discovery. Headquartered in London.
Healthcare AINatural Language ProcessingAI for Science
CuspAI
GrowthCambridge
Builds AI models that discover and design new materials, starting with compounds that capture carbon. Headquartered in Cambridge and founded in 2024 by researchers with roots in Google DeepMind and academia.
AI for ScienceFoundation ModelsResearch
Google DeepMind
AcquiredLondon
Runs one of the world's leading AI research labs, behind breakthroughs including AlphaFold, AlphaGo, and the Gemini family of models. Headquartered in London and part of Google, it anchors much of the UK's AI research base.
ResearchFoundation ModelsAI for Science
Healx
GrowthCambridge
Uses AI to discover and repurpose drugs for rare diseases, and runs its own clinical pipeline. A University of Cambridge spinout, headquartered in Cambridge.
Healthcare AIAI for Science
Isomorphic Labs
GrowthLondon
Applies AI to drug discovery, using models descended from AlphaFold to predict how molecules behave and design new medicines. Headquartered in London as an Alphabet company spun out of DeepMind.
Healthcare AIAI for ScienceFoundation Models
LabGenius
Early-stageLondon
Applies machine learning and lab automation to discover and optimise therapeutic antibodies, with a pipeline aimed at solid tumours. Headquartered in London.
Healthcare AIAI for Science
Latent Labs
SeedLondon
Uses generative AI to design proteins from scratch, aiming to make biology programmable and speed up the discovery of new therapeutics such as antibodies and enzymes. Founded in 2023 by Simon Kohl, a former co-lead of DeepMind's protein-design team and a scientist on AlphaFold2. Headquartered in London.
Healthcare AIAI for ScienceFoundation Models
Orbital Materials
Early-stageLondon
Designs new materials using a "foundation model for atoms", targeting applications such as carbon capture, cleaner fuels, and cooling for AI data centres. Founded in 2022 by Jonathan Godwin, previously part of DeepMind's materials research. Headquartered in London.
AI for ScienceClimate & Energy AIFoundation Models
PhysicsX
GrowthLondon
Builds AI simulation software for engineering and manufacturing, used in aerospace, automotive, and defence to design and test physical products faster. Headquartered in London.
AI for ScienceGenerative AIEnterprise AI
Relation Therapeutics
Early-stageLondon
An AI drug-discovery company using a "lab-in-the-loop" approach that combines single-cell genomics from patient tissue, laboratory experiments, and machine learning to find new drug targets, starting with bone and immune diseases. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in London.
Healthcare AIAI for Science
Space Intelligence
Early-stageEdinburgh
Uses satellite data and AI to map land cover, deforestation, and forest carbon stocks for carbon markets and supply-chain compliance. Headquartered in Edinburgh.
Climate & Energy AIComputer VisionAI for Science
Zenithon
SeedLondon
A London AI lab building "world models for extreme physics": machine-learning systems meant to replace slow engineering simulation, exploring vast design spaces far faster than conventional methods and learning from real experiments. Targets fusion reactors, rockets and semiconductor fabrication. Headquartered in London.
AI for ScienceFoundation Models
Latest coverage
Investment
Zenithon raises $10M for AI 'world models' that simulate extreme physics
Zenithon, a London AI lab, has raised a $10M seed to build "world models for extreme physics" — machine-learning systems meant to replace the slow engineering simulation behind fusion reactors, rockets and semiconductor fabs, exploring vast design spaces far faster and learning from real experiments. A notably deep-tech cap table for a seed.
Investment
Basecamp Research raises $140M, backed by Anthropic, Nvidia and the UK's Sovereign AI fund
Basecamp Research, a London company building AI models of biology from the largest genomic dataset it can gather from nature, has raised an oversubscribed $140M Series C. It was led by S32, but the striking part is the supporting cast: Nvidia, Anthropic's venture fund, and the UK government's Sovereign AI fund all put money in.
Investment
A month-old DeepMind spinout is reportedly raising $700M for AI world models
Emulate, a London startup barely a month old and founded by former DeepMind researchers behind the Genie world models, is reportedly in advanced talks to raise around $700M at a $3.7B valuation, with Index Ventures and Lightspeed poised to lead. It would be the third UK "neo-lab" to spin out of DeepMind this year at a ten-figure valuation.
Analysis
Hassabis steps back from DeepMind: what it means for the UK's flagship lab
Demis Hassabis is moving from chief executive of Google DeepMind to its chair, also becoming Alphabet's chief scientist, while Koray Kavukcuoglu takes over running the lab day-to-day. For the UK's most important AI research institution, the change is reassuring in one direction and worth watching in another.
Regulatory
UK's Sovereign AI fund now backs 12 companies, and wants to be their customer
The UK's £500M Sovereign AI programme has now invested in, or is closing deals with, 12 UK AI companies that between them have raised £4B. Its latest update also signals a shift: it plans to launch government procurement challenges and buy from startups, not just invest in them.
Analysis
AI took more than 70% of UK venture funding in the first half of 2026
New PitchBook figures show UK startups raised £14.4B in the first half of 2026, with more than 70% of it going to AI and the UK taking close to 40% of all European AI funding. It is the data behind a year of big rounds, and a sign of how sharply capital is concentrating.