Led · Seed · Aug 2026

Founded in July 2024 by Professor Klaus McDonald-Maier and Dr Vishwanathan Mohan, Versatile RobotX develops intelligent agricultural robots combining AI, machine vision, embedded intelligence and advanced robotic manipulation. The company offers two products: the Fruit and Vegetable Autonomous Picker for automated picking of produce, and the Hydroponic Robotic Harvester for harvesting and transplanting in soilless systems. Its technology has been validated through field trials with UK growers including Wilkin & Sons of Tiptree and JEPCO. Versatile RobotX positions its systems as low-cost, field-ready platforms and plans to expand its portfolio of multifunctional robotic systems. The company intends to pursue manufacturing readiness, customer engagement and commercial expansion, and to demonstrate Robotics-as-a-Service as an adoption route for farms of varying sizes.

Led · Equity · Aug 2026

Circe offers virtual, licensed therapist-led group therapy for women, using AI to create cohorts based on shared life experiences and to deliver customized education and progress-tracking. Sessions are capped at 10 participants and combine grounding exercises, psychoeducation, and guided conversations, with pricing in pilots at £20 per week. The company centers programs on top women's concerns—already offering burnout and postpartum tracks and planning an ADHD program. Circe launched pilot programs before its official launch, with 92% of pilot participants reporting improved mental health after one month. Founders Claudia Radu and Gaurav Soo are positioning the platform to expand access amid long NHS wait times, and the recent £100,000 accelerator funding will be used to enhance technology and broaden reach. The service aims to scale group therapy while preserving outcomes and fostering peer support.

Led · Seed · Aug 2026

Souuthe designs soothing devices embedded in familiar comforting objects such as teddy bears and cushions, built around research into why hugging is calming. The company positions its technology as an adjunct to existing care rather than a replacement for medication or clinical oversight. The £75,000 Innovate UK award will fund clinical testing and regulatory work required before planned trials with hospices and NHS trusts. Souuthe estimates that replacing even one medication-led intervention per week with its technology could save the NHS roughly £98 million a year in nursing and monitoring time. The founder, Lou Willis-Keeler, developed the idea after personal experiences of end-of-life care and previously worked as an NSPCC child protection manager. Souuthe is based in Saltburn and is currently at the pre-seed stage supported by public grant funding and Innovate UK business support.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2026

PolyBox offers a real-time marketing platform designed for marketers rather than data scientists, combining data collection, reporting, forecasting and modelling in a single interface. The company aims to automate routine reporting and reduce the time teams spend on data wrangling, moving users from dashboarding to decision-ready forecasts and models. PolyBox targets non-technical marketing teams, positioning its product to lower the technical barrier and reduce the need for outsourced analytics or extra headcount. With the new funding it plans to prioritise AI-driven features that surface actionable insights and speed strategic decision-making. The business has received support from Innovate UK and Creative UK and has raised roughly £1.5 million in investment and grants to date.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2026

Voxshell was spun out of Cranfield University in April 2024 to commercialise ChopMesh, a proprietary meshing algorithm that ingests implicit geometry natively and produces high-fidelity meshes for engineering simulation. The platform combines a native geometry-first algorithm with AI-accelerated processing to automate workflows that currently require manual intervention. Voxshell already has paying customers and pilots underway with multiple tier-one aerospace OEMs. The company is developing a higher-performance version of ChopMesh capable of batch processing large-scale mesh files, planned for release later this year. Following its £800,000 seed round, Voxshell intends to scale its engineering team and add automated workflow orchestration while expanding go-to-market partnerships. Clive Scrivener has joined the company as Non-Executive Chair as it commercialises its technology.