Antler backs 10 UK startups with £2.2M as over a third build physical AI and industrial automation — TFN

• Antler invested £2.2 million in 10 UK pre-seed startups.
• Based on Antler, greater than one-third of those startups are creating bodily AI or industrial automation options.
• The preliminary funding in every startup is roughly £210,000, cut up between debt and fairness.

Antler, which started working in Singapore in 2017 and has since expanded to 30 cities, invested £2.2 million into 10 pre-seed startups throughout the newest founder residency and, in some circumstances, made direct investments in current groups.

The record contains Cloop, a to-do record that does itself; Lir Labs, which automates organic water therapy; Marco, a studying layer for bodily intelligence; Ninopay, which helps households unfold the price of childcare whereas suppliers receives a commission upfront; Picnic, an AI assistant for product groups; Plenex, which lets customers question the bodily world; siliXon, which converts pure language requests into working electronics; and Sonura, a generative AI for music creation. Two different startups are nonetheless in stealth mode.

Over one third of the brand new UK startups they’ve supported are targeted on industrial automation and bodily AI, a document determine for Antler, says Hannah Leach, a accomplice at Antler, toTech Funding Information.

Based on Leach, every preliminary funding quantities to about £210,000 and is cut up between debt and fairness.

Exploring untapped industries

Initially, Antler didn’t got down to concentrate on bodily AI.

“We’re a generalist fund, not one that’s primarily based on particular hypotheses,” Leach mentioned, including that the founders’ areas of curiosity align with broader trade developments. Though the startups are grouped underneath the classes of bodily AI and agentic AI, Leach made it clear that the founders originated these themes.

Founders are specializing in analog industries as a result of there’s much less competitors, regardless that it’s more durable to promote to sectors which are “not tech native” and have longer gross sales cycles, says Leach.

She additionally identified the chance for sturdy buyer retention: “In the event you can combine yourselves into these conventional, established workflows, then you definately’ll find yourself constructing some stickiness.”

The physical AI market size will reach e of $1.5 billion in 2026, rising to $15.24 billion by 2032. Final week, Patrick Bion, CEO of Minimal, mentioned expanding physical AI companies takes longer and requires vital capital to deploy. The founders of Wave by Vento in Turin famous that Europe can not match both China’s manufacturing capability or the USA’ degree of analysis spending.

Though pre-seed funding doesn’t get rid of this hole, it does decide which startups get the chance to compete.

Huge Tech backgrounds should not the principle development

Many founders have distinguished backgrounds: 30% have earlier expertise at main expertise firms, 60% have been concerned in early-stage startups, and 25% come from the monetary sector, with some overlap.

Particularly, six founders have been from Huge Tech, and 13 have a technical background. Notable firms talked about embody Meta, Google, Snapchat, NVIDIA, Affirm, and Allica Bank.

“We’ve a reasonably even distribution,” Leach provides, citing former founders, engineers, AI and machine studying researchers with PhDs, and a quantity from huge expertise firms.

“Individuals who go away are doing so to pursue new alternatives. There’s merely a lot alternative nowadays. They will obtain a lot greater than ever earlier than with even lower than up to now,” she provides.

Different Huge Tech graduates are likewise elevating cash as reported in different TFN tales. Klarent, a Zurich-based firm based by two former Google engineers, secured $8 million in seed funding. Souk, primarily based in London and based by former workers of Deel, GitHub and BlackRock, raised $1.6 million, with Antler as one in all its traders.

Bigger investments in a harder seed market

Antler has elevated its funding over time. Beforehand, it had invested £840,000 in seven startups (£120,000 per firm) and £1.7 million in 14 startups (£121,000 every) in spring 2025, as Vestbee acknowledged.

The present determine, roughly £210,000 per startup, is sort of double and aligns with the terms TFN reported in August 2025: £125,000 for 8.5% fairness, an £85,000 convertible be aware, and as much as £330,000 pre-committed for the subsequent spherical. The sooner totals could have been primarily based on completely different funding constructions, so the figures is probably not instantly comparable.

Startups are actually progressing sooner, operating faster pilots, gaining extra expertise, and making extra frequent adjustments of route. In consequence, Antler’s funding method has modified.

“Ultimately, we’re investing within the founders and of their capability to tackle suggestions. The factor we spend money on in the mean time is probably going not going to be what they’ve in-built six months or a yr,” famous Leach.

The market is uneven: UK startups raised $17 billion within the first half of 2026, a 102% rise on the earlier yr, with AI firms securing $12.6 billion, Dealroom studies. Based on Antler’s analysis of over 41,800 UK funding rounds, solely 12% of British startups that increase a seed spherical go on to succeed in Collection A.

The true problem comes after the funding. Leach admits that gross sales cycles in these industries “may be more durable.” Whether or not these 10 groups, with greater than a 3rd in slow-selling sectors, can beat that 12% is the important thing quantity to observe as they go for seed rounds.