The tally of new UK unicorns sits at a grand total of one in 2025, with US and UK-based film streaming site Mubi reaching the $1bn valuation milestone in June. Just four startups — Wayve, Flo, Lighthouse and ElevenLabs — hit the benchmark last year. Those numbers are a far cry from the record 16 unicorns created in 2021, during frothier times.
Despite that, the ChatGPT-driven AI boom is seeing new opportunities emerge for startups and 2025 has seen VCs spend big on some companies.
DeepMind techbio spinout Isomorphic Labs raised $600m in the biggest UK round of the year so far, with Verdiva Bio, which is developing obesity treatments, coming in second with a $411m Series A. There were also chunky raises for AI duo Synthesia and ElevenLabs.
So which companies could be next to hit a $1bn valuation in the UK?
Using data from Dealroom, as well as conversations with industry insiders, Sifted has compiled a list of the contenders. None of the startups featured have publicly announced hitting unicorn status.
Pragmatic
Valuation: $855m-$1.3bn, Dealroom estimate, Dec 2023
Semiconductor startup Pragmatic produces tiny, flexible chips that can be used as tracking devices in things like packaging. It opened a factory in the north east of England in 2024, and has picked up more than $400m in funding. Investors include Cambridge Innovation Capital, M$G Investments and Latitude.
Ori Industries
Valuation: $700-$1.1bn, Dealroom estimate, Jan 2025
Ori Industries provides companies with pay-as-you-go cloud-based access to high performance compute for AI model training, by partnering with data centres across Europe. Founded in 2019, the startup has raised more than $150m and told Sifted in May it expects to close a larger round by the end of 2025. Investors include the VC arm of oil giant Saudi Aramco, Episode 1 and Telefonica.
Nscale
Valuation: $612m-918m, Dealroom estimate, Dec 2024
Nscale wants to build out capacity at data centres supplying businesses with AI cloud infrastructure, including access to Nvidia’s most powerful chips. Founded in 2023, the startup has raised $185m, according to Dealroom. Investors include Sandton Capital Partners, Kestrel0x1 and Florence Capital.
It announced plans to invest £2.5bn into UK data centre infrastructure over the next three years in January. In April, Bloomberg reported the company was looking to raise $2.7bn.
Cera
Valuation: £650m, Dealroom estimate, Jan 2025
Cera is an at-home healthcare provider, using an AI-powered platform to help deliver care to the elderly outside of hospitals. Founded in 2016, the startup has raised more than $400m in debt and equity, from investors including Schroders Capital and Jane Street Capital.
Oxa
Valuation: $560m-840m, Dealroom estimate, Jan 2023
Oxa is building autonomous driving tech for use cases like passenger shuttles and transport in industrial yards. Founded in 2014 as a spinout from the University of Oxford, Oxa has raised $231m from investors, according to Dealroom, with backers including Tencent, Parkwalk Advisors and the venture arm of oil giant BP.
Yu Life
Valuation: $800m, July 2022
YuLife is an employee benefits engagement platform that counts the likes of supermarket Tesco, media company Paramount and bank Santander as customers. It has raised more than $200m since launching in 2016, from investors including Creandum, Target Global and Notion Capital.
Allica Bank
Valuation: $528m-792m, Dealroom estimate, Dec 2022
Allica Bank is a neobank for small businesses, which topped Sifted’s leaderboard of the fastest-growing startups in Europe in 2024. Founded in 2018, the startup has raised $345m from investors including Warwick Capital, Atalaya Capital and British Business Investments.
Tessl
Valuation: $750m, reported, Nov 2024
AI software development tool Tessl is building a platform that developers and their teams can use to create and maintain software. Launched by Snyk founder Guy Podjarny last year, Tessl had raised $125m from Google Ventures, Boldstart Ventures, Accel and Index Ventures by November.
Tessl was ranked second on Sifted’s ranking of the top 100 B2B SaaS startups in Europe.
Moneybox
Valuation: £550m, Oct 2024
Investment platform Moneybox launched in 2015 and offers a range of financial products for house buying, retirement planning and saving. It’s raised more than $200m from investors including Oxford Capital, Eight Roads and Breega.
Oxford Quantum Circuits
Valuation: $400-600m, Dealroom estimate, Nov 2023
Oxford Quantum Circuits offers a quantum computing-as-a-service (QCaaS) platform that allows businesses to prepare for use cases when quantum technology develops to the point of being commercially viable. Founded in 2017, the startup has raised $150m.
PolyAI
Valuation: ~$500m, May 2024
PolyAI is a spinout from the University of Cambridge, developing a machine learning platform for conversational AI for call centres. Founded in 2017, the startup has raised $118m, from investors including Nvidia, Khosla Ventures and Hedosophia.
Cleo
Valuation: $500m, June 2022
Cleo is an AI-powered chatbot offering budgeting tips. Founder Barney Hussey-Yeo announced in June that the startup had hit $200m annual recurring revenue. Founded in 2016, Cleo has raised $138m from investors including Balderton, LocalGlobe and EQT.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/12-uk-soonicorns-to-watch/
