Industry Briefing · UK Robotics & Autonomy
UK Robotics & Autonomous Systems
The UK has emerged as a serious hub for robotics and autonomous systems, with clusters of activity around Cambridge, Bristol, and London. From industrial automation and surgical robotics to autonomous vehicles and drone systems, British companies are commercialising breakthrough research and attracting significant venture investment — making the UK one of Europe's leading robotics ecosystems.
Backing Robotics & Autonomy · 13 investors
Investors
IQ Capital
Founded in 2005, IQ Capital is a leading European deep tech venture capital firm based in Cambridge and London. Its general partners, Kerry Baldwin, Max Bautin, Simon Hirtzel, and Ed Stacey, have worked together for over 20 years. The firm leads rounds from pre-Seed to Series A and follows on via dedicated growth funds with up to £30m per company. Since inception it has partnered with over 200 deep tech founders, attracting $1.4 billion in follow-on capital to its portfolio. Notable investments include Thought Machine (core banking unicorn backed from Seed), Speechmatics, and Nyobolt, with exits to Apple, Meta, Google, Siemens, Qualcomm, and Oracle.
DeepTech Labs
Founded in Cambridge and backed by Arm, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Ewan Kirk, Martlet Capital, and the University of Cambridge, Deeptech Labs is a post seed accelerator and VC fund for deep tech startups. It runs a twice yearly 10 week programme, investing £350,000 per selected company and connecting founders with a network of over 500 deep tech leaders. To date it has brought 48+ companies through eight accelerator cohorts. Notable alumni include Nu Quantum, Salience Labs, Xapien, and Circuit Mind. In partnership with British Business Investments, DTL deployed an additional £10m to fuel the UK early stage deep tech ecosystem.
Ahren
Founded in 2018 by Alice Newcombe-Ellis alongside co-founding Science Partners, Ahren is a deep tech and deep science investment firm based in London, Cambridge, and Boston. The firm operates a distinctive model pairing commercially active long term capital with world leading scientists, including Nobel laureates Venki Ramakrishnan and Gregory Winter, and Turing Award winner Shankar Balasubramanian. Ahren invests from pre-seed to pre-IPO, partnering with founders building transformational companies that penetrate or create massive markets. Notable portfolio companies include Graphcore, AI21 Labs, ZOE, Phaidra, Heirloom Carbon, and Bicycle Therapeutics.
Softbank
Founded in 1981 by Masayoshi Son, SoftBank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate and one of the world's largest technology investors. Its Vision Fund 1 ($98.6B, launched 2017) was the largest tech focused venture fund in history, backed by Saudi Arabia's PIF and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala. Vision Fund 2 ($56B) followed in 2019. Across both funds the portfolio spans 343 companies, producing 129 unicorns, 45 IPOs, and 35 acquisitions, including DoorDash, Flipkart, and Swiggy. In 2025, SoftBank committed $30B to OpenAI and co-founded the $500B Stargate AI infrastructure project alongside Oracle and MGX.
Eclipse
Founded in 2015 by Lior Susan, Eclipse is a venture capital firm focused on transforming essential physical industries through technology. The firm operates a distinctive 'Venture Equity' model, co-founding new companies with senior operators from organisations like Tesla, Amazon Robotics, and Northvolt. Eclipse invests from pre-seed to Series D and backs companies integrating hardware, software, and data across industries representing 75% of global GDP. Notable portfolio companies include VulcanForms, Bright Machines, Augury, Enovix, and Cellares. The firm also partnered with Mayo Clinic to create Nucleus RadioPharma.
Creator Fund
Founded in 2019 by Jamie Macfarlane, Creator Fund is a London based pre-seed venture capital firm that backs PhD founders and academic entrepreneurs building deep technology businesses out of university research. The firm has teams on the ground across 28 European university campuses, seeing approximately 150 deals per month during the academic year. Over five years it has backed 55 companies that have collectively raised over $250m in follow on funding. Notable investments include QuantumDiamonds (quantum sensors), Neuranics (micro magnetic sensors), and Loci (acquired by Epic Games). Creator Fund typically writes cheques of $500K to $900K at pre-seed.
Valor Equity Partners
Founded in 1995 by Antonio Gracias, Valor Equity Partners is a Chicago based growth focused private equity firm renowned for its deep operational involvement with portfolio companies through its 29 person Scale Group. Valor was an early and long standing backer of both Tesla and SpaceX, and its portfolio of 301 companies includes Anduril, Neuralink, Reddit, xAI, Zipline, and WEKA. Fund VI closed at $2.35B (oversubscribed beyond the $2B target), with an additional $1B in co-investment commitments. The firm also manages Valor Siren Ventures in partnership with Starbucks, Nestlé, Target, and Marriott for food, retail, and sustainability investments.
Air Street Capital
Founded in 2019 by Nathan Benaich (PhD, Cambridge), Air Street Capital is a specialist AI focused venture fund operating a solo-GP model. Benaich co-authors the widely read annual 'State of AI Report', positioning the fund as a thought leader in the space. Fund II ($121M, 2023) was anchored by Spotify founder Daniel Ek and Google DeepMind's Jeff Dean. The portfolio of 47 companies includes 8 unicorns such as Wayve, Synthesia, and Adept (acquired by Amazon). Other notable investments include Profluent (programmable biology), V7 (AI data engine), and Black Forest Labs. Check sizes range from $100K to $5M at pre-seed and seed.
HCVC
Founded in 2018 by Alexis Houssou, Jerry Yang, and Aymerik Renard, HCVC (formerly Hardware Club) is an early stage venture capital firm investing in companies automating and digitising the physical world. The firm operates a dual model: a VC fund alongside a selective global community of 600+ hardtech startups (sub-7% acceptance rate) offering shared manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain resources through 200 partners including Foxconn and Amazon Launchpad. Fund I ($50M) backed 50 companies; Fund II ($75M, 2023) targets 40 investments. Notable LPs include John Elkann (Stellantis/Ferrari), Toto Wolff (Mercedes F1), and Albert Wenger (USV). Portfolio companies include Cowboy, Renaissance Fusion, Automata, and Span.
Nebular
Founded in 2023 by Finn Murphy (formerly of Frontline Ventures), Nebular is an early stage venture capital firm investing at pre-seed and seed with a concentrated, thematic approach across the US and Europe. The portfolio of 10+ companies spans space-based robotics, quantum computing, cryptography, and healthcare technology. Notable investments include Project Eleven (post-quantum security, $20M Series A), Icarus Robotics, Onos Health, and Teton. Top follow on investors into Nebular portfolio companies include Y Combinator, ACME, and NFX, validating the firm's early stage picks.
SAAB
Founded in 1937 and headquartered in Stockholm, Saab is a Swedish defence and security company with 27,270 employees, SEK 79B revenue (2025), and a $40B market capitalisation. Through Saab Ventures (est. 2001), its corporate venture arm, Saab identifies, invests in, and develops innovative technology companies with a four to seven year exit horizon. The Ventures portfolio spans 10 active companies with 23 investments to date, including Heart Aerospace and spin-offs like C3 Technologies (3D mapping) and Minesto (ocean energy). Saab also makes strategic investments directly, notably backing Helsing (defence AI) and acquiring Blue Bear Systems (autonomous swarms) and CrowdAI (AI/ML). Saab is a key investor and partner in European defence technology.
NVIDIA
Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem, NVIDIA is the world's most valuable company ($4.4T market cap) and dominant force in AI computing hardware with 92% discrete GPU market share. Through NVentures (est. 2021), its corporate venture arm, NVIDIA has invested in over 100 AI startups across 2024–2025 alone, participating in nearly 67 deals in 2025. Notable investments include Poolside ($500M round), Lambda ($480M), Black Forest Labs ($300M), AI21 Labs ($300M), and Skild AI ($135M). NVentures also made strategic quantum computing bets in QuEra, Quantinuum, and PsiQuantum. Beyond capital, NVIDIA offers portfolio companies technical collaboration, go-to-market support, and access to its global developer ecosystem.
Uber
Founded in 2009 by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, Uber is a $150B+ multinational technology company operating mobility, food delivery (Uber Eats), and freight platforms with $52B annual revenue (2025) and 33,600 employees. Uber has made 31+ corporate venture investments primarily aligned with its core business, focusing on autonomous vehicles, electric mobility, and logistics technology. It holds $18.5B in long term strategic investments. Notable bets include a $100M investment in WeRide (robotaxis), plus stakes in Joby Aviation (electric aircraft), Serve Robotics (autonomous delivery), Waabi (self-driving AI), Lucid Motors, and Nuro. Uber has also acquired 23 companies to expand its platform capabilities.
Robotics & Autonomy · 17 roles
Open Roles
Staff Machine Learning Engineer - Autonomy
Machine Learning Engineer - Pre-Training
Engineering Manager - Datasets Enrichment
Tech lead, Full Stack, Onboard Experience
Tech Lead, ML Edge Deployment
Staff Machine Learning Performance Engineer, Inference Optimisation
Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Inference Optimisation
SWE, Inference Performance, Onboard
Machine Learning Engineer, Inference Optimisation
Engineering Manager, GPU Kernel
Engineering Manager - Robot Software, System Performance
Engineering Manager - OS and Kernel
AI Data Collector
Manipulation Capabilities Engineer
Robotics Technician
Staff Control Software Engineer
Robotics Fleet Manager
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