Seven AI firms receive support via new government tech venture capital unit
DSIT team, which will use the muscle of the state to provide funding and other support, has invested in one tech business and will offer compute services to six others
Government has unveiled seven firms that will be the first to receive support via the new state-back tech venture capital unit, with recipients including specialists in “generative internet” and “AI biology”.
Based in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Sovereign AI unit began operating this week with a remit to invest £500m to help support the growth of UK-based artificial companies.
The first business to receive – an unspecified amount of – funding is Callosum, a London-headquartered outfit founded in 2024 and which describes itself as “an intelligent systems company” which is focused on “building the infrastructure where heterogeneous chips and intelligence co-evolve to solve the world’s hardest problem”.
Alongside this financial backing, the new unit will support six other businesses by providing access to supercomputing capacity. These are: AI biology company Prima Mente; agentic AI outfit Cosine; generative internet specialist Cursive; Doubleword, which provides computing power to support large language models; sustainable bioengineering business Twig Bio; and, finally, Odyssey, which makes large-scale predictive world models.
For some of these companies, Sovereign AI will also have “a right of first refusal on future investments”.
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In return, the firms will each receive up to one million GPU hours of processing via government’s £250m new UK AI Research Resource supercomputer.
The unit “is also currently in discussions with around 30 firms” about the possibility of providing AIRR access.
Other benefits that can be provided by Sovereign AI – which government has said will use the “unique capabilities of the state to go beyond traditional funding models” – will include a guarantee that “every company receiving investment will get visas decisions within a working day, plus access to an initial 10 cost-free visas for the world’s top R&D talent to come and work for them in the UK”.
Firms backed by the unit will also receive “hands-on government support, [including] help navigating access to data, early procurement opportunities, independent product validation and routes into new approaches to regulation”, DSIT said.
Alongside the initial investment and support announced today, the state-backed VC “is launching its first funding call to create new datasets and other assets that help firms move faster and build in the UK”.
Technology secretary Liz Kendall said: “We believe in Britain and we are betting on Britain. We are backing our brilliant innovators and entrepreneurs so we seize the benefits of AI to reshape Britain for the benefit of all. Sovereign AI is unlike anything Government has ever done before. Its unique approach will help break down the barriers that have too often held back British enterprise and innovation. This is how we ensure Britain’s economic prosperity and national security in the modern age. My message to British founders and innovators is clear – we will ensure you never have to choose between your ambition and your home, because Britain will give you both.”
