[Funding alert] London-based AI Startup Stanhope Secures £2.3Million in Funding

This round was led by the UCL Technology Fund. Creator Fund also participated, along with, MMC Ventures, Moonfire Ventures and Rockmount Capital and leading angel investors.

Stanhope AI was founded as a spinout from University College London. This is the great achievement in innovative uk startup ecosystem, supported by UCL Business, by three of the most eminent names in neuroscience and AI research – CEO Professor Rosalyn Moran (former Deputy Director of King’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence), Director Karl Friston, Professor at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and Technical Advisor Dr Biswa Sengupta (MD of AI and Cloud products at JP Morgan Chase).

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This approach, and Stanhope AI’s technology, are based on the neuroscience principle of Active Inference – the idea that their brains, in order to minimise free energy, are constantly making predictions about incoming sensory data around them. As this data changes, their brains adapt and update their predictions in response to rebuild and refine their world view.

This is very different to the traditional machine learning methods used to train today’s AI systems such as LLMs. Today’s models can only operate within the realms of the training they are given, and can only make best-guess decisions based on the information they have.

They can’t learn on the go. They require extreme amounts of processing power and energy to train and run, as well as vast amounts of seen data.

Professor Rosalyn Moran, CEO and co-founder of Stanhope AI, said: "Our mission at Stanhope AI is to bridge the gap between neuroscience and artificial intelligence, creating a new generation of AI systems that can think, adapt, and decide like humans. We believe this technology will transform the capabilities of AI and robotics and make them more impactful in real-world scenarios. We trust the math and we’re delighted to have the backing of investors like UCL Technology Fund who deeply understand the science behind this technology and their support will be significant on our journey to revolutionise AI technology."

David Grimm, Partner UCL Technology Fund, said: "AI startups may be some of the hottest investments right now but few have the calibre and deep scientific and technical know-how as the Stanhope AI team. This is emblematic of their unique approach, combining neuroscience insights with advanced AI, which presents a groundbreaking opportunity to advance the field and address some of the most challenging problems in AI today. We can’t wait to see what this team achieves.”

Marina Santilli, Associate Director UCL Business, said “The promise offered by Stanhope AI’s approach to Artificial Intelligence is hugely exciting, providing hope for powerful whilst energy-light models. UCLB is delighted to have been able to support the formation of a company built on the decades of fundamental research at UCL led by Professor Friston, developing the Free Energy Principle.”

About Stanhope AI

Founded in 2021, Stanhope AI aims to alter the course of AI design, based on decades of neuroscience research. Founded by three of the most eminent names in neuroscience and AI research – CEO Professor Rosalyn Moran, Director Professor Karl Friston (creator of Free Energy Theory) and Technical Advisor Dr Biswa Sengupta, Stanhope a advanced artificial intelligence models continuously use real-time data to predict what will happen next and make decisions autonomously, without the need for prior training – like the brain.

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