Atheni secures £350k pre-seed funding to expand its artificial intelligence adoption platform
The pre-seed round was backed by angel investors including Alex Chesterman alongside Innovate UK.
Atheni provides an AI adoption platform that helps organisations move beyond surface-level usage towards deeper analysis and decision-making. The business combines advisory services with browser-based guidance to embed artificial intelligence into daily workflows.
London-based artificial intelligence adoption firm Atheni has secured £350k in a pre-seed funding round backed by angel investor Alex Chesterman alongside Innovate UK. The capital will be deployed to develop the company platform, translating years of client testing into a browser-based product designed to guide employees through complex tasks.
Founded by Mackenzie Howe and Louise Ballard, the business addresses a widening chasm between software access and meaningful output in the workplace. Its methodology has been refined through trials across higher education, manufacturing and financial services, consistently achieving high adoption rates within three months of implementation.
The freshly secured funds enable the rollout of the Atheni Accelerator, a tool that integrates with existing large language models to provide role-specific guidance and measurable capability metrics for leadership teams. The firm plans a subsequent fundraising round later in the year to support broader commercial expansion.
From the founder
"Most AI startups are building better tools. At Atheni, we are building master craftspeople. Organisations can tell you how many people have access to AI, but not whether anyone is using it to think more clearly, challenge an assumption or do work they couldn’t do before. That is the gap. Atheni measures it and shows organisations how to close it."
Mackenzie Howe
Co-founder and CEO at Atheni
Investor perspective
"I try to back founders who see what others don’t, early. Louise and Mackenzie spotted two years ago what’s only now becoming obvious; that buying AI tools and using them isn’t the same as actually changing how people work. The gap between those who can use AI effectively and those who can’t is about to become one of the most expensive problems in business. Almost nobody is focused on solving this at the depth and scale it needs and I’m excited to be backing Atheni as part of the solution."
Alex Chesterman
Angel Investor, Alex Chesterman
Use of funds
- 01Continue product development
Investors
Categories
About the company
Atheni
Atheni builds software that helps organisations use artificial intelligence effectively for complex work.