Luffy AI, the Abingdon-based pioneer of Neuroplastic AI for real-time adaptive control, has raised £8.1 billion in a Series A round as it looks to deconstruct a piece of industrial engineering that hasn’t changed in a century.
The round is led by BGF, the most active equity investor in the UK and Ireland, and the Munich-based intensive investor MIG Capital AG who participated in the MIG Fonds. Existing backers Bow Capital, Chrysalix, Momenta and UKI2S all followed.
Founded by Dr Matthew Carr and Dr Alex Meakins, both former nuclear scientists with the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and working at Culham Campus in Oxfordshire, Luffy has built an AI stack designed to bypass the data, computation and connectivity demands that have kept deep learning common in factories.
Its small neural networks are trained in simulations, without the big data that deep learning often requires, and refined in the real world, where the company says it can achieve 400 times more efficiency than traditional methods. The lightweight architecture is highly efficient and self-refining, no retraining from the cloud.
The prize is great. Electric motors account for nearly half of the world’s electricity use, according to the International Energy Agency, and most operate inefficiently. Luffy applies its models to industrial motor control and variable drive systems, including pumps, fans and conveyors, allowing plug-and-play motors to tune themselves to their load and operating conditions. The result, the company says, is lower power consumption, faster deployment and better overall performance.
“AI has revolutionized language and image production, but it has yet to have a major impact on the industry beyond predictive maintenance and dashboards,” said Dr Carr, Luffy’s CEO. “Factories, motors and body systems need AI that is small, fast and flexible in real time, not dependent on the cloud, or with big data and computing needs. At Luffy we have already proven what is possible with AI vehicle control and we will use this new funding to increase our delivery and rollout.”
The funding comes amid a surge in British AI investment, which reached a record £8.3 billion last year, and will be used to turn successful proof-of-concepts and pilots into partnerships with major industrial brands, a type of commercial journey that Innovate UK is now putting forward for potential high-potential British technology companies. Longer term, the company sees applications in positional control of robots and drones, temperature control and body-wide AI.
Kate Ronayne, an early stage investor at BGF, said: “Luffy AI is disrupting a 100-year-old industry norm. Embedding specialized AI directly into real-world industrial applications reduces reliance on professional engineers through a one-size-fits-all, one-size-fits-all approach. The company has taken incredible steps to validate, validate and collaborate with its technology.”
Dr Nicolas Rose-André, investment manager at MIG Capital, added: “Luffy does more with much less data and computing, which is exactly what makes AI work inside mobile devices. As electric motors consume almost half of the world’s electricity, the opportunity for efficiency alone is huge.”
