UK Seed Weekly Funding Roundup (Apr 18-25, 2026): $16.5M Raised Across 2 Deals

Table of Contents

UK seed activity totalled $16.5M across two deals between April 18 and April 25, 2026. The week’s checks landed in two very different corners of the market: industrial decarbonization hardware out of Edinburgh, and talent technology software out of London.

Climate tech took the larger share. Exergy3’s £10M raise reflects a wider investor pull toward thermal batteries that target hard-to-electrify industrial heat. Inploi’s £3M round shows that capital is still flowing to focused B2B SaaS plays with concrete cross-Atlantic expansion plans, even as generalist HR tech sees less attention.

1. Exergy3 Raises $12.7M For Industrial Heat Decarbonization

Deal Overview

• Stage: Seed
• Sector: Climate tech / long-duration thermal energy storage
• Geography: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• Round size: €11.4M (~£10M / ~$12.7M)
• Valuation: Not disclosed

Investor Profile

Investor names were not disclosed in available reporting. The round size sits at the upper end of UK climate-tech seeds, signalling conviction in the thermal storage thesis even without named lead.

Capital flowing into this category has come from specialist climate funds and industrial strategics across the past two years, following Rondo Energy and Antora’s traction in the US.

Company and Leadership

Exergy3 spun out of academic research in Edinburgh focused on ultra-high-temperature materials. Specific founder names aren’t publicly disclosed in current reporting.

The company sits in the UK’s growing cluster of university-derived climate hardware startups, alongside peers in carbon capture and electrochemistry.

Problem and Opportunity

Industrial process heat accounts for roughly 25% of global emissions. Cement kilns, chemical reactors, food processing lines and manufacturing furnaces run on natural gas because direct electrification can’t easily reach the temperatures required.

That gap is the target. If renewable electricity can be stored as heat and dispatched on demand at process-relevant temperatures, fossil gas use in heavy industry can shrink without forcing customers to rebuild their plants.

Product and Technology

Exergy3 builds ultra-high-temperature thermal energy storage systems. Cheap surplus renewable electricity charges the system, which holds heat at industrial-process temperatures and releases it on demand to factory loads.

The data moat will come from operational pilots. Real-world charge and discharge cycles, materials behaviour over time, and integration patterns with industrial customers will inform the next system generation.

Use of Proceeds and Vision

The seed funds first commercial-scale pilot deployments, an expanded engineering team, and techno-economic validation work with industrial offtake partners.

The longer-term goal is to make renewable-powered industrial heat cost-competitive with natural gas at scale, so that decarbonization in cement, chemicals and food doesn’t require a green premium.

Market Context

Long-duration thermal storage for industrial heat is one of the fastest-growing climate-tech categories. Peers include Rondo Energy, Antora, Electrified Thermal Solutions and Kraftblock, all chasing similar customers with different storage media and architectures.

UK and EU industrial decarbonization mandates and rising carbon prices add policy pull. Cheap surplus renewable electricity is making thermal-battery economics work in regions where they didn’t pencil out three years ago.

Case Studies

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2. Inploi Raises $3.8M For Talent Tech Expansion

Deal Overview

• Stage: Seed
• Sector: SaaS / talent technology
• Geography: London, United Kingdom
• Round size: €3.4M (~£3M / ~$3.8M)
• Valuation: Not disclosed

Investor Profile

Investors weren’t named in available reporting. The check size is consistent with UK seed extensions backing companies with early commercial traction and a clear US expansion path.

Company and Leadership

Inploi is a London-based talent technology company. Founder details and team size weren’t disclosed alongside the round.

Problem and Opportunity

Hourly and frontline hiring remains a manual, fragmented process for many large employers. Job posts get duplicated across boards, applications leak between systems, and brand consistency suffers when each location runs its own funnel.

The opportunity is to give multi-location employers one layer for sourcing, attracting and converting candidates, with measurable performance per channel.

Product and Technology

Inploi builds talent technology aimed at multi-site employers, focused on the candidate-facing layer of recruitment. Specific product modules and integrations weren’t expanded in the funding announcement.

The company is targeting expansion across the UK and the US with the new capital, suggesting the product is ready for wider deployment beyond initial UK customers.

Use of Proceeds and Vision

Proceeds support cross-Atlantic expansion. Typical allocations at this size cover US go-to-market hires, product localization, and engineering capacity to support enterprise integrations.

The vision is to be a category-defining talent tech layer for employers with distributed, high-volume hiring needs.

Market Context

HR tech saw a correction after 2021’s overfunding, but focused B2B SaaS plays with measurable hiring outcomes are still attracting capital. Competitors range from applicant-tracking incumbents like Greenhouse and Workday to candidate-experience entrants and frontline-specific tools like Harri and Fountain.

UK-to-US expansion at the seed stage is a familiar pattern for SaaS companies whose addressable market is meaningfully larger across the Atlantic.

Lessons For Founders

• Climate hardware seeds are clearing eight-figure marks when the technology targets a clear emissions wedge that can’t be solved by direct electrification.
• Spinouts from research universities still raise faster when there’s a defined industrial customer profile, not just a lab result.
• For B2B SaaS, a focused vertical (frontline hiring, multi-site employers) attracts capital faster than a generalist HR platform pitch.
• Cross-Atlantic expansion remains the default growth narrative for UK seed-stage SaaS, and investors will fund it when the home market shows commercial proof points.
• Round size signals conviction more than naming a marquee lead. A £10M UK climate seed without disclosed investors still moves the category forward.