Birmingham AI company secures backing to build a decision intelligence platform that combines prediction, governed recommendations and human judgement.
Unloq, a Birmingham-based AI company helping businesses make better strategic decisions, has raised $1.2m to accelerate the development of its decision intelligence platform.
The round was led by the West Midlands Co-Investment Fund (WMCO), with backing from Future Planet Capital Regional, Mercia Ventures and Haatch.
Founded by Dr Yiannis Maos MBE and Satyen Fakey, Unloq is building AI software that helps organisations move beyond dashboards and retrospective reporting. Its platform connects internal business data with external market signals to predict likely outcomes, recommend practical actions and help leadership teams improve performance with greater confidence.
Left to right: Satyen Fakey (co-founder and CTO), Dr Yiannis Maos MBE (co-founder and CEO)
The company only started trading within the past 12 months and has already worked with a number of global organisations to apply AI and decision intelligence inside real operating models. Its early work has focused on helping businesses identify where AI can deliver measurable value, then building governed tools that can be used safely by teams across the organisation.
Unloq’s approach is built around one principle: AI should sharpen human judgement. Its platform applies prescriptive intelligence to recommend what to do next, test those recommendations against a company’s own goals and constraints, and improve as it learns from real outcomes.
Recognising Unloq’s potential to solve the emerging gap created by the failure of traditional corporate strategy to scale raw AI capabilities with its decision-intelligence technology, this latest round of investment will allow the company to spearhead the transition to agile, high-accuracy next-generation operations.
As part of the growth plan, Unloq will be heavily investing in product engineering and expanding its go-to-market team with the hire of a dedicated GTM Manager to scale enterprise adoption.
Dr Yiannis Maos MBE, co-founder and CEO of Unloq, said:
“Most businesses are surrounded by data, but still rely on backward-looking reports to make decisions about the future. We started Unloq to change that. Our ambition is to help organisations predict what is likely to happen next, understand why, and take the right action at the right time.
We are proud to be building from Birmingham with global ambitions. The West Midlands has the talent, industrial base and entrepreneurial energy to produce world-class AI companies, and this investment gives us the platform to prove that.“
The funding will be used to grow Unloq’s product and engineering capability, expand its commercial team, and accelerate development of its Decision Intelligence platform, designed to support AI-enabled growth.
The WMCO was launched by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and the West Midlands Pension Fund to help expand SMEs that offer high-growth potential and the ability to help supercharge the regional economy. Managed by Future Planet Capital Regional, the fund provides innovative SMEs with equity of up to £1 million matched on a 1:1 basis by private co-investment.
Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, said:
“AI is revolutionising the way we do business. By embracing this powerful technology companies can not only stay competitive in fast changing markets but get ahead. I’m backing Unloq because their cutting-edge AI platform can help our businesses do just that by giving them the ability to make the right decisions at the right time. That means a more productive, high growth economy, something that sits at the very heart of my West Midlands Growth Plan. By using the WMCO to invest in the industries of the future we are driving innovation, jobs and growth.”
Shiventa Sivanesan, Director of Investment Management and Stewardship, said:
“We are pleased to support this investment in Unloq through the West Midlands Co-investment Fund. This is a good example of how disciplined local investment can support regional businesses, while keeping WMPF’s fiduciary duty to scheme members and employers central to our approach.”
Dr Maos added:
“The companies that win with AI will not be the ones that simply adopt more tools. They will be the ones that embed intelligence into how they plan, decide and act. That is the category we are building for.”
Learn more about Unloq here.
