A group of entrepreneurs who moved across the world to launch a business in the UK have raised £2.44m for their AI startup.
Archestra’s founding team of Matvey Kukuy (CEO), Ildar Iskhakov (CTO) and engineer Joey Orlando moved from Singapore, Israel and Canada respectively to launch the company in the UK.
Kukuy and Iskhakov are childhood friends and previously founded incident management platform Amixr, which exited to Grafana in 2021.
The trio have developed a platform which enables companies to securely use AI agents and connect them to internal data sources safely.
The open-source platform does this by introducing security layers that allow companies to safely adopt the latest advances in AI, including the “Model Context Protocol” (MCP).
The MCP was unveiled by AI company Anthropic in November and is a framework that makes it easier for people to connect large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT with their own systems and data sources, such as Slack, email or HR platforms.
The London-based business will use the fresh investment to develop this platform as it looks to tap into the burgeoning integration-platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) market that is forecast to exceed $17bn in revenue by 2028.
Concept Ventures led the round and was joined by Zero Prime Ventures, Celero Ventures, RTP Global and Aloniq, along with numerous angel investors.
“MCP is unlocking a new frontier for AI agents, but, right now, MCP is completely unsuitable for the enterprise,” said Kukuy.
“We’re building the security-first solution that will change this. Our open-source platform means anyone, whether you’re an engineer or a HR rep, can safely and impactfully integrate AI agents into their workflow – driving efficiency and impact at scale – without increasing risks.
“The speed at which we’re moving reflects how passionate we are about this solution and the impact we think it can have in the market.”
Ariel Rahamim, principal at Concept Ventures, added: “Just as APIs became the foundational building blocks for internet infrastructure, MCPs are emerging as the connective tissue for improving the context layer of AI tools within enterprise.
“Archestra is building the infrastructure layer this ecosystem needs. At Concept, we leaned into the teams’ technical depth, open-source DNA, and executional intensity to grow into a leader in the category.
“The team is attacking a mission-critical problem they’ve lived firsthand, and we’re confident they’ll define how enterprises deploy and govern AI context at scale.”