Bolt Insight has secured a £7 million funding round led by Pembroke VCT, with Pembroke putting in £3.5m alongside 212, Active Partners, Velocity and TIBAS Ventures.

The cash will be used to scale BoltChatAI globally and push the business beyond project-based research towards an always-on, AI-moderated insights platform, including a planned “assistant AI chief insights officer” for brands.

Led by former Unilever strategist Hakan Yurdakul and CTO Kerem Turgay, the business now employs around 50 people across London, Istanbul, Paris, New York and Singapore.

The company says its platform has already run more than 5m consumer interviews across 90 markets and counts 11 of the top 15 global CPG groups among its clients, with a reported 90% renewal rate.