Polaron, a London-based AI startup transforming how advanced materials are characterised, designed and manufactured, has raised £5.8 million to build the ‘intelligence layer for materials science’.

This means addressing a bottleneck in materials manufacturing: understanding the connection between how materials are made and how they perform.

The round was led by Racine2, an impact focused fund led by Serena and Makesense, with co-investment from Speedinvest and Futurepresent, plus angel backing from senior figures across the industrial AI ecosystem.

‍Spun-out from Imperial College London after seven years of research at the intersection of AI and materials science, the company was co-founded by CEO Isaac Squires, CTO Steve Kench and Chief Scientist Sam Cooper.