Astut, an Oxford University spin-out, lands €1.8 million round for transparent reasoning-based AI
Astut, an AI startup spun out of Oxford University, has secured €1.8 million in Seed funding to commercialize its transparent, reasoning-based AI technology. This funding reflects the growing investment in European AI startups and the increasing demand for explainable and trustworthy AI solutions, addressing the limitations of traditional AI in unprecedented situations. The investment round was co-led by technology VC East X Ventures and specialist AI VC firm SVV, with contributions from the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund. Astut's technology combines symbolic reasoning with generative AI to tackle high-stakes unseen decision-making (HSUD) challenges. Other startups are following a similar path, such as Reshape Systems and Dragonfly which raised €856k and €3 million respectively. This funding will enable Astut to further develop its technology and expand its strategic partnerships within different sectors, embedding its solutions within their products. Astut's focus on HSUD aligns with the broader trend of AI investment across Europe, which has seen a ~55% year-on-year increase in Q1 2025. The UK remains a key hub for AI development. Astut's technology aims to address decision-making in sectors like defense, energy, and retail, where previous case data may be limited. This is part of a larger trend in the development of AI with human-like intelligence, making it a sovereign competence for the UK and a game changer in the European tech landscape.
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