London's Basecamp Research raises $140m Series C led by S32, with Nvidia and Menlo's Anthology Fund investing
Updated: 4 days ago
The round is one of the largest into a UK life sciences company this year, and the capital setting its price came from the United States.
Basecamp Research, a London headquartered company that trains artificial intelligence models on genetic data to design new medicines, said on 23 September 2026 that it had raised 140 million dollars ($140m) in a Series C round led by S32. The announcement was issued from London and Boston.
The investor list is unusually long and unusually strategic. Alongside S32 it names Nvidia, Menlo Ventures' Anthology Fund, Catalio Capital Management, European Tech Collective, Firebrand, River Capital, Inception Fund, King Philanthropies, the NATO Innovation Fund, PostScriptum, Redalpine, The Rockefeller Foundation, Singular, Sovereign AI and True Ventures, plus unnamed individuals from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Tech.eu, reporting the same day, identified Sovereign AI as the UK Sovereign AI Fund and put the company's total raised to date at 225 million dollars.
Andy Conrad, a general partner at S32, joins the board. Glen Gowers, co-founder and chief executive, said that "AI based approaches promise to change what's possible for patients who currently have few alternatives". Richard Pearce, previously of Biogen, is chief business officer.
The company's asset is data rather than a drug. It has assembled what it calls the Trillion Gene Atlas from sampling partnerships across more than 30 countries and seven continents, and uses it to train a family of biological models it calls EDEN. The money is going into training new generations of those models, moving AI designed therapies towards clinical trials, and expanding partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. Basecamp keeps offices and laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts alongside its London base.
No valuation appears in the announcement. Endpoints News reported the company was valued near one billion dollars, and other write ups carried a lower figure. Since none of them cites the company, the number is left out here.
What the cap table says about UK scale-up capital
Strip out the science and this is a familiar shape. A British company reaches the stage where it needs nine figures, and the cheque that sets the terms is written in the United States, with two American technology companies attached to it as strategic investors and a British state fund participating rather than leading.
The UK Sovereign AI Fund, launched in 2026 with 500 million pounds (£500m), states on its own site that it invests between 1 million pounds and 10 million pounds per company, alongside offers of up to one million GPU hours of computing time. Against a 140 million dollar round, that is a participation of at most a few per cent. The fund is doing what it was designed to do, and the scale is what it is. Anyone reading a government name on a large round as evidence that domestic capital is now setting UK valuations should check the cheque size first.
None of this is a complaint about venture capital, and the round is a good outcome for the company. It is an observation about where the marginal pound at Series C comes from. For a UK founder planning a path to that stage, the practical consequence is that the investors who will price the round are likely to be overseas, that strategic corporate money is now a normal part of the syndicate rather than an exotic one, and that computing capacity has become a thing investors supply rather than something a company simply buys.
Domestic capital is visibly active at the seed end, where smaller UK funds reaching a first close keep appearing. Series C is where the gap shows, and whether it narrows depends on whether UK institutional money follows the state money into rounds of this size. It has not yet.
Key takeaways
Basecamp Research announced a 140 million dollar Series C on 23 September 2026, led by S32, taking its total raised to about 225 million dollars according to Tech.eu.
Nvidia and Menlo Ventures' Anthology Fund are among the investors, as is a fund named in the release as Sovereign AI, which Tech.eu identifies as the UK Sovereign AI Fund.
The company is headquartered in London with laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and trains AI models on a proprietary genomic dataset gathered across more than 30 countries.
No valuation was disclosed by the company, and published figures differ.
The UK Sovereign AI Fund writes cheques of 1 million to 10 million pounds, so its share of a round this size is small by design.
Sources
PR Newswire, "Basecamp Research raises $140M to advance AI designed therapeutics", 23 September 2026.
Tech.eu, "Anthropic and Nvidia back Basecamp Research in $140M Series C", 23 September 2026.
Endpoints News, "AI startup Basecamp Research raises $140M Series C, shares pipeline", 23 September 2026.
UK Sovereign AI Fund, fund website, accessed 24 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How much did Basecamp Research raise in its Series C?
Basecamp Research announced a $140m Series C on 23 September 2026, led by S32. Tech.eu put the company's total raised to date at about $225m.
Who invested in the Basecamp Research Series C?
S32 led the round, with investors including Nvidia, Menlo Ventures' Anthology Fund, the NATO Innovation Fund, The Rockefeller Foundation, True Ventures and a fund named Sovereign AI, which Tech.eu identified as the UK Sovereign AI Fund.
What does Basecamp Research do?
Basecamp Research is a London-headquartered company that trains AI models, called EDEN, on genetic data from its Trillion Gene Atlas, gathered across more than 30 countries, to design new medicines. It also has offices and laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
What is Basecamp Research valued at?
The company did not disclose a valuation in its announcement, and published figures from different outlets differ.
How much does the UK Sovereign AI Fund invest per company?
The UK Sovereign AI Fund, launched in 2026 with £500m, says it invests between £1m and £10m per company, alongside offers of up to one million GPU hours of computing time.
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