£1m · Other round · Edtech · London, UK
London-based Sainaptic, which builds AI-assisted marking tools for vocational and professional qualifications, has raised a £1 million funding round co-led by Ufi Ventures and Cornerstone VC, with Brighteye Ventures and Elm Venture Partners participating. Ufi said the capital will help the company scale its offering as demand grows for faster, more consistent assessment.
Assessment buyers need speed without surrendering judgement
Vocational assessment often depends on open-ended evidence such as written answers, portfolios, reports, presentations and professional discussions. That work is slower and more subjective to review than multiple-choice tests, but it is also where assessors judge whether a learner can apply knowledge in practice. Sainaptic’s system evaluates evidence against assessment criteria and prepares marking and feedback while keeping qualified professionals responsible for the final decision.
That human-control model is central to the commercial proposition. Awarding organisations and training providers can buy time savings only if they remain confident that standards are applied consistently and that a reviewer can understand, challenge and override the output. Sainaptic says its models are trained on domain-specific client data rather than a generic language-model shortcut, with customer rules and human judgement shaping the deployment.
The company reports that its technology has assessed more than two million descriptive answers and saved thousands of marking hours. Ufi cited reductions of up to 95% in marking time and a 97% reduction in re-marking for one client. These are company-reported results, but they frame the purchasing test clearly: customers need reliable agreement with expert markers, not speed in isolation.
Platform distribution could widen adoption
Tech.eu reported that Sainaptic has also partnered with assessment-management provider Skilltech Solutions. The planned integration is expected to make AI-assisted portfolio marking available to apprenticeship assessment organisations from the first quarter of 2027. That is a prospective launch, not a current deployment. Distribution through an established platform can reduce the number of direct integrations Sainaptic must sell, while product expansion into quality assurance, analytics and personalised assessment can deepen each customer relationship. The financing will also support growth across engineering, product and sales.
