Atheni, an AI adoption startup, has raised £350,000 from angel investors including Alex Chesterman OBE, with support from Innovate UK. Founded in 2023 by Mackenzie Howe and Louise Ballard, Atheni builds capability in using AI well across organisations, working with whatever models and tools they already have.
The raise comes as the gap between access to AI and meaningful use continues to grow. While most employees now have access to powerful tools, few move beyond basic use or understand how to apply them to improve judgement, decision-making and outcomes. The risk, as Atheni identifies it, is not just underuse but misuse: more output, less thought, with lower quality dressed up as productivity. Developed through two years of client work prior to this raise, the Atheni Accelerator is a browser-based platform that sits alongside tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot, giving each person specific guidance for their role and giving leaders a way to measure whether AI capability is actually building.
Over two years, Atheni has tested its approach across sectors including further education in South Wales, executive education at Durham University Business School, manufacturing in the North East, FCA-regulated financial services and private equity, consistently achieving adoption rates above 90 per cent within 90 days.
The funding is being used to encode Atheni's methodology into the platform to deliver personalised, in-work guidance at scale. The platform is rolling out with existing clients ahead of a further raise later in 2026 to support wider scale.
Most AI startups are building better tools. At Atheni, we are building master craftspeople. Organisations can tell you how many people have access to AI, but not whether anyone is using it to think more clearly, challenge an assumption or do work they couldn't do before. That is the gap. Atheni measures it and shows organisations how to close it.
AI is the Ferrari in the driveway, but most people are still driving it to the shops. Atheni shows people what it can really do, in the work they are already doing.
I try to back founders who see what others don't, early. Louise and Mackenzie spotted two years ago what's only now becoming obvious; that buying AI tools and using them isn't the same as actually changing how people work. The gap between those who can use AI effectively and those who can't is about to become one of the most expensive problems in business. Almost nobody is focused on solving this at the depth and scale it needs and I'm excited to be backing Atheni as part of the solution.
