Sainaptic lands £1M to expand AI-assisted marking technology

UK edtech startup Sainaptic has secured £1 million in new funding to bolster its AI-driven assessment marking technology. The investment round was jointly led by Cornerstone VC and Ufi Ventures, with Elm Venture Partners and Brighteye Ventures also participating. The funding news coincides with a strategic alliance with assessment management software firm Skilltech Solutions, which will make Sainaptic's technology accessible to some of the UK's leading apprenticeship assessment organizations.

Sainaptic was co-founded by Cambridge-educated educators and data scientists Kavitha Ravindran and Rajeshwari Iyer. Their AI-powered tools assist exam boards and training providers in evaluating vocational and professional qualifications, which typically involve written responses, essays, reports, presentations, and professional discussions rather than multiple-choice queries.

Traditional assessment methods require trained professionals and can take up to 90 minutes per assessment, causing delays in learner feedback, certification, and entry into employment, while also raising costs for assessment providers.

Sainaptic's technology seeks to streamline the marking process while preserving assessment precision and consistency. The company claims its AI models, trained on domain-specific data, have cut marking times for certain qualifications from 45 minutes to just eight seconds, potentially saving up to £150,000 annually. Additionally, Sainaptic's AI exhibits less than 1% deviation from expert assessors and near-perfect accuracy in grades for work-based skill assessments.

The new partnership with Skilltech Solutions will integrate Sainaptic's AI models with Skilltech's assessment delivery platform and industry connections. The goal is to enable apprenticeship assessment organizations to employ AI-assisted portfolio marking while retaining qualified assessors' authority over final decisions. The initial offering will concentrate on portfolio evaluation for selected apprenticeship standards, with potential expansion into broader quality assurance and assessment processes.

This joint solution is slated to become available to participating apprenticeship assessment organizations in the first quarter of 2027.

With the fresh funding, Sainaptic intends to broaden its product portfolio beyond marking and feedback, into quality assurance, analytics, and personalized assessments. The investment will also fuel the expansion of its engineering, product, and sales teams.