Female-founded AI adoption company Atheni has secured £350,000 in pre-seed funding to scale its platform, which aims to solve a problem that executives are only now waking up to: buying AI tools is not the same as building genuine AI capability.
The round is backed by angel investor Alex Chesterman OBE, founder of Zoopla and Cazoo, alongside support from Innovate UK. The money will be used to roll out the Atheni Accelerator, a browser-based platform designed to sit alongside tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot, and prepare the company for a larger fundraising round later this year.
The access gap that costs millions
Atheni’s founders, Mackenzie Howe and Louise Ballard, spent two years working directly with organisations before building any software. Their research uncovered a consistent pattern: employees have access to AI but lack the confidence, capability or context to use it effectively in their day-to-day roles.
The scale of the problem is backed by multiple studies. MIT’s Project NANDA found that 95% of enterprise AI pilots deliver no measurable profit-and-loss impact. Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index reported that only 19% of AI users work in organisations where both individual capability and organisational readiness are high. A techUK report from February 2025 identified lack of expertise (35%), high costs (30%) and uncertainty around return on investment (25%) as the top barriers to AI adoption in UK businesses. NCS London’s February 2026 report added that only 16% of UK businesses actively use AI, with 80% having no concrete plans, citing skills shortages, ethical concerns and regulatory ambiguity.
“Most AI startups are building better tools. At Atheni, we are building master craftspeople,” Howe said. “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.”
How Atheni measures and builds real capability
Rather than offering one-off workshops or generic training, Atheni embeds AI guidance directly into everyday work. The Atheni Accelerator platform delivers personalised, role-specific guidance that helps employees improve decision-making, judgement and outcomes, rather than simply generating more content.
Central to this approach is the “Atheni Scale”, a five-level framework — Curious, Capable, Skilled, Advanced, Pathfinder — designed to measure and build human-AI capability. It is aligned with established competency frameworks including DigComp 2.2, UNESCO and OECD standards. The platform delivers weekly steps for AI capability tailored to each user’s role, tools and preferences, and provides organisations with a way to track whether genuine behavioural change is occurring.
Atheni argues that opening an AI tool is not the same as improving how people think, decide and work. The company’s differentiation lies in measuring behavioural change rather than software usage. The platform provides personalised nudges and stresses the importance of context — helping users supply the necessary background and prompts to get better results from AI.
Over two years of client work across further education providers in South Wales, Durham University Business School, manufacturers in the North East, private equity firms and FCA-regulated financial services companies, Atheni says it consistently delivered adoption rates above 90% within 90 days. The company now offers a 90-day capability guarantee on its platform.
Ballard summed up the mission: “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.”
Competition and market positioning
The most direct competitor is UK-based Multiverse, which recently raised $70 million at a $2.1 billion valuation, bringing its total funding to $570 million. Multiverse has repositioned itself from an apprenticeship and edtech platform into what it calls Europe’s “AI adoption platform”. Another adjacent player, Swedish AI-powered workplace learning company Sana, was acquired by Workday for $1.1 billion in September 2025.
Atheni’s edge lies in its focus on measurable behavioural change rather than tool usage statistics. The company argues that true AI capability requires a shift in how people think and work, not just how often they open a chatbot.
Founder background and funding landscape
Atheni was founded in 2023 by Mackenzie Howe and Louise Ballard. Howe combines expertise in human behaviour, disruptive technology and AI, with a background in economics and experience building tech companies. Ballard brings three decades of experience in tech, media and change management, with a personal philosophy that technology should serve people. Their stated mission is to “leave nobody behind in the AI revolution” and make AI feel “natural, not overwhelming”.
The raise is notable in a funding environment where female founders continue to receive a disproportionately small share of venture capital. According to Beauhurst data, fully female-founded companies secured just 1.75% of UK equity investment in 2025. Female-led AI startups face an even wider funding gap.
Alex Chesterman OBE, who backed the round, said: “I back founders who spot what others miss early. Louise and Mackenzie recognised two years ago what’s only now becoming clear: buying AI tools isn’t the same as changing how people work. The gap between those who can use AI effectively and those who can’t is becoming one of business’s costliest challenges. Few are tackling it at the depth and scale required, and I’m excited to back Atheni as part of the solution.”
