Ex-Palantir team raises £37m for sovereign British AI

TL;DR:

• Valarian, a London start-up co-founded by a former Palantir executive, has raised £37m ($50m) to help governments and companies cut their reliance on US technology.
• Its software lets organisations keep control of their own data and use AI tools securely, with defence “dual-use” applications.
• The raise takes total investment to £52m ($70m) and lands amid growing UK unease about dependence on American tech.

A British start-up is betting that Europe’s anxiety about depending on American technology is about to become a market. Valarian, co-founded by former Palantir executive Joshua McLaughlin and ex-crypto executive Max Buchan, has raised £37m ($50m) to build “sovereign” software that lets governments and companies manage their own data and use AI without handing it to Silicon Valley.

Sovereignty as a selling point

The funding, from investors including US venture fund NEA and Alex Gerko’s trading firm XTX, brings total investment in the 2020-founded company to £52m ($70m). Valarian says its architecture ensures no data leaves the customer — a pitch aimed squarely at defence and government buyers wary of storing sensitive material on US platforms.

The timing is deliberate. Concern about British dependence on American providers hardened after the US briefly cut off access to Anthropic’s systems earlier this year, and MPs on the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee recently warned the UK has no coherent strategy for sovereign AI, singling out reliance on Palantir. Ministers welcomed the raise: AI minister Kanishka Narayan called sovereign AI capability “imperative”, while defence minister Luke Pollard said the country needs “more innovative British companies like Valarian”.

Buchan used the moment to press the government to back home-grown firms — with the caveat that Britain “shouldn’t buy something second-rate simply because it’s British”.

Looking forward

Valarian has not said which departments it works with, and “sovereign” remains as much a marketing term as a technical one. But the venture captures a genuine shift: sovereignty has moved from a policy talking point to an investment thesis. Whether British buyers follow ministers’ rhetoric with contracts — rather than defaulting to US incumbents — will determine if the sovereign-tech pitch is a durable market or a moment.