UK-based edtech startup Sainaptic has raised £1 million in fresh funding to expand its AI-assisted assessment marking technology. The round was co-led by Cornerstone VC and Ufi Ventures, with participation from Elm Venture Partners and Brighteye Ventures.
The funding announcement comes alongside a new partnership with assessment management software provider Skilltech Solutions, which will make Sainaptic's technology available to some of the UK's largest apprenticeship assessment organisations.
Founded by Cambridge-trained educators and data scientists Kavitha Ravindran and Rajeshwari Iyer, Sainaptic develops AI-powered tools to help exam boards and training providers assess vocational and professional qualifications.
These qualifications often involve short answers, essays, reports, presentations and professional discussions rather than multiple-choice questions. Assessing this work requires trained professionals and can take up to 90 minutes per assessment, delaying learner feedback, certification and entry into employment while increasing costs for assessment providers.
Sainaptic's technology aims to reduce the time required for marking while maintaining assessment accuracy and consistency. According to the company, its AI models, trained on domain-specific data, have reduced marking times for some qualifications from 45 minutes to eight seconds, generating potential annual savings of up to £150,000.
The company also reports less than 1 per cent deviation from expert assessors and near-perfect accuracy in grades awarded for work-based skills assessments.
The new partnership with Skilltech Solutions will combine Sainaptic's AI models with Skilltech's assessment delivery platform and industry relationships. The aim is to enable apprenticeship assessment organisations to introduce AI-assisted portfolio marking while keeping qualified assessors in control of final decisions.
The initial offering will focus on portfolio evaluation across selected apprenticeship standards, with the potential to expand into broader quality assurance and assessment processes. The joint solution is expected to become available to participating apprenticeship assessment organisations in the first quarter of 2027.
Sainaptic plans to use the new funding to expand its product offering beyond marking and feedback into quality assurance, analytics and personalised assessments. The investment will also support the growth of its engineering, product and sales teams.