London AI startup Sable Bio raises $3.75M

- Sable Bio was founded in 2023 by Dr. Alex de Giorgio and Dr. Josh Almond-Thynne, both former senior principal scientists from BenevolentAI with PhDs from Imperial College London. The company aims to address the high rate of clinical trial failures—over 30% of which are due to unforeseen toxicity—by using AI to automate and enhance drug safety reports, a process that can cost pharmaceutical companies up to £25,000 per report. - The company's CTO, Olly Oechsle, previously spent eight years at BenevolentAI as VP of Product Engineering and holds a PhD in Computer Vision and Machine Learning. Prior to that, he worked in engineering and user experience for UK media organizations like The Telegraph and The Guardian. - Lead investor MMC Ventures, founded in 2000, is a London-based VC firm focused on early-stage UK technology companies in sectors like enterprise AI, fintech, and data-driven health. Its portfolio includes notable companies like Gousto, Bloom & Wild, and the AI-powered content discovery platform Synthesia. - The AI in pharmacovigilance market is projected to grow significantly, from approximately $600 million in 2024 to nearly $2 billion by 2034, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 20%. This growth is driven by the increasing volume of adverse event data and stringent regulatory requirements for drug safety. - A key trend in programmatic advertising for 2026 is the shift away from third-party cookies towards the use of first-party data, contextual targeting, and alternative ID solutions to maintain relevance. AI is also moving from an experimental phase to being structurally embedded for processes like dynamic price optimization and performance prediction. - Agentic AI workflows are an emerging enterprise SaaS trend where autonomous software agents execute complex, multi-step tasks and make decisions without direct human supervision. These systems orchestrate outcomes across different tools by understanding high-level goals and adapting their actions in real-time, moving beyond simple, rigid automation. - The UK startup ecosystem saw a 12% year-over-year increase in funding volume in 2025, reaching $17.2 billion across 1,847 deals. While early-stage investment dropped 22% in 2025, investor confidence remains, particularly in AI, which was featured in over 60% of seed deals. - In Formula 1's 2026 pre-season testing in Bahrain, Charles Leclerc and Ferrari set the fastest times on the final day. Meanwhile, the Aston Martin team, now using Honda power, faced a "disastrous" start to testing with persistent technical problems limiting their track time.