A new platform that promises to combine artificial intelligence with “human expertise” has been launched in Scotland to help businesses access £200 million in unclaimed funding.
Ailsa is being rolled out to address what is seen as a growing quality problem in grant applications, as the widespread use of generative AI drives application volumes up while success rates fall to record lows.
Despite billions of pounds being channelled through non-dilutive funding programmes each year, recent Innovate UK Smart Grant competitions reported success rates of just two to three per cent. An estimated £200m in available UK grant funding went unclaimed in the past year.
Ailsa has attracted early-stage backing from former Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest retail banking boss Benny Higgins and Monzo co-founder Gary Dolman.
Founded by Scotland-based tech entrepreneur Rab Meliani, the new platform combines artificial intelligence with human grant expertise to help businesses identify relevant funding opportunities and improve the quality of applications submitted.
“The irony is that AI has made it easier than ever before to write grant applications, but much harder to submit a good one,” observed Meliani, the firm’s chief executive. “The challenge for businesses isn’t writing – it’s understanding which opportunities are worth pursuing and what assessors are actually looking for.
“Ailsa is designed to bridge that gap so everyone in the funding system benefits,” he added.
Ailsa is initially focused on grant funding, with plans to expand into procurement and international funding programmes in the near future.
Higgins said: “The UK deploys billions in grant funding each year, but the process connecting businesses to that capital is inefficient. Ailsa’s approach, combining AI with genuine assessment expertise, addresses a real structural problem in how that funding gets allocated.”
Dolman added: “Public funding plays a critical role in supporting innovation, but the system can be difficult to navigate. Ailsa is addressing that challenge in a way that reflects how funding decisions are really made, using AI designed around the needs of real businesses.”
The platform’s approach is said to reflect a shift in how the funding sector is thinking about AI: away from automating application volume and towards improving “signal quality” for both applicants and assessors.
Source: The Scotsman