We recognise nine up-and-coming star companies, all of which are already highly valued by investors.

No coverage of Britain’s technology scene would be complete without highlighting some of the fast-emerging companies commercialising services using artificial intelligence. Several of them, such as the video creator Synthesia (No 11, software) and the voice assistant firm PolyAI (No 12, software), already hold a place in our main Sunday Times 100 Tech table.

But our criterion requiring a minimum of three years of trading knocks out some companies that avid followers of Britain’s tech scene may expect to see here. Our AI Ones to Watch list recognises nine up-and-coming stars, all of which are already highly valued by investors.

Take for example CuspAI, which is developing an AI-powered search engine to accelerate the discovery of breakthrough materials. Its team in Cambridge is already working with the car maker Hyundai, among others. Elsewhere, Nissan is deploying the autonomous driving system developed by Wayve, which raised $1 billion from investors in 2024, Uber among them. Nvidia, the chip maker, has earmarked a further $500 million investment for Wayve’s next funding round.

ElevenLabs creates highly realistic synthetic voices and its cofounder Mati Staniszewski said the three-year-old firm had generated $330 million in annual recurring revenue as of December. This month it announced a plan to expand its presence in New York, opening a new office in a $33 million investment.

Giant British-made robots collecting data in warehouses for analysis by AI-trained software are powering Dexory’s rapid growth around the world, while Riverlane’s software is helping to deliver the promise of quantum computing, correcting the errors that today’s machines make. City banks already have teams testing how they can use such systems to give themselves an edge on the trading floor.

Away from southeast England, Malted AI’s team in Edinburgh is drawing on the AI capabilities at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh to develop small language models trained for specific tasks in highly regulated industries such as financial services. We expect to cover many more such promising companies in the coming years.