Ankar, a London-based software company building an “AI operating system for innovation,” has raised $20 million in Series A funding to scale its AI-driven patent platform and expand further into the U.S. The round was led by Atomico, with Index Ventures doubling down on its prior investment and additional participation from Norrsken VC and Daphni. With the Series A, the company’s total funding now stands at $24 million.
Ankar’s platform is designed to help companies and law firms capture, analyze, draft, and manage patents in a unified workflow, reducing the time and friction involved in converting invention disclosures into protected intellectual property. The company positions its product as a secure, end-to-end system that brings novelty assessment, drafting, and prosecution into one place, rather than relying on a mix of Word documents, spreadsheets, email chains, and legacy IP tools.
According to Ankar, the platform performs instant novelty and prior art analysis across more than 150 million patent applications and 250 million scientific publications, and can turn invention disclosures into draft patent applications while providing guidance on claim strength and scope. It also consolidates filing history and analysis into a single view to support responses when patent examiners issue actions, which the company says can help teams move faster while strengthening overall patent quality and defensibility.
Security and confidentiality remain central requirements in patent workflows, and Ankar said it has built its system with enterprise-grade safeguards in mind. The company was founded by Wiem Gharbi and Tamar Gomez, who previously worked on mission-critical software at Palantir in Europe and the U.S.
The company said it has grown its customer base and is already working with large enterprises, including L’Oréal, as well as the global law firm Vorys. Ankar also reported an average 40% productivity boost for patent teams using its platform, along with 96% of users saying they would recommend the product to colleagues.
Ankar said the new capital will be used to scale product, engineering, and go-to-market functions, including plans to double its approximately 20-person team. The company’s longer-term goal is to become a core software layer for orchestrating the conversion of ideas into defensible patents globally, particularly as generative AI increases the speed at which competitors can replicate technical approaches and as organizations place greater strategic emphasis on intellectual property portfolios.
KEY QUOTES:
“Invention is how we solve humanity’s biggest challenges, yet the systems that protect those ideas are decades out of date. AI will redefine how global organisations innovate over the next five years, turning IP from a cost centre into a growth driver. The companies that adopt Ankar now will shape the future of innovation.”
Tamar Gomez, Co-founder of Ankar AI
“Patents sit at the intersection of deep technical knowledge and precise legal reasoning, and AI can finally unlock real leverage in that process. Ankar gives professionals the analytical depth they’ve never had before, enabling stronger strategy and better protection. Atomico shares our ambition to build the infrastructure behind the next generation of global innovation.”
Wiem Gharbi, Co-founder of Ankar AI
“Tamar and Wiem bring exceptional technical depth and first-hand experience of how broken the patent process is. Their momentum with Fortune 500 companies shows they’re building the right product at exactly the right moment. We’re proud to support their mission as they build the foundational infrastructure for how the world’s most important ideas are protected and commercialised.”
Andreas Helbig, Partner at Atomico
“Most vendors came with a fixed solution. With Ankar, they began with our needs. They understood patents, spoke our language, and adapted to our needs by configuring their existing technology into a solution that fits our reality.”
Jean-Yves Legendre, Competitive IP Intelligence Manager at L’Oréal
