The initiative now enters its sixth cohort: ‘Future of AI’.

Set up by the Tech & High Growth team at Cooper Parry and supported by past and present industry partners including Fox Williams, Emerald Technology, Amazon Web Services (AWS), ​​Mischon De Reya and Capsule Insurance among others, VentureCEO is a no-cost business support programme focused on supporting Seed and Series A venture-backed CEOs who have raised up to £8m. 

Designed to deliver maximum impact with minimal time commitment, each 10-week cohort provides a series of expert sessions focused on scaling, curated by Cooper Parry and its extended network, that focus on a different sector. 

Since its launch in February 2024 - which marked the first collaboration of its kind in the UK - VentureCEO has run five cohorts focusing on health, money, data, media and retail and has onboarded a total of 75 CEOs from as young as 26, up to the age of 60. With an average alumni engagement score of 9/10, feedback from CEOs that have completed past cohorts has been very positive. 

 Jinesh Vohra, CEO and Founder of fintech Sprive and former participant of the Future of Money cohort, said: “Being part of Cooper Parry’s VentureCEO programme has been a game-changer for us. The support, network and insight we received as a fintech company were incredibly valuable — not only did it help sharpen our thinking as founders, but it also played a key role in getting our fundraise over the line.”  

With over 50 experts powering the model, Cooper Parry is now turning its attention to AI, launching a new cohort on 24 September 2025 when UK AI companies are seeing record levels of VC investment. 

Tom Watts, Associate Partner, Early-Stage Tech & High Growth at Cooper Parry, explained why AI has been chosen as the next focus area: “From our knowledge of the early-stage ecosystem and our clients, we know just how transformative AI currently is. We know AI in Britain is genuinely booming and founders need the right support and connections to scale in this sector. That's where VentureCEO comes in. We’ve locked in a number of sector-specific partners with domain expertise to offer laser-focused support.”

In the first half of 2025, British AI startups raised a record $2.4 billion, representing 30% of all UK venture capital funding - up from just 12% in 2019.

The UK has already produced global AI leaders such as DeepMind, Wayve and Synthesia and the momentum is accelerating. Today, the country is home to more than 2,300 VC-backed AI startups and around 20 AI unicorns. 

In Q1 2025, the UK AI sector reached a market valuation of $230 billion, with broader projections estimating the sector could contribute more than £1 trillion to the national economy by 2035. 

The current cohort will gather support from an array of AI experts including law firm Fox Williams, VCs Octopus Ventures and Seedcamp, tech vendors Google Cloud and Emerald Technology and tech communications partner Luminous PR. Each brings a unique set of resources and expertise to further enrich the experience for participating CEOs. 

Additional support will be led by later-stage AI CEOs who have successfully scaled to Series B and beyond, including Noel Hurley, CEO of Literal Labs and William Tunstall-Pedoe of Unlikely AI.

The cohort will kick off with a programme of in-person events. In between, founders will join remote CEO circles, strategy sessions on topics like Product-Market-Fit and go-to-market, and 1:1s with domain experts in legal, PR, VC and finance. 

The closing event in December this year will be hosted at Google’s Kings Cross HQ, and is set to be a gathering of some of the best early-stage AI startups in the UK today, along with the wider AI ecosystem supporting their growth.