Exam preparation is becoming an increasingly important testing ground for artificial intelligence, and UK edtech startup Medly AI is betting that personalised AI tutoring can give students access to support traditionally available mainly through private tutors. The London based company has raised $8 million in seed funding to expand its AI powered learning platform across the UK and international markets.
Felix Capital Leads Funding
The seed round was led by Felix Capital, with existing investors Eka Ventures and Ada Ventures also participating. Angel investors including Andrey Dobrynin, CEO of InvestEngine, Al Giles of Creator Fund, Jean Hammond of LearnLaunch Accelerator and Hector Mason of Episode 1 Ventures joined the round.
Medly plans to use the capital to expand its UK student community, accelerate international growth, develop new artificial intelligence capabilities and conduct further research into how its technology affects academic performance.
AI Tutor Built Around Students
Founded by UCL medicine graduates Dr Paul Jung and Dr Kavi Samra, Medly has developed an AI tutor designed to provide students with personalised academic support.
Rather than simply generating answers to questions, the platform is designed to monitor how students learn and adapt its support accordingly. Medly combines seven large language models with techniques inspired by neuroscience and teaching theory.
The system tracks learning patterns and progress to determine how it should respond to individual students. This allows the platform to provide feedback that is intended to be more personalised than conventional digital learning tools.
From Practice Questions to Instant Feedback
Students can use Medly to complete practice questions and receive immediate feedback. The platform can identify weaknesses in an answer and explain where additional marks could potentially be earned.
This approach is particularly relevant to exam preparation, where understanding how marks are awarded can be as important as knowing the underlying subject matter.
Medly has also introduced handwriting recognition. Students can complete work directly on the platform using a tablet or stylus, making the system suitable for subjects where handwritten calculations and working are important, including mathematics and chemistry.
The company is also developing specialised AI models for educational functions such as automated marking and pedagogy.
More Than 400,000 UK Users
Since launching in February 2025, Medly says its platform has reached more than 400,000 users in the UK.
Students currently spend around an hour per day using the platform on average, according to the company. Medly also reports that students using the platform to prepare for GCSE examinations have seen improvements in their results.
To investigate those outcomes more closely, the company is conducting a trial involving more than 1,000 students to assess the platform’s impact on academic attainment.
Tackling the Tutoring Gap
Medly’s expansion is driven partly by the unequal access to private tutoring.
Paul Jung, co founder and CEO of Medly, said a significant proportion of students between 11 and 16 receive private tutoring, creating a major advantage for families able to afford it.
The company aims to make personalised academic support more accessible by allowing students to receive tutoring that adapts to their individual learning needs without requiring traditional one to one lessons.
Expanding Beyond the UK
Medly is already taking its platform into international education markets. The company has launched SAT preparation in the United States and plans to introduce preparation for AP and ACT examinations.
Beyond standard school examinations, Medly is also developing tools for students who want to explore subjects at a deeper level and prepare for higher education.
Building the Next Generation of AI Education
With its new funding, Medly intends to combine rapid user growth with continued development of its underlying technology and research programme.
The company’s broader ambition is to move AI tutoring beyond generic question answering towards a more adaptive educational system that understands individual students, identifies their weaknesses and continuously adjusts how it teaches.
If Medly can demonstrate that this personalised approach consistently improves learning outcomes, its technology could become a significant part of how students prepare for exams both in the UK and overseas.