A London based AI startup founded by University College London graduates has become the first UK tech unicorn of 2026 after agreeing to a takeover reported at $1 billion (£746 million). Professional services group Accenture has agreed to buy Faculty, marking the largest acquisition of a privately held British AI company to date.
The deal gives Faculty unicorn status, a label used for private technology companies valued at $1 billion or more. Writing on LinkedIn, Alan Hudson, a partner at investor Mercuri, described Faculty as “the first UK tech unicorn of 2026”. The valuation places the company at the front of the UK tech scene at the start of the year.
Faculty was founded in 2014 under its original name, Advanced Skills Initiative. Its founders were Marc Warner, Angie Ma and Andy Brookes, all graduates of UCL. Warner and Ma both completed doctorates in physics. The company set out to build AI tools that help large organisations improve how they work and make decisions using data.
Over more than a decade, Faculty grew from an academic idea into a commercial AI business working with large clients. That steady progress laid the groundwork for its landmark deal with Accenture.
How Did A UCL Startup Reach A $1 Billion Sale?
Faculty’s growth has a lot to do with its roots at UCL. The university says it has built a strong environment for student led startups, with entrepreneurship feeding into its AI research work. Over the past 5 years, more than 400 student startups have been launched at UCL, according to the numbers shared by the university.
Those businesses have raised more than £355 million in external investment and now employ over 1,900 people. UCL says this activity has helped create an innovation district around Euston and King’s Cross that is home to AI companies such as Faculty, Synthesia and Google DeepMind.
Faculty’s own journey included working closely with Accenture from 2023 onwards. During that time, Faculty supplied AI consultancy services and products on client projects. That partnership helped both sides test how their teams worked together before the acquisition was agreed.
Alan Hudson said Mercuri was proud to have backed the business. He wrote: “We have thoroughly enjoyed working with the Faculty AI team over the years and we have learned a lot from them along the way. We are proud to have been an investor in the company given all it has achieved and its forward thinking approach to responsible AI.”
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What Changes Now That Faculty Joins Accenture?
Around 400 Faculty staff are expected to move to Accenture once the deal completes. Accenture has described these employees as native AI professionals, bringing hands on experience into the company’s existing technology teams.
Marc Warner, who served as chief executive at Faculty, will take on the role of chief technology officer at Accenture and will join its Global Management Committee. Warner said the move allows the team to support clients at a much larger scale.
“Our vision has always been a world in which safe AI delivers widespread benefits to humanity,” he said. “We have spent the last ten years supporting our clients to bring this world about, step by step. As AI advances rapidly, the ambition of our clients is now no less than the reinvention of their business.”
Julie Sweet, chair and chief executive of Accenture, linked the acquisition to the company’s AI direction. She said: “With Faculty, we will further accelerate our strategy to bring trusted, advanced AI to the heart of our clients’ businesses.”
Which Unicorns Set The Pace In 2025?
Faculty’s unicorn status follows a busy year for new high value private companies. One of our lists from 2025 shows all businesses across the world reaching valuations of $1 billion or more.
Among the highest valued were Thinking Machines at $10 billion in June 2025 and Reflection.AI at $8 billion in October 2025. Tempo reached $5 billion later the same month. Wireless Logic was valued at $4.65 billion in May 2025, while Liftoff reached $4.3 billion.
These numbers from last year help frame Faculty’s achievement. Becoming the first UK tech unicorn of 2026 places the company at the front of a global race for high value AI businesses.
