Ankar AI Raises $20M Series A to Build an AI Operating System for Intellectual Property

London-based Ankar AI has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Atomico, with participation from Index Ventures, Norrsken VC, Motier Ventures, Puzzle Ventures, Boom, and daphni. The funding marks a strong vote of confidence in the company’s ambition to modernise how intellectual property is created, protected, and defended.

As innovation cycles accelerate and patent portfolios grow more complex, organisations are under increasing pressure to manage IP more efficiently and with greater precision. Ankar AI positions itself at the centre of this challenge, building what it describes as an operating system for intellectual property that supports inventors and legal teams across the entire patent lifecycle.

Why are Traditional IP tools no longer enough ?

The global volume of patent filings continues to rise, while inventions themselves are becoming more interdisciplinary and technically complex. Traditional IP software, often designed decades ago, struggles to keep pace with this reality. Many patent teams still rely on fragmented tools and manual processes for prior-art search, drafting, and prosecution, increasing the risk of missed novelty, weak claims, or slow filings.

Ankar AI was built in response to these constraints.

The company’s platform is designed to help IP and R&D teams work faster and more thoroughly by embedding AI directly into core patent workflows. By addressing complexity at the software level, Ankar aims to reduce friction across processes that have historically been time-consuming and error-prone.

An End-to-End Platform Covering the Full IP Lifecycle

Ankar AI’s platform brings together several critical components of the IP lifecycle into a single, secure workflow. Its tools support novelty analysis and prior-art discovery, enabling teams to assess patentability earlier and with greater confidence. The platform also assists with patent drafting, helping inventors and attorneys structure applications more efficiently while maintaining control over legal and technical quality.

Beyond filing, Ankar provides capabilities for office action responses and infringement detection, allowing teams to manage prosecution and enforcement without switching between disconnected systems. This integrated approach reflects a broader shift in enterprise software toward consolidation, where productivity gains come from reducing handoffs rather than adding isolated features.

Trusted by Enterprises and Law Firms Handling High-Value IP

Ankar AI reports that its technology is already used by teams across Fortune 500 companies and global law firms, organisations that manage some of the world’s most valuable and complex patent portfolios. For these users, accuracy, security, and reliability are non-negotiable. Ankar’s emphasis on enterprise-grade infrastructure reflects the backgrounds of its founding team, which includes engineers and product leaders from Palantir, Amazon, BCG, and leading startups.

Experience building systems for highly regulated and mission-critical environments has informed Ankar’s focus on secure workflows and controlled deployment of AI, particularly important in legal contexts where errors can have long-term financial and strategic consequences.

Expanding Across Europe and the United States

The Series A funding will support Ankar AI’s expansion across Europe and the United States, two of the world’s most active regions for patent activity and innovation investment. As companies increasingly operate across jurisdictions, managing IP consistently becomes more difficult.

Ankar’s platform is designed to support cross-border teams by standardising workflows while accommodating regional legal requirements. The company views this expansion not simply as geographic growth, but as part of building foundational infrastructure for global innovation. By strengthening its presence in key markets, Ankar aims to work more closely with enterprises and law firms that face mounting pressure to protect intellectual assets at speed and scale.

IP as Infrastructure in the Innovation Economy

At its core, Ankar AI’s mission reflects a broader reality. Iin today’s innovation-driven economy, intellectual property is a strategic asset and not a byproduct. Weak or poorly defended patents can undermine years of R&D investment, while strong IP can secure competitive advantage and long-term value.

As innovation accelerates, the gap between idea generation and effective protection becomes increasingly consequential. Ankar AI is betting that AI-powered workflows can help close that gap by giving inventors and IP teams better tools to manage complexity without sacrificing quality. With fresh capital and growing enterprise adoption, the company is positioning itself as a key infrastructure provider for organisations that depend on defensible innovation to compete.

As innovation becomes faster and more complex, the value of intellectual property increasingly depends on execution. Ankar AI is addressing a foundational gap by bringing modern AI tooling into IP workflows that have long struggled to evolve, positioning itself as infrastructure for the next phase of enterprise innovation.