DeepMind Spinout Emulate Nears $3.7B Valuation in Seed Round

Emulate, a UK-based artificial intelligence startup founded just last month by former Google DeepMind researchers, is in advanced talks to raise up to $700 million in a seed funding round that would value the company at approximately $3.7 billion. The deal, which has not been finalized, would make it one of the most richly valued seed-stage companies in history. The funding round is reportedly being led by Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Creandum also participating according to some reports. The company was incorporated in August 2026 and founded by Jack ParkerHolder, Matthew McGill, and Philip Ball, who previously worked on DeepMind's Genie world-model technology. Emulate is building AI systems designed to simulate and predict physical-world dynamics, a focus derived from the founders' work on DeepMind's Genie project. Unlike large language models that predict and generate language, world models aim to understand how actions affect an environment. This technology could have applications in robotics, autonomous systems, and virtual world creation.