UK investors back Narwhal Labs with £20 million investment to launch DeepBlue enterprise-grade agentic AI

Narwhal Labs today announces DeepBlue OS - an autonomous communications platform designed to replace fragmented, human-led response models with always-on agentic AI. Backed by £20 million in funding from UK investors, including Jonathan Swann, former director of CFC Underwriting, the Bristol-based AI scaleup is making enterprise-grade agentic AI accessible to organisations of any size, sector or regulatory environment.

Narwhal Labs has built DeepBlue OS to manage the full lifecycle of communications. This includes inbound, outbound, and ongoing across voice, SMS, email, and WhatsApp, all through a unified agentic intelligence layer. It operates autonomously, 24 hours a day, handling enquiries, qualifying contacts, booking appointments, chasing documents, routing requests, and executing follow-up workflows without human intervention.

Designed for use in complex and regulated environments - from housing and financial services to insurance, government and retail - every agent action is fully auditable and explainable through a Glass Box Architecture, meaning nothing happens that cannot be reviewed, traced, or evidenced.

DeepBlue OS marks a shift from traditional enterprise AI models, which have typically required significant upfront investment, lengthy implementation cycles and bespoke development. Delivered more like a utility - comparable to electricity or broadband - organisations only pay for what they use, with no setup costs, long-term contracts or minimum commitment.

Luke Sartain, founder and CEO of Narwhal Labs, commented: “Enterprise-grade AI should not be the exclusive preserve of organisations with eight-figure technology budgets and two-year implementation timelines. The level of backing we’ve seen reflects a growing recognition that this technology is no longer optional - it’s foundational to how organisations operate. The same autonomous infrastructure that a global financial institution needs to manage thousands of daily interactions is the same infrastructure a 20-person firm needs to stop missing calls. We built DeepBlue OS as a utility – you switch it on, you pay for what you use, and it works. The security, compliance, and auditability that government and regulated enterprise demand are not optional extras. They are the foundation everything else is built on.”

Jonathan Swann, investor and former director of CFC Underwriting, added: “What stood out about Narwhal Labs is that it’s providing an infrastructure that solves a clear commercial problem today, rather than creating experimental AI concepts. Every organisation loses revenue through missed or delayed responses, and this is scalable AI to solve that. The fact it can be deployed quickly, without the usual complexity, makes it highly compelling.”

Agents for any organisation

DeepBlue OS is multilingual and multi-jurisdictional by design, capable of managing customer and citizen interactions across more than 50 languages without modification or rebuild. The same infrastructure that handles 20,000 simultaneous outbound calls for an enterprise client powers the inbound communications of a growing professional services firm. Scale is built in.

Three core agents power the platform:

• Inbound agent: A 24/7 AI receptionist that answers calls, handles enquiries, qualifies contacts, and books appointments – ensuring every incoming interaction is captured, actioned, and logged.
• Lead and case responder: Instant, multi-channel follow-up triggered by any inbound event – a new enquiry, a form submission, a document request – responding in under two minutes to progress every interaction.
• Outbound agent: High-volume, outcome-driven calling and messaging to re-engage contacts, complete workflows, generate pipeline, or deliver proactive communications at scale.

A built-in agent builder, supported by pre-configured templates, enables organisations to create or customise agents for their specific use case. API integrations connect DeepBlue OS directly into existing CRM, case management, and account management systems.

Built for organisations where trust and compliance are non-negotiable

DeepBlue OS is one of the only agentic AI platforms in the UK to hold ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certifications. The platform is built to operate within the most demanding compliance environments, including financial services, healthcare, legal, and public sector, and meets key regulatory requirements including GDPR, TCPA, and OFCOM from day one.

The organisations that most need autonomous communications infrastructure are often those operating in environments where a miscommunication, a missed audit trail, or a compliance failure carries serious consequences. DeepBlue OS ensures customers can be operational within ten minutes, on the same certified infrastructure, with full auditability from the first interaction.

DeepBlue OS is available as a native deployment and as a white-label solution for telecoms operators, platform partners, and enterprise channel partners seeking to embed agentic AI capability directly within their own products and services.

Register your interest for DeepBlue OS here.