What Mike Hudson Foundation does

The Mike Hudson Foundation is a UK charitable company limited by guarantee, established in 2022 and operating as a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) under Prism the Gift Fund (UK registered charity no. 1099682). It functions as a specialised AI donor that provides funding, founder time, and AI tooling to UK-based nonprofits and charitable research organisations working on AI for Good, Climate Change, Biodiversity, International Relations, and Nonprofit Marketplaces. The foundation considers funding applications of up to £250k and will only deploy capital through charitable structures such as universities, with an explicit willingness to co-fund with other organisations.

Alongside its grantmaking activity, the foundation has developed two AI-powered products. Knowbot (evaluable at knowbot.uk) is an on-site conversational search agent for nonprofit websites, using Large Language Models and semantic search to answer visitor questions with responses grounded by evidential citation links to the nonprofit's own content. Longseek is an LLM-based research tool developed in-house for nonprofit and scientific research. Both products rely on third-party LLMs rather than proprietary models.

The foundation does not operate as a commercial vendor and discloses no product pricing; Knowbot is offered as a self-service evaluation, while the foundation's broader economic model is endowment-funded grantmaking. The organisation has 1-10 employees, is headquartered in London, and is led by founder Mike Hudson, an entrepreneur in technology and electronic markets who previously founded TestRAMP (a pandemic nonprofit social market) and donated its £2.4mn profits to charity. Core partnerships include ZSL (Zoological Society of London) on biodiversity and Alzheimer's Society on healthcare.

Name

Mike Hudson Foundation

Legal name

Mike Hudson Foundation

Website

https://www.mikehudsonfoundation.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Mike Hudson Foundation is a UK charitable donor-advised fund that provides grants up to £250k and proprietary AI tools (Knowbot, Longseek) to UK-based nonprofits and research organisations working on AI for Good, Climate Change, Biodiversity, International Relations, and Nonprofit Marketplaces.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Charitable Foundation / Nonprofit Research Funding

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (8132)

akta.pro primary industry

Research & Science Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Environmental & Climate Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAM), Health & Medical Research Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAL)

Keywords

• Nonprofit grant funding
• AI for good research
• Charitable scientific research
• Nonprofit AI search tools
• Donor advised fund

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Foundation Grants and Funding: The Mike Hudson Foundation provides funding up to £250k to nonprofits and charitable organisations for research and development in specified cause areas. Revenue is derived from the foundation's endowment and charitable activities rather than commercial product revenue.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Mike Hudson Foundation is a UK charitable foundation that provides grants up to £250,000 to UK-based nonprofits for research and development in AI for Good, Climate Change, Biodiversity, International Relations, and Nonprofit Marketplaces. In addition to grant funding, the foundation develops and provides proprietary AI tools — Knowbot (an on-site conversational AI search agent) and Longseek (an LLM research tool) — to support nonprofit research and engagement.

Product overview

Mike Hudson Foundation offers two AI-powered products: Knowbot, the primary offering, is an on-site AI search agent that nonprofits deploy on their websites to provide visitors with conversational, citation-grounded answers using LLMs and semantic search; and Longseek, an LLM research tool for nonprofit research purposes. Both products are designed to help nonprofits improve engagement with supporters, users, and donors through AI-powered knowledge interaction.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Knowbot: Interactive AI search agent for nonprofits to use on their websites. An intelligent on-site search tool that uses LLMs and semantic search to provide conversational answers to questions from website visitors, configured to answer based on the nonprofit's website with evidential citation links.
• Longseek

Products and services

• Knowbot Knowbot is an interactive AI search agent for nonprofits to deploy on their websites. It uses Large Language Models and semantic search to provide conversational answers to website visitor questions, with responses grounded by evidential citation links to the nonprofit's website content. The purpose is to help website visitors better understand the nonprofit's research and other work, and to help the nonprofit benefit from better engagement with its supporters, users, and donors.
• Research Grants (up to £250k) Research grants of up to £250,000 provided to UK-based charitable organisations (such as universities) for research or development in AI for Good, Climate Change, Biodiversity, International Relations, and Nonprofit Marketplaces. The foundation is willing to co-fund with other organisations and only funds through charitable structures.

Named customers2 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability3 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• ZSL (Zoological Society of London)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerZSL is a biodiversity cause supported by the foundation. Mike Hudson serves as a Fellow of ZSL and adviser to its CEO, indicating a deep, ongoing relationship.
• Alzheimer's SocietycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAlzheimer's Society is a healthcare cause supported by the foundation through corporate partnership for biodiversity and healthcare initiatives.
• TestRAMPminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerTestRAMP is a pandemic nonprofit social market founded by Mike Hudson, described as a major contribution to Covid PCR testing and genomic sequencing. Its £2.4mn profits were donated for charity.
• Prism the Gift FundcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMike Hudson Foundation operates as a donor advised fund (DAF) under Prism the Gift Fund, registered charity no. 1099682. This is the foundation's administrative host organisation.
• City, University of LondonminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMike Hudson is an honorary Research Fellow at City, University of London. The foundation funds through charitable organisations such as universities.
• Responsible AI InstituteminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMike Hudson is a member of the Responsible AI Institute, indicating personal professional affiliation that may inform foundation's AI for good work.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Patrick J. McGovern Foundation: Global philanthropy funding AI for Good and data-driven solutions to social and environmental challenges. Closely comparable mission on AI for Good grantmaking.
• Open Philanthropy: Large US-based foundation funding AI safety and high-impact research causes. Comparable cause-area overlap in AI-for-Good funding, though at much larger scale and US-focused.
• Arcadia Fund: UK-registered philanthropic fund supporting biodiversity, climate, and open science causes. Closely comparable in UK geographic focus and biodiversity/climate grantmaking.
• Schmidt Sciences: Philanthropic vehicle of Eric Schmidt funding AI, science, and societal research. Comparable as a high-profile foundation funding AI and science with significant grant sizes.

Broad incumbents

• NESTA: UK innovation foundation funding research and applied projects in social and emerging-tech areas. Comparable as a UK-based, research-and-innovation-focused funder.
• Wellcome Trust: Major UK charitable foundation funding scientific and health research. Comparable as a UK-based research grantmaker, but with vastly larger scale and broader portfolio.
• Leverhulme Trust: UK-based grantmaking foundation supporting research across multiple disciplines including climate, biodiversity, and social sciences. Direct comparability on grantmaking model and cause areas.
• The Dulverton Trust: UK general grantmaking foundation funding across causes including environment, health, and education. Comparable model of UK-based diversified grantmaking through established channels.
• Gatsby Foundation: UK charitable foundation funding science, education, and mental health research. Comparable as a UK-based science grantmaker operating through established charitable structures.

Emerging players

• Responsible AI Institute: Membership organisation advancing responsible AI practices; the foundation's founder is a member. Comparable as an ecosystem participant in the AI governance and AI-for-Good space.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/mikehudsonUK
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/mikehudsonuk

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Mike Hudson Foundation