A startup founded by four School of Informatics students and alumni has raised $5.3 million in seed funding to scale technology that helps organisations use AI computing infrastructure more efficiently. Expanse founding team clockwise L-R Nikodem Bieniek, Yafet Melake, Eren Mendi and Ismaeel Bashir Expanse, founded by Informatics graduates Ismaeel Bashir, Nikodem Bieniek, Eren Mendi and Yafet Melake, has developed software that predicts the computing resources required for AI workloads before they run, helping organisations reduce waste, lower costs and improve sustainability.The company was founded in October 2025 while two of the co-founders were still students at the University of Edinburgh. From Informatics research to startup success The idea for Expanse emerged from first-hand experience with high-performance computing and AI infrastructure.While undertaking his MInf research project at the University of Edinburgh's Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC), co-founder and CEO Ismaeel Bashir developed a system capable of predicting the computing resources required for large-scale workloads. Together with friends and fellow Informatics students Nikodem Bieniek, Eren Mendi and Yafet Melake, he recognised a common challenge across research institutions, technology companies and AI labs: organisations routinely reserve far more computing capacity than they actually need.Industry estimates suggest that organisations can lose significant amounts of computing capacity through over-allocation, leading to increased costs and unnecessary infrastructure demands. Building more efficient AI infrastructure Expanse aims to address this challenge by helping organisations recover unused GPU capacity in AI computing clusters.The platform works by:Predicting how much computing power a workload requires before it startsIdentifying opportunities to improve efficiencyDetecting jobs likely to fail before resources are wastedHelping organisations make better use of existing infrastructureThe founders believe improving efficiency is one of the key challenges facing the future of artificial intelligence. Today, every AI workload begins with an educated guess. Engineers shouldn’t have to predict exactly how much compute their code will need before they press run. The machine should carry the uncertainty, not the person. Ismaeel Bashir Co-founder and CEO of Expanse From Edinburgh to Silicon Valley The company received early support through Edinburgh Innovations, the University's commercialisation service, and was among the winners of the Launch Point competition in 2025.Earlier this year, the team joined the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator programme and is now based in San Francisco. Ismaeel Bashir, Expanse co-founder and CEO When you start a company everyone thinks you're delusional, and you're spending money out of your own pocket.Being advised by Edinburgh Innovations and winning the competition, even though it was a small amount of money, was our first validation, and we will always be extremely appreciative of the University's support. Mr Bashir The latest funding round was led by Crane Venture Partners, with participation from PXN Ventures and angel investors including former DeepMind researchers and AI infrastructure leaders.As demand for AI computing continues to grow worldwide, Expanse aims to help organisations get more work done using the infrastructure they already have rather than relying on ever-expanding data centre capacity. Related links Edinburgh Innovations article - Student startup Expanse raises $5m for sustainable compute This article was published on Wednesday 16 September 2026
