Gatleen Bhambra

Gatleen Bhambra is the co-founder and COO of Mater-AI, the London-based deep-tech startup applying AI to the discovery of next-generation thermoelectric materials. Bhambra studied at Kingston University and brings a background in product, commercial, and operational roles across the technology industry. Her path to founding Mater-AI was not linear: she came to entrepreneurship through a deliberate search for a problem of genuine consequence. After the emergence of ChatGPT, she turned to Y Combinator's Co-Founder Matching platform to find the right partner and mission, eventually meeting Chelsea Williams — now Mater-AI's CTO — a PhD in machine learning and quantum computing. The pair went through Conception X's Deep Tech Accelerator and Barclays' Product Builder Accelerator together, identifying thermoelectrics as the area where their combined skills could create the most meaningful commercial impact.

Bhambra and Williams later found Dr Nickel Blankevoort through YC's matching platform — a computational materials scientist with a PhD from the University of Warwick and doctoral research in quantum nanoelectronics and thermoelectrics. His domain expertise completed the founding team. As COO, Bhambra is responsible for the commercial and operational dimensions of Mater-AI's growth — including the company's relationships with its validation partners at Cambridge University, Imperial College London, and the Henry Royce Institute, and its route-to-market strategy targeting defence, automotive, and industrial IoT. In December 2025, she helped lead a £1.5 million pre-seed raise from Twin Path Ventures, Mishcon de Reya, One Planet Capital, XTX Ventures, and the Conception X Angel Syndicate. Bhambra has described the company's mission as making heat useful again — envisioning a world where data centres, electric vehicles, and industrial infrastructure generate their own power from waste heat.