A twelve-week applied AI cohort, after the Edinburgh theory.
Moonlabs is the operator-led AI Academy in Derby. We run three live companies — Homemove, home.co.uk and homedata.co.uk — and we teach twelve students per cohort to ship a real AI product, sell it to a real customer, and raise on it. Three pillars: Coding, Commercials, Investment. Twelve weeks. £6,000.
Moonlabs is what we are. Two operators — James Freestone and Louis O’Connell-Bristow — who run Homemove, home.co.uk and homedata.co.uk, have raised £5m+ for their own companies, and have been AI-native since the week ChatGPT shipped.
The Academy is what we do. A twelve-week, in-person, twelve-student cohort in Derby. You build a real AI product. You sign a paid pilot. You write a deck and a financial model. You leave with a deployed system, a paying customer reference and a live investor pipeline. Coding, Commercials, Investment — the three pillars taught in equal weight every week.
Edinburgh has built one of the most serious academic AI ecosystems in Europe — UoE Informatics, the Bayes Centre, the wider Scottish AI scene. We are not pretending to compete with that. The Academy is the applied complement: the engineering, commercials and deployment that academic CVs do not cover. Derby is four hours by direct train from Waverley; most past Scottish students have relocated for the twelve weeks because Derby is materially cheaper than Edinburgh.
Coding · the stack Edinburgh employers are hiring for
Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, evals, deploys, observability. Edinburgh hosts Skyscanner’s HQ, FanDuel HQ, Aveni, FreeAgent, Lloyds Banking Edinburgh, RBS / NatWest tech, Bayes-spin-out startups, Scotsman Tech and a serious post-UoE AI cluster — all hiring AI engineers right now. A deployed product by week twelve — the applied artefact UoE Informatics deliberately does not produce.
Commercials · what an academic AI CV does not have
Edinburgh produces top-1% AI theorists. The Academy adds the half no UK informatics programme touches — pricing, discovery, a one-page pilot agreement, the first £500 invoice. The combination of UoE theoretical depth and Academy shipping evidence is rarer than either alone. A paid pilot by week six.
Investment · the Scottish capital network
Cap table from week two, ten-slide deck, financial model, term sheets line by line. Scottish Enterprise, Par Equity, Eos Advisory, Equity Gap, Techstart Ventures, Mercia Scotland, Old College Capital (UoE’s own venture arm), Investing Women Angels — we know the regional capital and we make warm introductions. A live investor pipeline by demo day.
Common questions.
Is the Academy a substitute for an Edinburgh AI MSc or PhD?
Not for the kind of person who wants research depth. UoE’s research programmes are excellent at what they do. The Academy is the applied complement — many strong AI engineers do both at different points.
How long is the commute from Edinburgh to Derby?
Around four hours by direct train from Edinburgh Waverley to Derby. Not realistic to commute daily. Most past Scottish students have relocated for the twelve weeks — central Derby accommodation is materially cheaper than Edinburgh, and we can help with introductions.
Will I learn deep ML theory at the Academy?
Less than at UoE — that is the honest trade. The Academy teaches you to engineer, ship and sell AI systems on top of frontier models. The underlying ML theory you bring is a feature; we add the rest.
I am working at a Scottish AI startup. Can my employer fund this?
Often yes — L&D budgets and the Apprenticeship Levy can apply. Full funding routes here.
Where do Edinburgh alumni typically go after the Academy?
Hybrid roles — applied AI engineering at well-funded startups, applied research positions at AI-native companies that need a stronger engineering layer, or founder roles where research depth becomes a competitive advantage.
More Academy entry points.
The Academy is one course with many doors. Each of these pages is a different entry point into the same twelve weeks.
Build it. Sell it. Raise on it. In twelve weeks.
Tell us what you would build and where you are with your studies or work in Scotland. James and Louis read every application personally and reply inside the week.
© 2026 Moonlabs Incubator. All rights reserved.