An AI incubator, based in Derby.
For East Midlands AI-native founders who don’t want to commute to a London cohort every week to be told what they already know. James is in Derby. The Incubator is in Derby. The brief takes place at your office — or ours — not over a Zoom from somewhere else.
Almost every UK AI incubator is run from London. If you’re a founder based in Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Sheffield or anywhere else in the East Midlands, that means a fortnightly train south, an afternoon eaten by travel, and a relationship with an operator whose office you can’t walk into. The advice is fine. The shape isn’t.
Moonlabs is based in Derby. James Freestone — co-founder, commercial and capital lead — lives here and runs the commercial side of the Incubator from the city. The same team that operates Homemove, home.co.uk and homedata.co.uk from the East Midlands. Phil runs delivery from Nottingham (35 minutes), Louis runs technical architecture from Norwich, Shivam runs funding from London. The Incubator is regional in the way it ought to be: real people, real cars, real meetings.
Same commercials as the Moonlabs Incubator anywhere: 1% tech-for-equity on the company, 10% success fee on capital raised, £999 commitment on signing credited back against the success fee at round close. Rolling intake, no cohort calendar, no demo day. We back the small number of East Midlands founders we can do real operating work alongside.
James on the doorstep
A Moonlabs co-founder, in Derby, taking your brief in person. No fortnightly train to London. The face on the day of your brief is the face on the cap table.
East Midlands founders, served
Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Loughborough, Burton, Mansfield, Chesterfield — all inside an hour. Sheffield, Birmingham and Coventry inside 75 minutes. The Incubator catchment is the region you actually live in, not a London commute belt pretending to be regional.
Operator commercials, regional base
Same shape as Moonlabs Incubator elsewhere: 1% tech-for-equity + 10% on capital raised + £999 credited back. No application fee, no demo day ticket, no tuition. Operators on your cap table for the technology — not a fund cheque from a Soho office.
Common questions.
Why a Derby base for an AI incubator?
Because James lives here and the operating company stack he runs alongside Moonlabs is here. Derby has good rail to London and Manchester, good road to Nottingham, Leicester, Sheffield and Birmingham — it’s a workable East Midlands hub. East Midlands AI founders shouldn’t have to commute to London for an in-person operator relationship.
We’re in Nottingham / Leicester / Sheffield — do you still cover us?
Yes. Phil is in Nottingham (he often takes the Notts trips so the face is local there too). Leicester is between Derby and Nottingham, so either operator drives over depending on the day. Sheffield is an hour from Derby and same-day workable for James. We don’t expect East Midlands founders to come to us; we go to you.
Do we have to be in Derby to apply?
No — this page is geographic positioning, not a residency rule. Moonlabs takes UK pre-seed and seed AI-native founders regardless of where they live. The Derby base is the reason East Midlands founders specifically tend to find the relationship easier; we work with founders across the UK and beyond.
Who from Moonlabs runs the Incubator from Derby?
James leads commercial and capital from Derby. Louis (technical architecture, Norwich) and Shivam (funding, London) join the work remotely as needed; Phil (delivery, Nottingham) is often the operator who actually drives over for the operating reviews. Four people, four bases, one Incubator. Derby is the commercial home of it.
How is this different from a London accelerator?
A London accelerator usually offers ~£100k of cash for 6–8% equity, a cohort calendar and a demo day — from a London office, with mostly London partners. We offer 1% for the build + 10% on capital raised + £999 commitment, from Derby, with operators across the East Midlands and Norwich and London. If you need cash and a London room, an accelerator is the right buy; if you need an East Midlands operator team on your cap table, we are.
The full Incubator page
The full Moonlabs Incubator offer in one place — process, pillars, commercials, founders we work with.
About James, Louis, Phil & Shivam
The operators behind the work. £5m+ raised for their own companies, ~£10m across their broader career, AI-native since the week ChatGPT shipped.
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 the company you keep meaning to build.
Tell us about the idea. If we’re a fit, James will come back inside the week with a meeting slot — at your East Midlands office or here in Derby.
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