Aveni has raised £12m in funding led by PXN Ventures with participation from existing investors including Puma Growth Partners, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide and Scottish Enterprise the company said.
The investment will accelerate development of its Unified Assurance Platform and support the launch of Agent Assure and Agent Approve solutions.
Aveni founded in 2018 at the University of Edinburgh builds AI compliance and productivity tools for regulated financial services firms including banks wealth managers and financial advisers.
Its products Aveni Assist and Aveni Detect are used across UK financial services institutions to monitor conduct risk across human and AI agent interactions with consumers. The platform is underpinned by FinLLM a suite of language models trained on UK financial services data.
Agentic AI adoption is accelerating in financial services but firms lack robust assurance frameworks for AI agents interacting directly with consumers. Only 2% of firms report adequate AI guardrails according to industry estimates.
Agent Assure extends Aveni Detect enabling firms to monitor AI agents and human interactions in a single unified view. Together with Aveni Assist and Aveni Detect it forms the Unified Assurance Platform.
The company is part of the FCA Supercharged Sandbox programme and has formed an Agent Assurance Expert Council. It is working with regulators and industry bodies to develop AI governance standards for financial services.
Joseph Twigg co founder and CEO said Agent Assure addresses a critical gap in AI assurance for consumer facing agents. Alastair Moore of PXN Ventures said the investment reflects confidence in Aveni’s deployment across UK financial services.
Ben Leslie of Puma Growth Partners said demand for AI assurance is increasing as agentic AI expands. Kirsty Rutter of Lloyds Banking Group said AI can improve customer experience when deployed responsibly.
Founded and headquartered in Edinburgh Aveni has positioned itself within the UK’s growing fintech and AI governance sector with a focus on regulated deployment rather than consumer facing applications.
The company said it will continue collaborating with regulators academic institutions and industry partners to shape standards for responsible AI use in financial services as adoption accelerates.
