As AI-fueled disinformation explodes, here comes the startup counterattack

With disinformation on the rise, especially given the explosion of AI, companies are just as vulnerable to its effects as individuals. Refute is a London-based startup that detects and responds to disinformation on behalf of these commercial entities. It’s now raised a £2.3 million ($2.9 million) pre-seed round led by UK investors Playfair and Episode 1.

There are plenty of factors fuelling disinformation attacks, such as geopolitical instability and the use of generative AI to create misleading content. 

More sophisticated campaigns – often created by state-sponsored or commercial competitors – focus on companies, their supply chains, and even their executives. The result can have massive reputational and financial impact.

Tom Garnett, Co-founder and CEO at Refute told TechCrunch: “We find that existing customers are often using social and media monitoring tools to try and understand the disinformation threat. But these are passive tools generally designed for marketing purposes… In our experience, such signals are misleading, as noise levels are high and the narrative provenance is obscured. The result is that users aren’t equipped to understand—and therefore address—the full picture of the threat.”

Clearly, this is a growing space, as several startups have emerged to go after this market. Competitors to Refute include Alethea (raised $30 million), Blackbird AI ($30.6M), and Logically AI ($36.7M). 

However, Garnett claimed: “We provide both the detection and response part of the solution. This sets us apart in the market, as other approaches are primarily focused on detection.”

Refute finds disinformation campaigns by detecting the so-called “threat actor” behaviors of an adversary. 

Garnett started his career in national security at Detica and BAE Systems, where he built large-scale data analysis solutions to investigate criminal activity with a focus on terrorist attacks. 

He realized that similar underlying technology could be used to fight criminal activity in the commercial sector including cyber attacks and financial crime: “This led me to head up the government and cybersecurity  business at Ripjar: selling, building, and delivering solutions for tech companies, financial services, oil & gas and government customers.”

His co-founder Vlad Galu grew up in the 1980s and 1990s Romania, experiencing the threat of disinformation firsthand. He told TechCrunch: “I began building core internet infrastructure and services in Romania and Central-Eastern Europe… Building everything from scratch during a time of emerging technology and limited legal frameworks meant we had to implement layered defense strategies against threats targeting both platforms and end-users.”

Also participating in the round was Notion Capital and Amadeus Capital Partners. Refute also received angel investment from investors Charlie Songhurst, Carlos Espinal, James Chappell, and Alastair Paterson.

Andrew Sheffield, Principal at Playfair Capital said in a statement: “The information landscape is changing: it is harder than ever to tell fact from fiction, and the cost of spreading misleading content continues to fall… Tom and Vlad possess forty-plus years of experience in data analysis, cybersecurity, tackling terrorist attacks, identity management, and money laundering.”