Edinburgh-based Aveni has raised £12 million in a funding round led by PXN Ventures to accelerate the development of its Unified Assurance Platform and launch new products designed to assess the conduct risk of AI agents in financial services.

The round was supported by existing investors Puma Growth Partners, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide and Scottish Enterprise. Aveni said the investment will support further development of its Unified Assurance Platform, as well as the launch of Agent Assure and Agent Approve, which are purpose-built to assess the conduct risk of AI agents that interact with consumers in financial services.

The company, which describes itself as the UK’s leading AI fintech specialist in wealth management, financial advice and banking, has spent seven years deploying and developing AI products for the UK financial services sector. Its tools include Aveni Assist, an AI productivity product for advisers and operations teams, and Aveni Detect, an AI compliance monitoring tool used by banks, wealth managers and financial advisers.

Both products are underpinned by FinLLM, Aveni’s proprietary suite of specialist small language models built for and using UK financial services data.

Aveni said the growth of agentic AI in financial services is being slowed by a gap in assurance. According to the company, just 2% of firms report having adequate AI guardrails, while the lack of robust oversight for AI agents that interact directly with consumers remains a major challenge for the sector.

The company said regulators are clear that consumer outcomes must be assessed consistently across all interactions, regardless of whether the engagement is handled by a human or machine.

Agent Assure has been developed to address this challenge. Aveni said the product is a natural extension of Aveni Detect, enabling firms to monitor and manage the conduct risk of AI agents alongside human interactions in a single unified view.

Together with Aveni Assist, Aveni Detect and Agent Approve, the product forms Aveni’s Unified Assurance Platform, which the company describes as the financial services industry’s first comprehensive framework for assuring both human and agent interactions with consumers at scale.

Aveni is also a participant in the FCA’s Supercharged Sandbox programme and has established the Agent Assurance Expert Council to support the development of responsible AI governance frameworks. The company said it is working directly with regulators and industry bodies to help shape emerging standards for AI in financial services.

Joseph Twigg, CEO of Aveni, said: “The continued confidence shown by our existing investors is a powerful endorsement of the direction we’re taking. We have spent seven years building the models, the experience and the regulatory relationships that make us uniquely qualified to solve the hardest problem in AI adoption right now: how do you assure the conduct of an AI agent interacting with a real consumer? Agent Assure is our answer — and this investment accelerates our ability to deliver our full platform at scale.”

Alastair Moore at PXN Ventures, said: “Aveni is fast becoming financial advisers’ go-to tool for helping them leverage AI in a safe and appropriate way. The team now has seven years of live deployments and proprietary models built within the UK financial services sector. Their infrastructure is answering one of the biggest questions in AI adoption: how to manage real client interactions and build trust, so advisers can focus on what they do best. We’re proud to support Aveni through multiple PXN funds, including the Praetura Growth VCT, as they continue their growth journey and demonstrate the world-class fintech capabilities of the North of the UK.”

Recommended reading

• How Is AI Impacting Traditional Hiring?
• UK Fintech Hiring Set to Rise 14%
• PwC: Firms Now Pay a 56% Premium for AI Talent

Ben Leslie, Investment Director, Puma Growth Partners, commented: “The impact Aveni is making in deploying AI into UK financial services is already significant, and we continue to see a substantial growth opportunity ahead. With agentic AI adoption accelerating and regulators rightly focused on consistent consumer outcomes, robust assurance for AI agents is rapidly becoming a core requirement for the sector.

“As a standout example of Scotland’s growing strength as a technology hub, Aveni is well placed to lead this next phase. We are delighted to invest again from our Scotland office to support Joseph, Jamie, Professor Lexi Birch and the wider team as they scale the Unified Assurance Platform and launch Agent Assure.”

Kirsty Rutter, Fintech Investment Director at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “Agentic AI represents a significant opportunity for financial services to enhance customer experience through more personalised interactions. Aveni is helping firms adopt this technology in a safe and responsible way. We’re pleased to continue supporting Aveni’s ongoing development through investment and partnership.”