A London startup hunting coordinated disinformation campaigns across social media and messaging platforms announced a £5 million seed round on February 3, with backing from venture firms and, notably, the UK government's National Security Strategic Investment Fund.
Refute, which builds detection software for what it calls "military-grade" threat intelligence, has now raised £7.3 million since launching. The company pulled in a £2.3 million pre-seed in mid-December 2024, co-led by Playfair and Episode 1 Ventures—both of which returned for the latest round alongside Amadeus Capital Partners, Osney Capital and the NSSIF.
The government fund's participation is worth noting. NSSIF tends to write cheques sparingly, and its presence here signals that Refute's work sits at the intersection of national security and commercial infrastructure. In a statement, the fund said it backed Refute for "developing advanced, dual-use capabilities that can help safeguard democratic processes and ensure our collective security." Translation: this isn't just about protecting brand reputation; it's about defending electoral systems and state institutions from coordinated manipulation.
That framing isn't hyperbolic. Misinformation and disinformation were identified as the most pressing short-term threat worldwide in the World Economic Forum's 2024 Global Risks Report. By late 2025, Gartner was forecasting that enterprise spending on disinformation countermeasures would surpass $30 billion by 2028. The market, in other words, is real and expanding fast.
How It Works
Refute's platform aggregates data streams from social media, messaging apps, news sites and other digital channels, then applies machine learning models to identify patterns that suggest coordinated inauthentic behavior. The goal is to catch manipulation campaigns early, before they metastasize across platforms. Once a threat is flagged, Refute's software surfaces contextual intelligence for security teams and suggests response tactics—sometimes automated—that can be deployed within the same channels where the disinformation is spreading.
The company already has government and commercial customers on the books, though it declined to name them. One public example: during Romania's 2025 elections, Refute's system identified more than 32,500 inauthentic TikTok videos that amplified extremist candidates to diaspora voters, according to a May report by Romanian outlet G4Media. Separately, Refute claims that 40 percent of the mining operations it monitors have shown signs of disinformation activity—a figure that underscores how far beyond politics these campaigns now reach.
The Team
CEO Tom Garnett spent time as BAE Systems' Oman Country Manager and later held a senior role at Ripjar, a cybersecurity firm that works closely with government clients. He studied at Cambridge. CTO Vlad Galu brings a different profile: he was CTO at GlobalSign and interim CTO at Bupa, and in 2009 founded PacketDam, a DDoS mitigation startup. Galu studied computer science at the University of Bucharest. It's a pairing that blends defense-sector experience with enterprise tech chops.
Amadeus Capital Partners principal James Baker joined Refute's board in January, according to Companies House filings. Andrew Sheffield of Playfair has been on the board since mid-2024.
The Competitive Set
Refute isn't alone in chasing this opportunity. New York–based Blackbird.AI, which focuses on "narrative and perception risk intelligence," raised $28 million in strategic funding in January and had previously closed a $20 million Series B in late 2023. Israel-based Cyabra, now trading on Nasdaq under ticker CYAB, reported 39 percent year-over-year revenue growth in its most recent quarterly filing. Alethea Group pulled in a $20 million Series B led by GV in April 2024. And UK-based Logically, perhaps Refute's closest geographic competitor, announced a $24 million round back in 2021.
The sector is crowded but still maturing, and each player is staking out slightly different turf—some emphasize brand safety, others lean into election security, still others pitch themselves as general-purpose threat intelligence platforms.
What's Next
Refute plans to use the fresh capital to expand its engineering team, refine its detection models and build out response capabilities across European markets. "We aim to increase our capacity to detect and neutralise emerging threats at exponentially growing scales," Galu said in a statement—tech-speak for hiring more engineers and scaling infrastructure.
Companies House records show the seed round closed with two share allotments on January 15. Legal counsel Wiggin advised on the transaction.
In the announcement, Garnett struck a note that's become common among founders in this space. "Europe is facing the most significant wave of hybrid warfare in modern history," he said. "Disinformation is no longer just a peripheral nuisance, but now a reputational threat and strategic weapon targeting nations, institutions and corporations alike."
Whether that rhetoric matches the technical reality remains to be seen, but the funding interest suggests investors—and governments—are taking the threat seriously.
