Gov.uk: Membership of new Creative Industries Taskforce announced
// Caroline Norbury // creative industries // UK Government
Creative UK is pleased to announce its investment into Arwen AI, the first investment from the recently launched Creative Growth Finance II Fund (CGF II Fund). This exciting investment marks the first chapter of the new fund and builds on the already successful investment portfolio including over 30 creative sector businesses.
Founded in 2021, in the shadow of the racist abuse storm that erupted after the final of the Euro football tournament, Arwen.ai uses artificial intelligence to detect and remove toxic, hateful and spam comments from social media in real-time, to build safer, more inclusive communities.
Their sophisticated AI processes over 25,000 comments a day, ensuring that their clients and their 430m+ followers aren’t exposed to racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, abuse or severe profanity, nor are spammed or click-baited on social media. Aside from improving engagement metrics and returns on media spending, their work also contributes directly to preserving the mental health of social media users, promoting a more equal, diverse and inclusive society. Their team works with organisations from across the world including ITV, Mercedes AMG Formula 1 team, Fulham FC, Tate Gallery, and the Chicago Blackhawks, as well as individuals including Steve Baker MP, Rosie Jones and Lewis Hamilton.
Following on from their previous success, this investment will empower Arwen AI to enter into an exciting new era of growth.
Matthew McGrory, Co-Founder and CEO, of Arwen AI Ltd said:
“We’ve had a great experience with Gab and the CGF team. The process was rigorous without being onerous, and Gab and the team brought a lot of value and useful thinking to the table. The investment is going to be central to our next phase of growth. We have big plans for Arwen, as customers ask ever more challenging questions about our AI software. The CGF investment allows us to hire growth and development roles to build our customer base while delivering more value and enhanced features, including identifying positive users and enabling our clients to be able to engage with them in real time, at scale. All part of our mission to “make social media more social”
Commenting on the investment, Gab Nardo, Investment Manager, Creative UK, said:
This is a classic CGF transaction reflecting many of our investment strategy’s core principles, but it is also a rather unordinary case at the same time. Here we are backing a team of seasoned professionals with multiple successful exits on their collective record, who decided to dedicate the next chapter of their professional lives to battling online toxicity – a truly underestimated plague for society and cost to corporates. Our due diligence process was an educational journey around the pressing need for sustainable online content moderation, that highlighted quite clearly how Matt and David created the leading solution currently available, which their portfolio of top-flight recurring clients continues to validate by growing month after month. The team’s execution to date has been remarkable, and we look forward with excitement to supporting them in the scale-up of their operations.
For further information on Creative Growth Finance and the fund’s eligibility criteria please visit www.wearecreative.uk/support/creative-enterprise/investment/creativegrowthfinance
For press and media enquiries please get in touch with Rebecca Maxwell, Head of Communications, Creative UK on rebecca.maxwell@wearecreative.uk
For investment enquiries please contact Gab Nardo, Investment Manager, Creative UK on gab.nardo@wearecreative.uk
To contact Arwen please email Joel Bailey, Product & Service Director, Arwen AI on joel@arwen.ai
