Former NCSC executive raises millions for start-up AI Score

An artificial intelligence start-up advised by Sir Jeremy Fleming, the former GCHQ director, has landed a seven-figure sum as it seeks to become a global leader in enabling businesses to safely use agentic AI.

Sky News understands AI Score will this week announce it has raised $5.4m (£4m) in a seed funding round led by Fuel Ventures.

The round will include fresh backing from its founding investor, GALLOS Technologies, as well as prominent figures from the technology, finance and national security spheres.

They include Mo El Husseiny, managing partner of Ventura Capital, and Alan Morgan, co-founder of MMC Ventures and an early investor in the British fintechs Funding Circle and Tide.

The latest injection of capital follows AI Score's $1m pre-seed round last November.

AI Score said its revenue soared in the first half of this year amid demand from clients in highly regulated and data-sensitive industries, including a leading law firm and major global consumer brands.

It declined to name its customers.

The fundraising comes amid bleak evidence of the growing power of AI agents to act with autonomy to launch hostile acts beyond the parameters of their creators' intentions.

AI Score says its real-time platform tracks and controls the use of Generative AI and Agentic AI across a business, helping clients govern AI effectively without constraining its potential.

The start-up is run by co-founder and chief executive Alex Harland, who was part of the founding team at the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), and fellow co-founder Benita Tibb, a former City lawyer.

The company's advisory line-up includes Sir Jeremy, as well as Colin Bell, who chairs Starling Bank and previously ran HSBC Bank Europe.

Nick Trim, co-founder and former executive at the cybersecurity company Darktrace, is also an advisor to AI Score, as is the company's other co-founder, Jonathan Kewley.

"AI operates at a scale and level of automation that traditional governance simply wasn't built for," Mr Harland said.

"Organisations need to be able to move quickly and capture the opportunity AI presents, without losing visibility or control.

"This investment allows us to accelerate our ambition to reinvent governance for the AI age, building intelligence directly into the process and giving organisations the confidence to win with AI."

Mr Bell said AI Score was "building an approach that can turn governance from a constraint into a driver of value".

(c) Sky News 2026: Former NCSC executive raises millions for start-up AI Score