Newcastle entrepreneur Ian Griffiths launches new online decision-tracking business

Surff offers a new way for brands to track decision making, where AI is changing ecommerce

A entrepreneur who has previously co-founded and sold whocanfixmycar.com has launched a new business with hopes to shake up the digital commerce market.

Former investment banker Ian Griffiths has already attracted investment from Mercia Ventures for Surff. He has developed the platform which he says is built on the premise that the most valuable data on the internet isn’t clicks or impressions – it’s decisions.

Current measurement systems can show when a user visited a page, but can’t see what they compared it against, what was shortlisted or why they ultimately chose one option over another. And as AI agents are increasingly carrying out decision-making on behalf of consumers, and with a shift away from third party cookies and tightening privacy rules – Mr Griffiths says existing analytics methods are breaking down.

Surff captures consented browsing behaviour and structures it – using AI – into anonymised, aggregated intelligence that gives sellers a clearer view of how customers actually decide. It covers multiple domains, rather than “walled gardens” – the closed systems that control user data – and last-touch attribution, which assigns 100% of the credit for a conversion to the final interaction a customer has.

The concept is also built so that online shoppers can share in the value of the data they create. Users opt in, and can control what they share, while earning rewards directly from the brands that benefit.

Mr Griffiths, founder and CEO of Surff, said: “For two decades, the digital economy has been built on data that consumers generate but never benefit from. Surff exists to change that. We’re building the infrastructure layer for decision data – the missing signal that brands have lost as cookies disappear and agentic commerce replaces the buying journey.

“Consumers get to own and earn from the data they create. Brands get a clearer picture of how decisions actually happen. I’m especially proud to be building this in the North East, where the talent and ambition are world-class.”

Mr Griffiths co-founded whocanfixmycar.com in 2011, before it was sold in 2023. It works with thousands of garages on a no win, no fee basis where drivers specify a service or repair and receive estimates from providers near to them.

The business attracted investment from Active Private Equity and former RAC chairman Sir Trevor Chinn. With Surff, this is the second time that Mercia has backed Mr Griffiths, who now hopes to build a larger funding round.

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