Stuart Clarke, CEO of Blackdot Solutions, has been recognised as One to Watch in The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders programme for 2026. This marks an important acknowledgement of his commitment to creating exceptional investigations software, as well as demonstrating the success of the software itself in helping teams to understand risk and counter economic crime.
About the LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders
The programme was created by private equity investor LDC, part of Lloyds Banking Group, in partnership with The Times. Since 2018, it has celebrated the ambition and achievements of hundreds of exceptional entrepreneurs.
This year The LDC Top 50 attracted more than 620 nominations from across the UK, highlighting the depth of ambition among leaders building successful businesses in every region and sector.
The leaders featured are driven by an appetite for growth that is helping to build stronger, more sustainable businesses and a more competitive UK economy. They are expanding internationally, developing new products and services, challenging established markets and investing in their people.
Together, their businesses generate £1.4bn in annual revenues and employ almost 8,500 people. Headquartered in 55 towns and cities, they demonstrate the contribution that medium-sized businesses make to their communities and the wider UK economy.
Stuart’s inclusion on this list puts Blackdot alongside some of the fastest growing, most innovative businesses in the UK, which is in itself testament to his leadership and vision.
One to Watch: What this award means
The Ones to Watch are leaders whose achievements and ambition have already set them apart. Each has made significant progress and shown the potential to take their business even further in the years ahead.
To date, Stuart has supported Blackdot in growing from a bootstrapped Cambridge startup into a platform trusted by leading financial institutions, government agencies, professional service firms and Financial Intelligence Units worldwide. In 2025, the business secured £5 million from Maven Capital Partners and launched Videris Automate, the first AI investigation solution purpose-built for regulated environments, and Videris Investigative Assistant (VIA), a secure chatbot designed for investigations.
Technology as a force for good
Beyond its own operations, Blackdot recognises that the technology it builds can itself be a force for good. The company provides Videris to TRAFFIC - a leading global NGO working to combat illegal wildlife trade - at a reduced operational fee. TRAFFIC uses Videris to identify individuals suspected of involvement in corrupt practices within the natural resource sector, including illegal timber logging. As Antony Bagott, Database Manager at TRAFFIC, notes, the platform has “opened our eyes to ways we could be using publicly available data sources to combat the illegal trade of wildlife.”
TRAFFIC isn’t the only organisation using Videris to counter serious crime. Teams in law enforcement and government agencies use Videris to map criminal networks and prevent further harm; risk consultancies and corporates harness Videris to ensure alignment with regulations and counter corruption; and banks and financial intelligence units use Videris to disrupt financial and economic crime. For example, the Group Head of Suspicious Activity Reporting at a major European bank noted: “Videris has supported strengthening of our Financial Crime investigation function by providing us with more enhanced OSINT capabilities that enable our investigators to identify risks faster.”
Blackdot's mission and ambition
At every step, Stuart’s leadership has been driven by a key underlying mission: making OSINT efficient, accessible and effective for organisations worldwide, helping them turn complex data into mapped networks and actionable intelligence. For the organisations using Videris, that means a better understanding of risk and a greater impact in the fight against crime. Stuart’s listing as One to Watch demonstrates the company’s progress in achieving this mission.
This mission also drives Blackdot’s ambition to help organisations adapt to the modern threat landscape as it evolves. As criminals increasingly leverage AI to scale economic crime, the gap between criminal capability and investigator capacity will only widen without intervention. Blackdot's goal is to close that gap: setting the standard for explainability, auditability and trustworthy data that the industry needs. Stuart is positioning Blackdot as the platform that financial institutions and public bodies worldwide depend on to stay ahead. Not just responding to economic crime, but anticipating and disrupting it.
Stuart Clarke, CEO at Blackdot Solutions, said: “My vision is a world where OSINT is widely used to fight economic crime: disrupting the flow of illicit funds, not just to stop individual criminals in their tracks, but to unmask and tackle the wider networks behind serious criminal activity. I’m honoured to have been named as One to Watch, but I want to recognise that it’s more than a personal achievement. It’s also a demonstration of the work and commitment of Blackdot as a whole, and an important acknowledgement of the real-world impact our software is having."
John Garner, Managing Partner at LDC, added: “This year’s Ones to Watch have already achieved a great deal, but it is their ambition for what comes next that sets them apart. They are building exciting businesses and have demonstrated the ambition needed to thrive. I would like to congratulate them all on their success so far. We look forward to following their progress and seeing where their ambition takes them next.”
Read more about The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders for 2026 here: https://bit.ly/47pm2nR
