Savannah Price, Founder & CEO of Serene, Shortlisted for Entrepreneur of the Year at the British Business Awards 2026

WHY THIS MATTERS: The inclusion of Serene’s founder on a major business shortlist signals a critical maturation point for the UK fintech sector. This is not just an award nod; it is industry validation for the seismic shift from reactive loss mitigation to predictive proactive risk management. For years, financial institutions operated on a compliance framework designed to penalize once an event—like a scam or default—had already occurred. Serene’s approach, leveraging behavioral intelligence to identify risk triggers up to two months in advance, proves that AI is ready to serve as a fundamental customer safeguard. Firms can no longer afford to treat customer vulnerability or fraud exposure as a moment of failure. Instead, this model shows how early, personalized intervention—leading to measurable outcomes like higher approval rates and lower overall customer harm—is the only sustainable path forward for responsible growth in an era of heightened regulatory scrutiny.

Savannah Price, Founder and CEO of UK fintech Serene, has been shortlisted for Entrepreneur of the Year at the British Business Awards 2026 and recognised on The British Business Leaders List, published with The Times and The Sunday Times. 

Price is one of just eight finalists in the Eden Mill Entrepreneur of the Year category, selected from more than 400 entries and evaluated across business performance, innovation, and customer impact – recognising leaders setting the standard across innovation, impact, and leadership. 

Serene helps financial institutions move from reacting to risk to understanding it earlier, using AI-driven behavioural intelligence to enable better decisions and more timely, effective support before financial distress, fraud, or scam exposure occurs. 

Commenting on the recognition, Savannah Price said: “This is a hugely proud moment – not just personally, but for what we’re building at Serene. Financial services have long been optimised to react once problems have already happened. We believe the future lies in earlier understanding – using better data and smarter systems to support customers before risk becomes harm. It’s incredibly encouraging to see that shift being recognised.” 

Rick Haythornthwaite, NatWest Group Chair, said:  “As Britain’s biggest bank for business, we are proud to once again sponsor the British Business Awards, recognising the outstanding achievements of businesses across all sectors and every part of the UK. 

Businesses like these are central to our economy, creating jobs, driving innovation, and supporting communities. We look forward to celebrating the ambition, creativity and excellence that is at the heart of so many great British businesses in Edinburgh next month, whilst also taking the opportunity to support Social Bite and its vital work tackling homelessness.” 

Serene works with leading financial institutions across acquisition, servicing, collections, and fraud prevention – helping firms improve customer outcomes while strengthening performance and reducing avoidable risk. In practice, this means identifying customers at risk of financial distress more than 60 days before traditional indicators, as well as surfacing early signals of scam and fraud susceptibility – enabling earlier, more proportionate intervention.

The same insight is helping partners increase approvals by 7–10% without increasing risk, demonstrating how better customer understanding can drive both stronger outcomes and sustainable growth. As financial pressure and fraud risks increase, this recognition reflects a broader shift towards earlier, more proactive support in financial services — with firms placing greater emphasis on responsible AI, early intervention, and measurable customer outcomes.

For more information on the British Business Awards 2026 and The British Business Leaders List, please visit www.britishbusinessawards.co.uk

FF NEWS TAKE: This spotlight on Serene underscores the power of responsible AI to reconcile regulatory obligations with commercial ambition. The old detection-and-punish cycle is dead; the new metric of success is verifiable prevention. This paradigm shift will certainly move the needle, forcing competitors to retool their entire risk architecture. The next phase of competition will centre on which platforms can most effectively quantify the commercial return derived from preemptively protecting their customers.