Last Updated: 31 May 2025
Diffblue has secured a £1 million grant from Innovate UK as part of the international ITEA GENIUS project (Generative AI for the Software Development Life Cycle). The funding will be used to accelerate the company’s work on reinforcement learning-based tools that automate unit test generation, driving improvements in accuracy, efficiency, and scalability across the software development process.
The GENIUS project is a multi-country initiative focused on bringing generative AI into the heart of software engineering. It connects researchers and organizations across 11 countries, including global names such as Siemens, Fraunhofer, and Philips.
Diffblue is one of the UK-based contributors, collaborating with King’s College London, BT, GoCodeGreen, and other partners across Europe.
Software development remains a highly manual and time-consuming process, especially when it comes to testing and maintenance. GENIUS is designed to close the gap between current development workflows and the promise of AI automation, bringing together industry and academia to co-develop AI tools that can take over repetitive, error-prone tasks.
"We are excited to receive this grant from Innovate UK and to work with our partners on the GENIUS project. AI is rapidly changing the way software is developed, and at Diffblue, we are channeling this shift to bring scalable development solutions to enterprises so they can innovate with greater speed and confidence."
Peter Schrammel, CTO and co-founder of Diffblue
Diffblue plans to use the grant to further evolve its flagship solution, Diffblue Cover, which uses reinforcement learning to generate high-quality Java unit tests automatically. Unlike LLM-based tools, Diffblue's approach tests code in real time and learns from each run, minimizing hallucinations and increasing reliability.
The company and its partners will explore new techniques to automate complex engineering workflows such as code generation and software maintenance.
The goal is to enable faster release cycles, better system performance, and fewer bugs—critical advantages for enterprise development teams.
Founded by a team of Oxford University researchers, Diffblue has focused on using reinforcement learning to transform the way software is written and tested.
Its AI generates unit tests that are guaranteed to compile, pass, and deliver strong coverage. The technology allows teams to scale testing efforts without adding to manual workloads.
With clients including Citi, ING, Workday, and S&P Global, Diffblue has already gained traction among major financial and enterprise software players. Its product, Diffblue Cover, is reported to write unit tests up to 250 times faster than a human developer—allowing teams to boost productivity and reduce risk.
The company is led by CEO Mathew Lodge and CTO Peter Schrammel, and continues to grow as interest in AI-driven development tools rises globally.
This grant from Innovate UK adds to Diffblue’s growing list of public and private support. As one of the main backers of the GENIUS project, Innovate UK is playing a central role in supporting the next wave of AI innovation in software engineering.
The GENIUS consortium spans 11 countries and includes a wide range of institutions—from global corporations like Philips and Siemens to research bodies such as Fraunhofer and Ontario Tech University. Together, they provide a robust testbed for developing and scaling AI tools for real-world development challenges.
