iwoca has launched Toro, a free PR tool that helps small businesses with no press office secure media coverage and get noticed in AI search.
Built on two decades of business strategy and communications experience, toro helps SMEs tell their story and tackle an increasingly fragmented attention economy. Designed for business owners short on time and resource, the product spots what’s newsworthy and turns a business update or launch into a story, complete with a press release, social posts and pitches.
No coverage, no visibility
The platform targets the millions of smaller businesses that are not served by in-house teams or PR agencies, as the visibility gap between large and small firms widens. Research from Muck Rack found that 84% of the sources AI tools cite are earned – journalism (27%), encyclopedic and academic sources, and third-party coverage – rather than paid placements or a brand’s own website. And AI rewards those already being talked about: Ahrefs’ analysis2 of 75,000 brands found those with the most mentions across the web appear up to ten times more often in top AI answers. Smaller brands hardly register at all.
But the supply of that influential coverage has shrunk over time. Analysis from Press Gazette found the nine regional publishers since consolidated into Reach, Newsquest and National World employed around 9,000 journalists in 2007; by 2022 the three groups employed up to around 3,000, with at least 293 local titles closed since 2005. Research by the Public Interest News Foundation, found 37 UK local authority districts now qualify as ‘news deserts’, 27 of them with no local news outlet at all.
Of the UK’s 5.7 million SMEs, 5.4 million have fewer than 10 employees – the firms least likely ever to have appeared in the news. Backed by iwoca, toro is designed to help them build the media presence and content footprint that AI search systems now prioritise, without the retainers or large in-house marketing teams.
“The attention economy is fragmenting in real time, and the gap is widening,” says Mark Di-Toro – builder of toro and iwoca’s Director of Strategic Communications. “Hard-working journalists are covering more ground. Meanwhile, AI search is amplifying those with significant visibility across multiple platforms. If you’ve got years of press coverage, online conversations and a big content budget, you compound that lead. If you’re a small business or entrepreneur starting from scratch, you’re almost invisible.
“There’s an opportunity to address this if technology is used properly. SMEs just need the right tools to tell their story.”
SME stories worth telling
Leo Shipulya, co-founder of WeavePay, one of Europe’s fastest-growing digital payment providers, added: “The 
biggest challenge is that we don’t know where to start with PR. We know we should do it and we’ve got a great story to tell, but how and when to invest in this area has always been the major consideration. The emergence of AI search has brought huge opportunity for awareness, but it needs time and resources to do it properly and come up with a plan that works. It’s hard to find the time when I’m trying to scale a business.”
No mass distribution – tech-led with a human touch, the platform deliberately stops short of mass pitch or press release distribution.
“I’ve been speaking to media outlets throughout and I intentionally didn’t build a tool that fires out thousands of 
pitches in one go,” adds Di-Toro. “Those tools sound efficient, but the results are limited and untargeted. Users must edit the materials, add the detail only they know, and then reach out to suggested journalists personally or through their teams. No blanket send-outs, no untargeted pitching. A personal approach combined with a timely story is what cuts through – AI won’t change that.”
“And there’s a bigger point here. If media and politicians want to know what’s going on in the UK economy, what SMEs care about and what entrepreneurs need, I believe they must hear more from those driving it.”