Losses at a news start-up founded by a former BBC News chief ballooned last year as the company splashed out on more journalists and live events.

Tortoise, a so-called slow news website which was founded by James Harding in 2018, reported a £4.6m loss in 2022.

That marked an increase of almost 45pc on the £3.2m loss recorded the previous year and takes the company’s total losses since its inception to £16.3m.

It came as Tortoise, which shuns breaking news in favour of in-depth journalism, stepped up its investment in staff and live events.

The company launched Kite, a music and ideas festival backed by French media giant Vivendi, and increased the number of its Responsible Business Forum events from two to five.

Tortoise also increased its headcount by almost a third to 73, of which 53 are journalists.

As a result, costs increased to £10.8m, up by more than a quarter from £8.6m in 2021.

Despite the heavy losses, Tortoise said it had £4.3m of cash in the bank and the same amount as a surplus of shareholder funds.

The company raised an additional £1.1m from its investors, which include hedge fund Lansdowne Partners, this month. It previously raised £10m in a series A funding round in January last year.

In the accounts, James Harding said: “2022 was a year we decided to invest in the business and are confident this will enable us to achieve our goal of profitability.”

Mr Harding, who was editor of The Times prior to his tenure at BBC News, founded Tortoise with the aim of countering the fast-paced nature of digital news.