What Commonplace does

Commonplace is a London-headquartered B2B SaaS platform for digital citizen engagement in the built environment, serving UK local authorities, government agencies, and private sector developers. Founded around 2013-2014 and operating from 30 Old Bailey in London with an additional Manchester office, the company offers a modular platform organised around three pillars: Listen (conversational media analytics and social listening), Survey (digital benchmarking surveys for representative community sampling), and Engage (interactive project hubs supporting place-based consultation across planning lifecycles). Over an eleven-year operating history, Commonplace reports serving 300-400+ customers across more than 3,500 projects and 17,000 engagement sites, with 11 million platform visitors and 13 million responses processed; named customers include the Mayor of London, Leeds City Council, Westminster City Council, Waltham Forest, Bristol City Council, Lewisham, Grosvenor, Landsec, and HS2.

The platform is delivered as a web application with integrations across HubSpot (CRM), Helpscout (support), Mixpanel and Logrocket (analytics), Twilio/Sendgrid (email), Descope (authentication), and Facebook/Google/LinkedIn advertising pixels, hosted on AWS infrastructure. Differentiated functionality includes the Community Heatmap for location-specific feedback, Planning Notices for digitising statutory planning consultation, Design Feedback tools, and the proprietary TrendsAI NLP engine trained on built environment domain data for topic classification, sentiment scoring and summarisation. Commonplace holds ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, ISO 9001/27017/20000-1, B Corp, and WCAG 2.2 AA certifications, and is registered with the UK ICO under GDPR, positioning the platform for public sector procurement. Revenue is generated through quote-based annual SaaS subscriptions with corporate licence options, sold primarily via direct enterprise sales augmented by a partner programme covering resellers, integrators and referral partners such as Real Worth, Traverse, Global Public Affairs, LDN Collective, Landcycle and inCitu.

In June 2023, Commonplace raised £2.1 million in seed funding led by Beringea with participation from Grosvenor Property UK to support geographic expansion and product development. On 22 January 2025, the company was acquired by Zencity, a US-headquartered government technology platform, combining Commonplace's UK planning specialisation and map-based engagement features with Zencity's AI, survey, social listening and analytics capabilities; the combined entity reports a footprint covering six countries, 45 US states and over 200 million people. Post-acquisition, Commonplace continues to operate as a brand within the Zencity platform, with its London and Manchester offices retained for UK operations.

Name

Commonplace

Legal name

Commonplace Digital Ltd

Website

https://commonplace.is

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Commonplace is a London-based B2B SaaS platform for digital citizen engagement in the built environment, serving UK local authorities, government agencies, and property developers with map-based consultation, social listening, surveys, and AI-powered NLP analytics.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Citizen Engagement Software

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Local & Neighborhood Communities (BPAMABAG)

Keywords

• Citizen engagement platform
• Community consultation software
• Digital planning platform
• Public participation tools
• Stakeholder engagement software

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. SaaS Platform Subscription: Commonplace operates as a B2B SaaS platform offering subscription-based access to its engagement platform. Pricing is quote-based and varies by customer size and project scope. The platform serves government councils and private sector developers with enterprise agreements.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

Commonplace provides a digital citizen engagement platform that enables local government councils and private sector developers to consult communities on planning, development, and infrastructure projects. The platform comprises three integrated tools — Listen, Survey, and Engage — that allow project teams to capture ongoing feedback, run structured surveys, and deliver comprehensive consultation campaigns. An AI analytics layer (TrendsAI) surfaces sentiment, themes, and geographic patterns from qualitative responses and social media data.

Product overview

Commonplace is a digital citizen engagement platform offering a modular architecture centered on three core pillars: Listen (conversational media analytics), Survey (digital benchmarking surveys), and Engage (interactive project hubs). The platform includes numerous integrated features such as the Community Heatmap for location-based feedback, Design Feedback tools, Planning Notices, and the TrendsAI NLP product for sentiment analysis and text classification. Add-on services include Representative Surveys, Social Media Monitoring, and Commonplace Organic (conversational media analytics). The platform is designed for public and private sector use in planning and development contexts, with capabilities spanning community consultation, transport planning, housing services, and urban regeneration projects. Following Zencity's acquisition in January 2025, the platform integrates additional AI, survey, and analytics capabilities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Listen An ongoing community listening tool that captures feedback from residents and stakeholders, including hard-to-reach demographics, by embedding conversation starters on websites or apps relevant to a development project.
• Survey A structured survey tool used by councils and developers to gather formal input on planning, design, regeneration, transport, and community programmes.
• Engage A comprehensive engagement platform for running full consultation campaigns on planning applications, regeneration schemes, and infrastructure projects, providing a space for two-way dialogue between project teams and communities.
• TrendsAI An AI-powered analytics module that uses natural language processing to surface themes, sentiment, and actionable insights from open-text survey responses and social media conversations, integrating with a Community Heatmap for geographic analysis.

Quantifiable outcome

• Waltham Forest Mini Holland project engaged over 5% (15,000) of the borough's population over 18 months, contributing to successful £20m funding bid and resulting in 22km of segregated cycle lanes, 700 new trees, and 300 new bike hangars
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration33 records

AI capability4 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• ZencityflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 January 2025Zencity, a global leader in community engagement platforms, acquired Commonplace in January 2025. The acquisition combines Commonplace's UK planning expertise and map-based features with Zencity's AI, survey, social listening, and analytics capabilities. The combined entity serves clients across 6 countries, 45 US states, and a global footprint covering over 200 million people. Commonplace maintains its brand and UK presence while gaining access to Zencity's expanded capabilities.
• Real WorthcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partner working with Commonplace to implement best practice digital engagement. Real Worth focuses on social value measurement and the partnership supports Commonplace's social impact measurement capabilities.
• TraversecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProfessional services partner specialising in engagement and consultation. Works with Commonplace to provide strategic partnership and best practice digital engagement implementation.
• Global Public AffairscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartner organisation in the built environment that resells and implements Commonplace platform solutions for their clients in Canada and internationally.
• LDN CollectivecoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorLondon-based consultancy partner reselling Commonplace engagement solutions to clients in the built environment sector.
• Paul BragmanminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorIndependent consultant partner working with Commonplace on community regeneration projects.
• LandcycleminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorSustainable transport and land use planning consultancy that partners with Commonplace for engagement solutions.
• inCituminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartner offering Commonplace engagement solutions, focusing on spatial and urban planning projects.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• CitizenLab: CitizenLab is a direct competitor offering a civic engagement platform for local governments with surveys, ideation, and participatory budgeting features. Targets the same UK and European council customers as Commonplace with comparable citizen consultation tooling.
• Bang the Table (EngagementHQ): Bang the Table's EngagementHQ platform provides online community engagement for local government and planning consultations across Australia, the US, Canada, and the UK. Closely comparable to Commonplace in target customers (councils, developers) and core functionality (surveys, mapping, forums).
• PublicInput: PublicInput is a US-based civic engagement platform helping local governments collect resident feedback on projects and policy. Comparable target market (government planning consultations) and overlapping feature set with Commonplace's Engage module.
• Maptionnaire: Maptionnaire offers map-based community engagement software with a strong emphasis on place-based feedback similar to Commonplace's Community Heatmap. Targets planners and researchers for participatory planning and urban design consultations.

Broad incumbents

• Granicus: Granicus is a large government technology platform with broad civic engagement, communications, and workflow capabilities for public sector clients. Overlaps with Commonplace in council engagement use cases but as part of a much wider gov-tech suite rather than a specialist planning tool.
• Qualtrics: Qualtrics is a large-scale experience management platform with survey capabilities used by many public sector organizations for benchmarking and community feedback. Competes with Commonplace's Survey module at the high end of council and developer budgets.
• SurveyMonkey (Momentive): SurveyMonkey is a widely adopted survey platform used by governments, developers, and nonprofits for public feedback collection. Competes with Commonplace's Survey module in the broader survey market, though lacks built environment specialization and planning-specific workflows.

Emerging players

• Decidim: Decidim is an open-source participatory democracy platform used by European cities and councils for citizen consultations and co-design. Comparable in target market and participatory functionality, but offers a free, community-developed alternative to Commonplace's paid SaaS.
• Neighborly: Neighborly focuses on community engagement and impact investment for local projects, with overlap in bringing residents into planning and funding decisions. Comparable in mission to amplify citizen voices in local development, though narrower in geographic scope.

Regional players

• Placecube: Placecube is a UK-focused digital engagement and service delivery platform for local government. Comparable in target geography and customer base (UK councils) and overlaps with Commonplace in citizen consultation use cases.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/info
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/commonplace
• Instagraminstagram.com/commonplace.is
• Xx.com/cmnplace

Compliance8 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds7 records

Investors11 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Commonplace