Humans Not Robots
Humans Not Robots (HNR) is a UK-based GreenOps and FinOps software company that provides AI-powered analytics for broadcasters, telecom operators, and media enterprises to measure and reduce carbon emissions, power consumption, and costs across cloud, on-premise, and AI workloads.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2022
- HeadquartersYork, United Kingdom
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Humans Not Robots does
Humans Not Robots (HNR) is a UK-based GreenOps and FinOps software company founded in 2022 by Kristan Bullett (CEO) and Kris Brown (CTO), headquartered in York, that builds analytics for measuring and reducing the environmental and financial cost of digital infrastructure. Its flagship platform, HNR to ZERO, combines two modules — HNR Discover for baselining carbon footprint, power consumption, and financial cost across cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP), on-premise, and AI workloads, and HNR Deliver for AI-powered infrastructure optimisation using causal machine learning (delivered via a partnership with Causa) to produce real-time cost and carbon advisories. The company also coined the proprietary Quality of Impact (QoI) measurement framework, extending QoS/QoE concepts to quantify environmental footprint across the digital delivery chain, and is co-founding the independent Ecoflow X entity with Accedo, ITV, and IET to standardise streaming sustainability measurement.
HNR targets enterprise customers primarily in media, broadcasting, and telecommunications — including the BBC, European Broadcasting Union, Bouygues Telecom, ITV, Channel 4, and RTL Nederland — with secondary exposure to space/satellite infrastructure via the ESA-funded 5G-EMERGE project. Revenue is generated through a tiered SaaS subscription model spanning a 3-month Pilot PAYG tier and 12–36 month Core, Sustainability, and Enterprise contracts, sold via direct enterprise field sales with lead-conversion through pilots and proof-of-concept deployments. Go-to-market leverages technology partnerships (AWS Partner Network, Causa, ClimateEQ), industry associations (DPP, Greening of Streaming, IET, EBU), and event presence at IBC and NAB.
The company is venture-backed (Blue Lake, Low Carbon Innovation Fund 2 via Turquoise) at a modest funding scale (~£440,000 disclosed in the June 2023 LCIF2-led round), operates with 1–10 employees, and has accumulated industry recognition including IBC Best of Show 2024, TVB Europe Best of Show 2024, and three consecutive years of DPP Committed to Sustainability ratings (rising from two-leaf in 2022 to three-leaf in 2024). Its strategic posture is to convert regulatory tailwinds (CSRD, ESG reporting) and sector-wide decarbonisation commitments into a defensible niche in media-supply-chain sustainability analytics rather than to compete head-on with generalist cloud cost management platforms.
Humans Not Robots firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Humans Not Robots
- Legal name
- Humans Not Robots Ltd
- Website
- https://humansnotrobots.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2022
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Humans Not Robots (HNR) is a UK-based GreenOps and FinOps software company that provides AI-powered analytics for broadcasters, telecom operators, and media enterprises to measure and reduce carbon emissions, power consumption, and costs across cloud, on-premise, and AI workloads.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Humans Not Robots industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Cloud Sustainability & FinOps Analytics Software
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Serverless & Functions-as-a-Service (FaaS) (HDABAAAC)
Keywords
Where Humans Not Robots is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- York
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Humans Not Robots business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Software Platform Subscription: SaaS platform subscription with multiple tiers (Pilot, Core, Sustainability, Enterprise). Annual or multi-year contracts. Includes HNR Discover and HNR Deliver modules with varying levels of data integrations and features.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Pay-as-you-go | Pilot - HNR Discover + HNR Deliver (PAYG) - 3 month max term |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Core - HNR Discover - 12, 24 or 36 month term |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Sustainability - HNR Discover + HNR Deliver - 12, 24 or 36 month term |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise - Full platform access |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels5 records
Humans Not Robots product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Humans Not Robots sells the HNR to ZERO platform, an AI-driven GreenOps + FinOps analytics SaaS that measures carbon footprint, power consumption, cost, and performance across cloud, on-premise, and AI workloads. The platform is delivered as HNR Discover (data capture, baselining, ESG/SECR/CSRD reporting, and the Quality of Impact framework) plus HNR Deliver (causal machine-learning-driven workflow and infrastructure optimization), targeting broadcasters, telcos, and public-sector digital service owners.
Product overview
Humans Not Robots (HNR) offers a unified platform architecture centred on HNR to ZERO, their flagship analytics platform for measuring and optimising technology sustainability. The platform comprises two integrated modules: HNR Discover for baselining and reporting on carbon footprint, power consumption, and costs, and HNR Deliver for AI-driven infrastructure optimisation using causal machine learning. Together they enable enterprises to track, analyse, and reduce their environmental impact while achieving cost savings. The company also coined the Quality of Impact (QoI) metric framework as a sustainability measurement standard.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- HNR to ZERO: HNR's flagship analytics platform that provides data-heavy businesses with a single view of cost, carbon, and time across cloud, on-premise, and AI workloads.
- HNR Discover
- HNR Deliver
Products and services
- HNR to ZERO AI-driven GreenOps and FinOps analytics platform that measures power consumption, carbon footprint, cost, and performance of cloud, on-premise, and AI workloads for enterprise media, telco, and public-sector customers; delivered as a tiered SaaS subscription (Pilot / PAYG, Core, Sustainability, Enterprise).
- HNR Discover Data capture and baselining module of HNR to ZERO that ingests cloud, on-premise, and AI workload telemetry and produces audit-grade sustainability, ESG, SECR, and CSRD reports using the Quality of Impact (QoI) framework.
- HNR Deliver Optimization module of HNR to ZERO that uses causal machine learning, heuristics, and anomaly detection to identify and recommend reductions in energy, carbon, cost, and latency across digital service workflows.
Quantifiable outcome
- 20-30% carbon emissions reduction within 12 months
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use Humans Not Robots
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Humans Not Robots technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration4 records
AI capability6 records
Feature9 records
Humans Not Robots partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
16 partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and major.
- Ecoflow XcoreIndependent entity launched as experimentation arm for sustainability. Founded by Accedo, HNR, ITV, and IET. Focuses on technical validation and operational insights across streaming value chain, creating sustainability observability framework and digital twins for energy optimization.
- Ad SignalminorPartnership to redefine intelligence in media technology. Collaboration drives sustainability and savings through streamlined infrastructure and content optimization.
- European Space Agency (ESA)core5G-EMERGE project partner under ESA ARTES programme. HNR responsible for Quality of Impact (QoI) measurement and sustainability analytics. Project develops hybrid satellite and terrestrial system for efficient, sustainable content delivery.
- European Broadcasting Union (EBU)coreCollaboration on EBU Technical Review analyzing cloud energy usage and carbon emissions in broadcasting. HNR tested various cloud energy assessment tools including Cloud Carbon Footprint. Goal: help European broadcasters understand what and how to measure cloud sustainability.
- CausacoreTechnology partnership leveraging Causa's Causal Machine Learning technology. Collaboration enables HNR Deliver to achieve notable cost savings in Lambda operations. Causal ML provides superior optimization results compared to traditional ML approaches.
- ClimateEQcoreStrategic partnership providing combined best-of-breed consultancy services and technology solutions. ClimateEQ provides sustainability training and Net Zero Training programs; HNR provides analytics platform. Joint offering helps businesses with sustainability compliance and reporting journey.
- Greening of Streaming (GoS)coreHNR to ZERO serves as single source for all data collected across GoS working groups. Partnership key to testing, proving, and generating ideas for greener streaming industry. GoS founder Dom Robinson: HNR provides added level of analysis and independent reporting.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreAWS Partner Network member after completing AWS Foundational Technical Review (FTR). HNR platform built from ground-up to leverage AWS services. Provides digital supply chain analytics and optimization for AWS media and entertainment customers.
- DPP (Digital Production Parade)coreHNR is co-sponsor of DPP Committed to Sustainability program alongside Red Bee Media. Three-year participant with progressive improvement from two-leaf to three-leaf rating. Industry-leading scheme promoting environmental sustainability in media sector.
- 5G-EMERGE ConsortiumcorePhase 2 project led by EBU and funded by ESA. Consortium includes BBC, Bouygues Telecom, and other satellite/broadband/CDN stakeholders. Develops open-standards-based system linking satellite networks with 5G ecosystems for content delivery.
- AccedocoreECOFLOW project co-lead with HNR. Accedo provides video streaming software expertise. Partnership demonstrates commitment to sustainable technology practices. Sustainability Director testimonial praising HNR's responsiveness and roadmap.
- ITVmajorECOFLOW Phase 2 champion. One of UK's leading broadcasters actively participating in sustainability initiative for streaming.
- Channel 4majorECOFLOW Phase 2 champion. UK public service broadcaster supporting industry-wide sustainability measurement.
- BBCmajorECOFLOW project champion and customer. Major UK broadcaster utilizing HNR analytics for sustainability measurement.
- RTL NederlandminorECOFLOW project participant. European commercial broadcaster contributing to sustainable streaming initiative.
- IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology)majorECOFLOW X co-founder. IET Media Technical Network provides engineering expertise. Chair Ian Nock: sees Ecoflow as valuable initiative for best engineering solutions with clear sustainability foundation.
Scale indicators10 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Humans Not Robots competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Greenpixie: Greenpixie is a UK-based cloud carbon footprint analytics provider measuring emissions and energy use across cloud workloads. It is the closest direct peer to HNR's "Discover" sustainability analytics offering, though HNR differentiates with media-vertical depth and AI-driven optimization.
- Cloud Carbon Footprint: An open-source application created by ThoughtWorks that estimates energy use and carbon emissions for AWS, GCP, and Azure accounts. It is a direct functional competitor to HNR Discover's baselining capability and is explicitly referenced as a benchmark tool in HNR's own EBU research.
Emerging players
- CAST AI: CAST AI is a cloud cost optimization and automation platform that has expanded into sustainability/carbon reporting for Kubernetes and cloud workloads. Comparable to HNR Deliver's AI-driven optimization use case, with overlapping buyer personas in engineering and FinOps teams.
- CloudZero: CloudZero is a cloud cost intelligence platform that maps spend to products, features, and customers. It overlaps with HNR's FinOps analytics layer and increasingly bundles sustainability metrics, making it a relevant adjacent competitor for cloud economics buyers.
- DIMPACT: DIMPACT is an industry initiative that develops methodologies for measuring the environmental footprint of digital media. It is listed as an ECOFLOW observing partner and is comparable to HNR's QoI framework in the media-sustainability measurement space.
Broad incumbents
- Spot by NetApp: Spot (now part of NetApp) provides automated cloud infrastructure optimization across AWS, Azure, and GCP. It is a broader incumbent in the FinOps/optimization space that competes for the same engineering-team budget as HNR Deliver, though it lacks HNR's media vertical and sustainability specialization.
- Watershed: Watershed is an enterprise sustainability platform covering carbon accounting, Scope 3 reporting, and disclosure-grade analytics. It overlaps with HNR's CSRD/ESG reporting positioning, but Watershed is horizontally focused on sustainability rather than media or cloud infrastructure optimization.
- Salesforce Net Zero Cloud: Salesforce Net Zero Cloud (formerly Salesforce Sustainability Cloud) is an enterprise carbon accounting and ESG reporting platform. It is a broad incumbent that competes for sustainability-team budgets and CSRD compliance spend, with a much wider product surface but less media/cloud-specific depth.
- IBM Envizi: IBM Envizi is an enterprise sustainability data and ESG reporting suite acquired by IBM. It is a broad incumbent comparable to HNR on the sustainability reporting side, particularly for CSRD/SEC disclosure workflows, but does not focus on cloud workload optimization.
- Apptio (an IBM Company): Apptio, now part of IBM, is a leading FinOps and Technology Business Management platform used by large enterprises to manage cloud and IT spend. It is a broad incumbent in the FinOps category adjacent to HNR's cost-analytics functionality, particularly for enterprise finance teams.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Humans Not Robots social profiles
Digital presenceHumans Not Robots compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Humans Not Robots financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Humans Not Robots leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles5 records
Humans Not Robots funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds4 records
Investors3 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Humans Not Robots M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Humans Not Robots
What does Humans Not Robots do?
Humans Not Robots sells the HNR to ZERO platform, an AI-driven GreenOps + FinOps analytics SaaS that measures carbon footprint, power consumption, cost, and performance across cloud, on-premise, and AI workloads. The platform is delivered as HNR Discover (data capture, baselining, ESG/SECR/CSRD reporting, and the Quality of Impact framework) plus HNR Deliver (causal machine-learning-driven workflow and infrastructure optimization), targeting broadcasters, telcos, and public-sector digital service owners.
Is Humans Not Robots a public or private company?
Humans Not Robots is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Humans Not Robots founded?
Humans Not Robots was founded in 2022. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Humans Not Robots based?
Humans Not Robots is headquartered in York, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Humans Not Robots make money?
One revenue line is on record: software Platform Subscription.
Who are Humans Not Robots's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Greenpixie and Cloud Carbon Footprint. Emerging players are CAST AI, CloudZero and DIMPACT. Broad incumbents are Spot by NetApp, Watershed, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, IBM Envizi and Apptio (an IBM Company).
Does Humans Not Robots have an API?
No public API is recorded for Humans Not Robots.
What industry is Humans Not Robots in?
Humans Not Robots's product category is Cloud Sustainability & FinOps Analytics Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDABAAAC, Serverless & Functions-as-a-Service (FaaS). Its NAICS code is 51821.