What Bulbshare does

Bulbshare is an AI-powered customer insights and co-creation platform, founded in 2017 and headquartered in London, that connects enterprise brands with engaged consumer communities for real-time feedback, product testing, and marketing validation. The platform operates as a mobile-first, always-on solution enabling brands to run multimedia surveys, video diaries, creative concept tests, image heat-mapping studies, and virtual global workshops, with results processed through an AI co-pilot that automates survey design, analyzes results in minutes, translates and transcribes rich-media content, and produces ready-to-use report summaries.

The underlying technology is multi-modal: text, image, and video inputs are processed via generative AI, NLP, predictive analytics, and process automation. The platform's value proposition centers on speed and cost — claims of 50x faster insights and 5x lower cost than traditional research — replacing slow legacy market research workflows with on-demand community engagement. Customers include L'Oréal, Nestlé CPW (deployments across 16+ countries), Nestlé Cereals, and Asahi, spanning verticals such as retail, CPG, restaurants, consumer services, and hospitality.

Bulbshare generates revenue through a SaaS subscription model with either fully managed service or DIY onboarding, priced via quote (not publicly disclosed). Distribution is enterprise-direct sales with a "Request Demo" CTA and digital platform access. The company has raised four funding rounds between 2017 and 2021 from investors including Ascension, Creative UK, Begin Capital, Blossom Street Ventures, and Portfolio Ventures. As of the most recent data, Bulbshare employs 51–100 people. Leadership includes founder and CEO Matt Hay and CTO Tine Hamler.

Name

Bulbshare

Legal name

Bulbshare

Website

https://bulbshare.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Bulbshare is an AI-powered, mobile-first customer insights and co-creation platform that connects enterprise brands with engaged consumer communities for real-time feedback, product testing, and marketing validation. Founded in 2017 in London, it serves global CPG, retail, hospitality, and consumer services clients.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Platform Subscription: SaaS-based platform subscription model with fully managed service or DIY onboarding options. Includes 24/7 support, monthly releases, performance SLAs, and access to thought-leading trend reports.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Bulbshare is an AI-powered customer collaboration and insights platform that enables brands to connect with engaged consumer communities for real-time feedback, product co-creation, and campaign validation. It delivers multimedia surveys, video diaries, virtual workshops, and AI-driven analytics to enterprises across retail, CPG, hospitality, and consumer services.

Product overview

SMG's Ignite Communities is a customer collaboration and co-creation platform that is part of the broader Ignite Unified Experience Management platform. It operates as a mobile-first, always-on solution enabling brands to connect with real customers through engaged digital communities. The platform includes AI co-pilot capabilities for survey design and analysis, multimedia feedback tools supporting photos, videos, and live surveys, and AI-powered analytics for identifying themes, trends, and sentiment. Ignite Communities is integrated within SMG's Unified Experience Management solution, aligning brand, customer, and employee insights throughout the entire customer journey.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Ignite Communities AI-powered customer collaboration and insights platform that lets brand teams launch communities, gather multimedia feedback, run co-creation sessions and workshops, and analyze responses in real time using AI-driven sentiment and predictive analytics.

Quantifiable outcome

• Get insights 50x faster with AI co-pilot
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability8 records

Feature5 records

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Forsta: Experience and research technology platform (formerly Confirmit + FocusVision) covering CX, EX, and market research. Competes for the same enterprise customer-insight budgets with established VoC and qualitative tools.
• Qualtrics: Enterprise experience management platform covering CX, EX, brand, and product research. Direct overlap with Bulbshare's customer-insights use cases, but Qualtrics is a much broader suite sold via field sales to large enterprises.
• Medallia: Enterprise experience management platform with strong CX and VoC capabilities. Competes with SMG's broader Ignite UXM (which now houses Bulbshare's Ignite Communities) for large enterprise CX budgets.
• NielsenIQ: Consumer intelligence platform with panel data and analytics for CPG/retail. Adjacent competitor for consumer-insight budgets, particularly for product-launch and brand-tracking use cases.
• Ipsos: Global market research leader with digital transformation initiatives. Targets the same enterprise CPG/retail accounts and is investing in AI-enabled insight delivery that competes with Bulbshare's value proposition.
• Kantar: Global market research and insights giant serving CPG and retail — Bulbshare's strongest verticals. Competes for the same enterprise consumer-insight budget via traditional research plus digital panel capabilities.

Direct peers

• Toluna: Global consumer panel and insights technology platform with managed community capabilities. Competes head-to-head on always-on consumer communities and rapid survey deployment for CPG and retail clients.
• Attest: UK-based consumer research platform offering brand-tracking and survey-based insights to enterprises. Closest direct peer: same geography, same CPG/retail customer base, similar SaaS pricing model.

Emerging players

• Discuss.io: Enterprise qualitative research platform with asynchronous video and live interview capabilities. Direct overlap with Bulbshare's video-diary and virtual-workshop features, though narrower in scope.
• Prolific: Research-participant platform enabling fast access to verified respondents for academic and commercial research. Competes for the same 'faster-than-traditional-research' value proposition but with a participant-pool model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Bulbshare

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors5 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 Bulbshare