Zealous

What Zealous does

Zealous is a London-based SaaS company, founded in 2011 by Guy Armitage, that operates a cloud-based submissions management platform hosted on Google Cloud infrastructure. The platform consolidates the full lifecycle of submission-based programs — entry collection, multi-round judging with configurable criteria, anonymous review, real-time scoring, public voting, payment processing through Stripe, and automated communications — into a single unified product. It is built specifically for rich-media handling, supporting images with lossless compression, video up to 4GB, audio, documents, and embedded content from Vimeo, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Sketchfab, which differentiates it from generic form tools in its ability to evaluate creative portfolios.

The company serves a horizontal customer base spanning corporations, nonprofits, foundations, agencies, educational institutions, and government bodies running awards, grants, competitions, open calls, residencies, art fairs, creative recruitment, and commissions — anchored by named clients including UAL, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, RMetS, Turner Contemporary, Folio Society, BBH, British Library, Pearson, Cambridge University, Design Museum, Poetry Book Society, and the Lumen Prize. The product is organized into nine dedicated modules (Awards, Competitions, Open Calls, Residencies, Fairs, Grants, Recruitment, Commissions, Creative Opportunities) plus a free applicant-side portfolio tool.

Zealous makes money through a freemium-to-enterprise subscription model with five tiers (Free, Starter at £26/month, Pro at £79/month, Scale at £239/month, and custom Enterprise), priced on submission volume rather than program count, plus a 2.2% + 20p transaction commission on paid submissions (capped at £2 from April 2026). Go-to-market is product-led with self-serve onboarding, a free 20-entry tier, 48-hour launch templates, and demo booking for enterprise sales. Multi-currency billing (GBP, USD, AUD, CAD, EUR) supports a global footprint of 500+ organizations, and the company reinvests a portion of profits into community programs (Amplify, Emerge Awards, Zealous X festival).

Name

Zealous

Legal name

Zealous

Website

https://zealous.co

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Zealous is a UK-based SaaS platform enabling organizations to run awards, competitions, grants, open calls, residencies, fairs, and commissions. It serves 500+ organizations globally across creative industries, nonprofits, corporations, foundations, and educational institutions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Submission Management Software

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Advertising Agencies (7311)

akta.pro primary industry

Sweepstakes, Contests & Giveaway Administration (BPAFAMAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Sales Promotion Campaign Design & Management (BPAFAMAC), RPO Technology, ATS Administration & Recruitment Operations (BPACABAN)

Keywords

• Submissions management platform
• Awards management software
• Competition management platform
• Grant management software
• Open call management

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, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Subscription Plans: Monthly or annual subscription tiers (Free, Starter £26/mo, Pro £79/mo, Scale £239/mo, Enterprise custom) based on submission volume rather than number of programs. Annual billing offers 33% discount. All paid plans include unlimited programs, draft entries, file storage, judges, and categories.
2. Transaction Commission: 2.2% + 20p commission per transaction on paid submissions, capped at £2 from April 1, 2026. Free submissions incur no Zealous commission. Stripe processing fees apply separately. Commission is deducted automatically from revenue.
3. Free Tier: Free plan includes 20 entries for testing workflow. Serves as top-of-funnel for conversion to paid plans. No credit card required to start.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Zealous is a cloud-based submissions management SaaS platform that enables organizations to run the full lifecycle of submission-based programs — awards, grants, competitions, open calls, residencies, art fairs, commissions, and creative recruitment. It provides entry collection, configurable multi-round judging, anonymous and criteria-based scoring, public voting with fraud detection, Stripe-powered payment processing, automated communications, and real-time dashboards. The platform also offers a free portfolio hosting service for individual creatives to submit to opportunities and discover programs.

Product overview

Zealous is a unified submissions management SaaS platform designed for the creative industries and broader sectors. The core Submissions Management Platform serves as the central hub supporting multiple program types: Awards, Competitions, Open Calls, Arts Residencies, Art Fairs, Grant Management, Creative Recruitment, and Commissions. Each use case has its own dedicated module with tailored tools, languages, and evaluation modes. The platform also includes a free portfolio hosting service for creative professionals. Pricing is structured across five tiers (Free, Starter at £26/mo, Pro at £79/mo, Scale at £239/mo, and Enterprise) based on submission volume rather than program count, with all plans including unlimited programs, draft entries, file storage, judges, and categories. The platform integrates natively with Stripe for payments and Zapier/Webhooks for automation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Amplify: Awards celebrating creative talent, reinvesting profits to support emerging creators
• Emerge Awards
• Zealous X

Products and services

• Submissions Management Platform Unified SaaS platform for managing the complete lifecycle of submission-based programs including awards, grants, open calls, residencies, art fairs, and creative commissions. Enables entry collection, multi-round judging with configurable criteria, real-time scoring, anonymous review, public voting, payment processing, and automated communications. Used by 500+ organizations worldwide.
• Portfolio & Creative Community Free portfolio hosting service for creative professionals (artists, photographers, designers, filmmakers, writers) to host their work, submit to opportunities, save time on repeat submissions, and join a creative community. Includes portfolio hosting, project management, opportunity discovery, and recommendations based on portfolio.

Quantifiable outcome

• 80% reduction in admin workload
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers23 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationStripe is the payment processing partner for Zealous, handling all entry fee transactions. Payments go directly to client accounts with Zealous taking commission only on paid submissions. Stripe supports 135+ currencies. PCI DSS Level 1 certified.
• Google CloudcoreTechnology or IntegrationZealous infrastructure hosted on Google Cloud with 24/7/365 monitoring. Maintains 99.98% uptime with 7-day point-in-time backups and data stored in multiple remote locations.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Submittable: Submittable is a SaaS submission management platform for contests, awards, grants, and calls for entries. It directly competes with Zealous across the same customer base of literary magazines, film festivals, foundations, and grantmakers, offering similar multi-round judging and reviewer assignment features.
• OpenWater: OpenWater is an application and review platform for awards, grants, scholarships, and abstract management. It serves overlapping use cases (judging workflows, multi-round evaluation) with comparable enterprise-tier positioning and has raised venture funding to scale globally.
• Award Force: Award Force is an award management platform offering entry collection, judging, and winner announcement tools for industry awards programmes. It competes head-to-head with Zealous's Awards Platform module, particularly for sector-specific industry awards and recognition programmes.
• Evalato: Evalato is an awards program management platform serving organizations running recognition programmes with judging workflows and entry management. It targets a similar buyer (programme organizers) with overlapping functionality for collecting entries, scoring, and announcing winners.
• WizeHive: WizeHive provides application management software for scholarships, grants, fellowships, and awards. It directly competes in the same horizontal SaaS category as Zealous, with comparable review workflows, scoring frameworks, and reporting capabilities for institutional customers.
• SmarterSelect: SmarterSelect offers application and review software for scholarships, grants, and award programs. It serves similar institutional customers (foundations, educational institutions) with comparable features for application collection, scoring, and committee management.
• EasyChair: EasyChair is a conference management system handling paper submissions, peer review, and program construction for academic conferences. While more focused on academic peer review than creative-industry awards, it operates the same underlying submission-review-judging workflow model.

Broad incumbents

• SurveyMonkey Apply: SurveyMonkey Apply is the application management arm of SurveyMonkey, offering recruitment, scholarship, and award program management. It competes in the same space but is part of SurveyMonkey's broader survey and feedback platform, leveraging greater brand recognition and enterprise reach.

Regional players

• Artlogic: Artlogic provides gallery management software including online application tools for open calls, art fairs, and juried exhibitions. It overlaps with Zealous's Arts Fairs and Open Calls modules, particularly in the UK and European art market, though it is broader in scope (inventory, CRM, website).

Emerging players

• Flux: Flux is a creative submissions and portfolio platform emerging in the UK design and creative industries. It targets a similar buyer segment (creative agencies, design awards, student submissions) but operates at a smaller scale with less mature judging workflows than Zealous.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/watch?v=zrh4EiptyCw
• Xx.com/zealous_co
• Facebookfacebook.com/zealousco

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Zealous