What DeHavilland does

DeHavilland provides subscription-based political intelligence and public affairs services to UK and EU organizations, combining a proprietary AI-enabled monitoring platform with a team of specialist in-house policy analysts. Core offerings include real-time political monitoring, stakeholder management (PeoplePoint — a database of 50,000+ political contacts), horizon scanning, policy and research support, and sentiment analysis. The platform ingests data from UK and EU government sources, parliament, committees, press, social media, blogs, and databases, and exposes APIs for CRM integration with AI-driven stakeholder identification.

The company operates a B2B enterprise subscription model with 12-month contracts, automatic renewal, RPI+5% annual price escalators, and named-user access. Pricing is not publicly disclosed but a free 2-week trial serves as a customer acquisition mechanism alongside an active events programme (masterclasses, webinars, conference coverage). DeHavilland serves over 400 enterprise clients spanning financial services (HSBC, AXA, NatWest, Metro Bank), energy (Cadent, Scottish Power, UK Power Networks, Renewable UK), technology and telecoms (BT, Meta, O2, Siemens), transport (Cummins, Trainline), manufacturing and construction (Cemex), healthcare (3M, Royal College of Psychiatrists), and NGOs (RSPCA, Human Rights Watch). Go-to-market is enterprise field sales supported by account management.

The business is part of Helio Intelligence, the parent group that also owns Forefront Advisers. Ownership rests with private equity firms Bridgepoint (acquired DeHavilland from Ascential plc in 2021) and Bowmark Capital (invested in August 2023). Geographic footprint includes London headquarters plus offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Brussels, and Cardiff (DeHavilland Cymru), with a separate DeHavilland Europe entity covering Brussels and EU institutions. Recent inorganic activity includes the 2024 acquisition of One Policy Place and the 2025 acquisition of NewsDirect (now DeHavilland Scotland).

Name

DeHavilland

Legal name

DeHavilland Information Services Limited

Website

https://dehavilland.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

DeHavilland provides subscription-based political intelligence and public affairs services across the UK and EU, combining AI-enabled monitoring with in-house policy analysts. It serves over 400 enterprise clients across financial services, energy, technology, telecoms, and NGOs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Subscription-based Political Intelligence Services: DeHavilland provides subscription-based access to its political monitoring, stakeholder management, and policy analysis platform. Contracts automatically renew for 12-month periods unless 90 days written notice is provided. Fees can increase annually by RPI plus 5%. Access is restricted to named users (employees and individual contractors) for internal business operations only.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

DeHavilland provides subscription-based political intelligence services that combine a proprietary AI-powered platform with in-house policy analyst expertise. Core offerings include Political Monitoring, Stakeholder Management (PeoplePoint), Horizon Scanning, Policy and Research Support, and Sentiment Analysis, primarily serving enterprise public affairs and government relations teams across the UK and EU.

Product overview

DeHavilland provides a unified political intelligence platform combining proprietary technology with in-house policy expertise. The core offerings include Political Monitoring, Stakeholder Management (PeoplePoint), Horizon Scanning, Policy and Research Support, and Sentiment Analysis. The Helio Intelligence Platform serves as the underlying technology, digesting information from thousands of sources using AI tools. Regional offerings include DeHavilland Scotland (formerly NewsDirect), DeHavilland Cymru for Welsh politics, and DeHavilland EU for European affairs. The platform connects to customer CRM systems via API and includes AI-powered stakeholder identification capabilities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Helio Intelligence: Parent brand of the group serving over 1,200 clients through its brands DeHavilland and Forefront
• Forefront
• PeoplePoint
• DeHavilland Europe

Products and services

• Political Monitoring Real-time political monitoring service delivering curated updates and tailored alerts from UK and EU political sources, covering policy developments and stakeholder activities for public affairs and government relations teams.
• Stakeholder Management (PeoplePoint) Political stakeholder management platform listing over 50,000 policymakers, decision-makers and influencers with biographies, contact details and political context, including MPs, MEPs, Lords, civil servants, SpAds, and council leaders.
• Horizon Scanning Forward-looking political intelligence service that helps organisations anticipate emerging trends, challenges and opportunities with customisable platform filtering by date and category, custom search terms, stakeholder community identification, and analyst-supported custom research.
• Policy and Research Support In-house political research and policy analysis service providing expert guidance through the policy landscape, helping clients spot subtleties in policy development and delivering bespoke research projects led by sector-specialist analysts.
• Sentiment Analysis Political sentiment tracking service that monitors how organisations, competitors and issues are discussed by MPs and political stakeholders on social media and in Parliament, with trend analysis over time to inform engagement strategies.
• DeHavilland Scotland Bespoke Scottish political monitoring service covering Holyrood developments, provided by the former NewsDirect team based in Edinburgh and Glasgow with specialist knowledge of Scottish policy and devolution.
• DeHavilland Cymru Welsh political monitoring service covering Senedd Cymru developments with specialist knowledge of Welsh policy, politics and devolution, including the planned expansion of the Senedd from 60 to 96 members.
• DeHavilland Europe (EU Services) EU-focused political intelligence service delivered from Brussels covering EU institutions, providing political monitoring, stakeholder management and policy research support for clients needing EU coverage.
• Helio Intelligence Platform Proprietary technology platform powering DeHavilland's political intelligence services, incorporating AI tools that digest information from governments, parliament, European parliament, committees, press, social media, blogs and databases, with API-based CRM integration for stakeholder data synchronisation.

Quantifiable outcome

• Serves over 400 clients across sectors in the UK and EU
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers24 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• NewsDirectcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025DeHavilland acquired NewsDirect in 2025 to broaden its coverage across devolved nations (Scotland and Wales) and ensure the most comprehensive UK coverage. NewsDirect operates as DeHavilland Scotland.
• Forefront AdviserscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerForefront is DeHavilland's sister company and part of the Helio Intelligence group. Forefront provides guidance, insight and analysis to understand politics across the UK and EU for investors, financial institutions, large corporates and law firms. Together, DeHavilland and Forefront serve over 1,200 clients.
• Helio IntelligencecoreOthersHelio Intelligence is the parent company of DeHavilland Information Services Limited, Forefront Advisers Limited, and OPP Group SRL. DeHavilland operates as a brand under the Helio Intelligence group.
• BDOminorOthersBDO provided buyside financial due diligence to support Bowmark Capital's investment in DeHavilland in August 2023.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Portland Communications: Strategic communications and public affairs consultancy with strong UK and EU government relations practice. Competes with DeHavilland for political monitoring and stakeholder engagement work with corporate and public sector clients.
• Forefront Advisers: Sister company under the Helio Intelligence group providing political insight and analysis to investors, financial institutions, large corporates and law firms across the UK and EU. Direct peer in political intelligence with overlapping subject matter and client base, particularly in financial services.
• Dods Group: UK/EU political intelligence provider offering monitoring, stakeholder management, and policy research. Closest direct competitor to DeHavilland with similar subscription model, government affairs coverage, and target customer base of public affairs professionals.

Emerging players

• Hanbury Strategy: UK strategic communications and government relations consultancy with political intelligence capabilities. Smaller and more selective client base than DeHavilland, but competes for similar public affairs and political monitoring mandates.
• Strand Partners: London-based strategic communications consultancy with strong government relations and political intelligence capabilities. Competes for UK public affairs mandates with a more bespoke, advisory-led model compared to DeHavilland's subscription platform approach.
• Quorum (legislative tracking software): US-focused legislative tracking and public affairs software platform. Not a direct competitor in UK/EU but adjacent in the political intelligence software category with similar stakeholder management, monitoring, and analytics capabilities for government affairs teams.

Broad incumbents

• Fleishman-Hillard: Global public affairs and communications agency with public policy and government relations practices serving multinational corporations. Provides political monitoring and stakeholder engagement as part of integrated communications services.
• Brunswick Group: Global public affairs and strategic communications advisory firm serving large corporates with political and policy intelligence as part of a broader communications offering. Overlaps with DeHavilland on enterprise political intelligence but with much wider service breadth.
• Cicero Group (AMO): International public affairs and political communications consultancy with strong EU and UK presence. Provides political monitoring, policy analysis, and stakeholder engagement as part of broader advisory services to corporates and trade associations.
• Politico: Major political media and intelligence player with deep coverage of EU institutions, UK politics, and US policy. Competes with DeHavilland in EU-level political monitoring and policy analysis, though Politico's primary distribution is media/content rather than enterprise intelligence subscriptions.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/DeHavilland
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCNaBSmSOxltXN04sExZT_jQ
• LinkedInuk.linkedin.com/company/dehavilland

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles27 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors2 records

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

M&A1 record

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about DeHavilland