Urbian

What Urbian does

Urbian is a Cape Town-headquartered digital product consultancy that designs, develops, and ships digital products for "transformational companies," primarily large South African enterprises and multinationals operating in Africa. The firm offers end-to-end capabilities spanning product strategy, product design (UX research, rapid prototyping, UI, brand development, content, motion/video), and full-stack development (front-end engineering, web/mobile apps for iOS and Android, API and CMS development, code auditing, QA, and DevOps). Core service offerings are Digital Transformation, Digital Product Innovation (with stated MVPs delivered in as few as 100 days), Remote Work Advisory, New Capabilities Development (capability building inside client organisations), and digital Company Handbooks.

Urbian's business model is predominantly project-based professional services revenue, with disclosed budget tiers ranging from under R250,000 to over R5,000,000 per project. The go-to-market is consultative enterprise sales, often secured through consortium partnerships (e.g., the Vodacom Smart Service Offering programme with Accenture, Deloitte, and Letsema) and direct senior-executive relationships. Alongside client services, Urbian operates a small venture studio that has launched own-products including Hi5 (peer-to-peer employee recognition platform) and UpForIt.co.za (health and nutrition coaching app), contributing licensing/equity-based revenue.

The client base is concentrated in financial services and insurance (Standard Bank, Santam, Sanlam Private Wealth, Liberty, Investec), telecommunications (Vodacom), beverages (Distell, Diageo), and social impact (Diageo Empowerment Trust's Social Tech Accelerator). The company's strategic identity is tied to its "Urbian 3.0" pivot in 2020, which repositioned the firm to focus on digital products for the 80% of South Africans in the developing-world consumer segment rather than first-world copy-paste approaches. No external institutional funding or parent company is disclosed; ownership rests with co-founders Anton Moulder and Gary Willmott, with Jay Thomson joining as General Partner in March 2022.

Name

Urbian

Legal name

Urbian Group

Website

https://urbian.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Urbian is a Cape Town-based digital product consultancy that designs, develops, and ships digital products for enterprise clients in South Africa, focusing on the African developing-world market through digital transformation, product innovation, and capability-building services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Cape Town

HQ country

South Africa

HQ region

Africa

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Digital Product Consulting and Development: Professional services revenue generated through project-based consulting engagements. They design, develop and ship digital products for transformational companies, including digital transformation projects, new product innovation, and capability building.
2. Project Engagements: Variable project-based engagements with budget tiers ranging from under R250,000 to R1.5-5 million, with some projects still to be determined. Projects include digital transformation, digital product innovation, and company handbook development.
3. Venture Studio and Own Products: Urbian has invested in joint ventures and launched their own businesses and products, including Hi5 (a peer-to-peer employee review platform), and UpForIt.co.za (health and nutrition app). These represent additional revenue streams through equity and product ownership.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Urbian is a digital product consultancy that designs, develops and ships digital products for transformational companies, particularly those serving African developing-world consumers. Their core offering covers product strategy, UX/UI design, and full-stack engineering (web, iOS, Android, APIs, CMS, DevOps), with engagements delivered end-to-end from discovery through shipped MVPs often within 100 days. They complement client services with their own products such as Hi5 and UpForIt.co.za.

Product overview

Urbian is a digital product consultancy offering a portfolio of service offerings (Digital Transformation, Digital Product Innovation, Remote Work Advisory, New Capabilities Development, and Company Handbooks) alongside its own products and ventures. The core service model combines product design, business strategy, and lean software development to build and ship digital products for transformational companies. Own products include Hi5 (peer-to-peer employee review platform), UpForIt.co.za (health coaching app), and legacy products like YoDJ and VitalME. Client projects span financial services (Standard Bank Direct Life Insurance, Sanlam Private Wealth), education (Foonda bursary matching), agriculture (Grow Nation Fund), and health. Urbian works end-to-end from discovery through shipped product, with demonstrated ability to deliver MVPs in 100 days or less.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Digital Transformation End-to-end digital transformation consulting service for enterprise clients, covering modernization of operations, customer experiences, and business models through technology adoption.
• Digital Product Innovation Design, development and launch of new consumer-facing products and B2B services, with a stated capability of delivering MVPs to market in as few as 100 days.
• Remote Work Advisory Advisory service for building and managing remote teams, drawing on more than a decade of Urbian's own remote-first operational experience.
• New Capabilities Development Capability-building service that hires, onboards, and coaches multi-disciplinary product teams inside client organizations to deliver long-term in-house delivery capacity.
• Company Handbooks Service that digitizes and centralizes company standard operating procedures, processes, and best practices into a living digital document accessible via mobile app or browser.
• Hi5 Peer-to-peer employee review platform owned by Urbian that allows employees to give virtual high-fives to deserving colleagues, positioning performance reviews as simple and engaging; used by corporate and SME brands internationally.
• UpForIt.co.za App developed through Urbian's venture studio that connects users with health coaches and professional nutritionists to support healthy lifestyle adoption.

Quantifiable outcome

• 2,050 entrepreneurs served through Diageo Social Tech Accelerator
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• Jay ThomsoncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 March 2022Award-winning digital pioneer Jay Thomson joined Urbian as general partner. Thomson, former founder and managing partner of Liquorice, has worked with top multinationals and South African corporations to develop pioneering digital innovations across retail, FMCG, banking, insurance and more.
• VodacomcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 July 2020Urbian is a partner in Vodacom's Smart Service Offering programme, a South African first digital transformation initiative. They are partnered with Accenture, Deloitte, and Letsema. Urbian brings their decade-long experience implementing consumer-centric solutions to reach South Africa's developing population.
• Diageo Empowerment Trust SA (DETSA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019Urbian partnered with Diageo Empowerment Trust South Africa to run the Social Tech Startup Challenge. The programme provided R5 million in funding to social entrepreneurs creating better futures for South Africans. Urbian helped facilitate the programme and provided mentorship and digital expertise.
• AccentureflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerPart of the Vodacom Smart Service Offering consortium working on digital transformation initiatives in South Africa
• DeloitteflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerPart of the Vodacom Smart Service Offering consortium working on digital transformation initiatives in South Africa
• LetsemaflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerPart of the Vodacom Smart Service Offering consortium working on digital transformation initiatives in South Africa
• Liberty Group LimitedcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLiberty Group Limited, underwriter for Standard Bank's long-term insurance policies, partnered with Urbian for digital transformation. Urbian served as Liberty Life's digital transformation partner for three years, developing the Standard Bank Direct Life Insurance online interface.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Thoughtworks: Global digital product consultancy with a strong South African presence; offers end-to-end custom software, design and transformation services to enterprise clients using a similar boutique-engineering model to Urbian.
• Globant: Large global digital product engineering consultancy that designs, builds and ships digital products for enterprises across financial services, healthcare and consumer industries — closely mirroring Urbian's service model at greater scale.
• IDEO: Design and innovation consultancy that takes ideas end-to-end from discovery to shipped product, with a multidisciplinary model combining strategy, design and engineering — directly comparable to Urbian's integrated product consultancy offering.
• EPAM Systems: Global product development, design and digital platform engineering services firm serving enterprise financial-services and consumer clients — overlapping with Urbian's custom software, API and digital transformation work.
• BBD: South African software development and digital solutions company building custom software and platforms for enterprise clients; closest local direct peer by geography, scale and service mix.

Broad incumbents

• Deloitte Digital: Big Four digital transformation practice offering enterprise-scale consulting, design and technology implementation; competes head-to-head with Urbian on South African enterprise RFPs and is itself a consortium partner on Vodacom Smart Service Offering.
• Accenture Song: Accenture's digital creative and product innovation arm, operating alongside Accenture's broader consulting practice; directly comparable on enterprise digital product engagements and a named partner alongside Urbian in the Vodacom consortium.
• Cognizant: Global IT services and digital transformation firm with significant financial-services practice; competes with Urbian for enterprise digital product work, particularly in banking and insurance.

Emerging players

• Andela: Africa-origin technology talent platform that connects companies with African engineers for product development; overlaps with Urbian's developing-world digital capability and its African talent positioning.

Regional players

• Derivco: Large South African software development company historically focused on gaming platforms; comparable regional peer for senior engineering talent, custom software scale and South African enterprise digital delivery.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/urbian
• Facebookfacebook.com/118037924959189
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/urbian

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

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 Urbian