Big Motive
Big Motive is a Belfast and Dublin-based digital strategy and design consultancy combining human-centred design with AI to deliver digital products, services, and strategies for UK and Irish government departments, public sector bodies, and select enterprise brands.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2004
- HeadquartersBelfast, United Kingdom
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Big Motive does
Big Motive Limited is a privately-held digital strategy and design consultancy headquartered at The Kelvin, 17-25 College Square East, Belfast, with a secondary studio in Dublin. Founded in the mid-2000s (firmographic date 2005; one source cites 2004) and operating for over twenty years, the firm delivers four core service lines — Strategy for growth and change, Service design, Digital products, and Venture design — supplemented by Design Education and Brand Identity work. Its methodology centres on human-centred design combined with AI capabilities, co-design involving end users, accessibility standards compliance (WCAG 2.2 AA), and design system development for clients operating at scale.
The business operates a project-based professional services model, working alongside enterprise and government clients across discovery, implementation, and capability-building phases. The client base is dominated by UK and Irish public sector bodies — the Department of Health NI, Dublin City Council, the HSE, the Information Commissioner's Office, DEFRA, the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, and Pobal (a decade-long engagement) — alongside select enterprise brands such as adidas (Locker Room global teamwear platform) and emerging health-tech ventures (aflo, Resilico). Notable technical deliveries include StopCOVID NI (described as the UK's first digital contact tracing app with cross-border interoperability) and COVIDCare NI (a symptom checker delivered in 12 days with 700,000+ combined downloads).
The firm holds B Corp certification, Living Wage Employer accreditation, and Crown Commercial Service Supplier status, and is registered with the UK's ICO and Ireland's DPC as a data controller with an appointed DPO. Revenue is not publicly disclosed; no external funding rounds, M&A activity, or institutional investors are recorded in the available data.
Big Motive firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Big Motive
- Legal name
- Big Motive Limited
- Website
- https://bigmotive.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2004
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Big Motive is a Belfast and Dublin-based digital strategy and design consultancy combining human-centred design with AI to deliver digital products, services, and strategies for UK and Irish government departments, public sector bodies, and select enterprise brands.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Big Motive is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Belfast
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices2 records
Markets served
Big Motive business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel
Revenue model
- Strategic Design Consultancy Services: Big Motive generates revenue through professional services engagements delivering strategy, service design, digital products, and venture design to enterprise and government clients. Engagements are project-based with discovery, implementation, and capability-building phases.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Multi-year contract | Project-based consultancy engagements |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels4 records
Big Motive product offering
Product offeringCore offering
No factual source content was provided for this company. Core offering cannot be extracted without resolvable source IDs.
Product overview
Big Motive is a digital strategy and design consultancy offering human-centred design services combined with AI capabilities. The company provides four core service offerings: Strategy for growth and change, Service design, Digital products, and Venture design. They also offer Design Education and Brand Identity as additional services. Their digital product portfolio includes Locker Room (teamwear e-commerce platform for adidas), aflo (connected respiratory health solution with companion app, smart inhaler, and clinical dashboard), Dublin City Council's citizen services platform, Resilico flood resilience toolkit (with Connect, Pro, and Report components), HSE children's healthcare services, Pobal public service platforms, COVIDCare NI and StopCOVID NI health apps, Our Place in Space AR experience, and the ICO Children's Code privacy design toolkit. The company operates across Belfast and Dublin with over twenty years of experience.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Quantifiable outcome
- 700,000+ app downloads reaching over one-third of Northern Ireland's population
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Big Motive
Customer profileNamed customers11 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles1 record
Big Motive technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature3 records
Big Motive partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.
- WibblecoreLong-time development partner for website and digital platform development. Collaborated with Big Motive on the Arts Council of Ireland website project, bringing technical implementation to the co-designed digital experience.
- DesignThinkerscoreCollaborated with Big Motive and adidas to create Locker Room: a collaborative, inclusive e-commerce platform for custom teamwear. DesignThinkers brought additional design expertise to the global teamwear platform project.
- CarbonFitcorePartnership for comprehensive carbon footprint assessment in accordance with PPN 06/21, GHG Protocol, and ISO 14064-1 standards. CarbonFit supports Big Motive's sustainability reporting and Net Zero commitment.
- CivicamajorTechnology partner for rapid delivery of COVIDCare NI mobile symptom checker and advice service, delivered in just 12 days during the COVID-19 crisis.
- NearformmajorTechnology partner for StopCOVID NI, the UK's first working digital contact tracing app with cross-border interoperability. Nearform provided technical development capabilities.
- ExpleomajorPartner in development of StopCOVID NI contact tracing app, supporting the technical implementation alongside Nearform.
- CHO8 (Community Healthcare Organisation 8)majorOne of Ireland's nine community healthcare organisations partnered with Big Motive for children's healthcare service transformation, focusing on autism diagnosis and mental health services.
- Health AssuredminorEmployee Assistance Programme provider supporting Big Motive's commitment to employee well-being and mental health support.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Big Motive competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- TPXimpact: UK-listed digital transformation consultancy with a strong public-sector focus (HMRC, DWP, NHS). Directly comparable to Big Motive on customer base (UK government), service mix (service design, digital products, strategy) and human-centred methodology.
- Methods (Capita): UK digital and service design consultancy with deep public-sector work (DWP, MoJ, Defra). Same human-centred design heritage as Big Motive and overlapping government client base.
- Snook: UK service design agency specialising in public-sector and behaviour-change work. Comparable in size, methodology (co-design, research-led) and government client mix to Big Motive.
- IDEO: Pioneering global human-centred design consultancy. Comparable on service offering (strategy, service design, digital products) and methodology, though operating at materially larger scale across global enterprise and government clients.
- Frog Design: Global design and strategy consultancy (part of Capgemini Invent). Comparable service offering across strategy, service design and digital product innovation for enterprise and government.
- Studio Output: Independent UK design and digital studio working with major brands and public-sector clients. Comparable size and creative-led positioning, though with a stronger brand and visual design emphasis than Big Motive's service design focus.
- FutureGov: UK public-sector service design agency (now part of TPXimpact). Direct methodology and customer overlap with Big Motive, focused on government digital transformation and citizen service design.
Broad incumbents
- Deloitte Digital: The digital design and transformation arm of a Big Four firm. Overlaps with Big Motive on government digital transformation and service design, but operates with significantly more scale, multi-disciplinary teams and global delivery capability.
- Valtech: Global digital experience agency with significant UK and European government and enterprise work. Overlaps with Big Motive on digital product delivery, but at much larger scale and with broader technical implementation services.
- Accenture Song: Accenture's design-led creative and transformation practice. Competes with Big Motive for large enterprise and government digital mandates, but with global delivery capability and substantially deeper bench.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Big Motive social profiles
Digital presenceBig Motive compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance6 records
Big Motive financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Big Motive leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Big Motive funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Big Motive 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 Big Motive
What does Big Motive do?
No factual source content was provided for this company. Core offering cannot be extracted without resolvable source IDs.
Is Big Motive a public or private company?
Big Motive is a private company. It is classified as unknown and is currently operating.
When was Big Motive founded?
Big Motive was founded in 2004. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Big Motive based?
Big Motive is headquartered in Belfast, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Big Motive make money?
One revenue line is on record: strategic Design Consultancy Services.
Who are Big Motive's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are TPXimpact, Methods (Capita), Snook, IDEO, Frog Design, Studio Output and FutureGov. Broad incumbents are Deloitte Digital, Valtech and Accenture Song.
Does Big Motive have an API?
No public API is recorded for Big Motive.