What BULB Studios does

BULB Studios is a UK-based digital product agency headquartered in Leicester with a secondary studio in Dumfries and Galloway, founded circa 2007 and co-founded by Jim (Managing Director) and Mat Mabe (Digital Director). The studio operates as a private, bootstrapped limited company with approximately 13 team members and has launched 98 digital products across its 15-year history. Its service architecture is organised around four pillars: Data, Insight & AI; Digital Strategy; Digital Products; and Digital Engagement, with UI/UX Design and Branding as specialist practices — covering UX research, brand, design, web (headless CMS), React Native cross-platform mobile apps, native iOS, and video/content production.

The studio serves a mix of enterprise and mid-market clients across Automotive (Jaguar Land Rover I-PACE launch, Sytner Group), Tourism & Hospitality (Warner Bros. Studio Tour London, EmbraceScotland, ASSC), Software/SaaS (Stack, Hirestream, Maiden Century, QRO Solutions), Education & Public Sector (Aspire to HE, UK Sports Institute, NCEO), Health & Nonprofit (Coeliac UK, Healthia, roadtohealth), and Legal & Professional Services (Axiom Hyperlaw, BrightBridge Solutions). Notable outcomes include a 124% increase in daily revenue for Warner Bros Studio Tour London, a 300% mobile conversion lift, 21.2% of Q3-Q4 2018/19 global Jaguar DX page views, and several hundred million views on I-PACE short films.

Revenue is generated through bespoke, project-based digital studio work supplemented by ongoing partnership retainers; pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed, with prospects initiated via "Book a free call" and "Email us" CTAs. Distribution is entirely direct in the UK, extended through co-delivery partnerships with Spark44 (JLR), Deloitte (Warner Bros), and Xibis (Axiom Hyperlaw), supported by owned content, organic social, events (Leicester Business Festival 'Bitter Sweet' 2023, Create Leicester sponsorship), and earned media via Clutch and DesignRush listings.

Name

BULB Studios

Legal name

Bulb Studios Ltd

Website

https://bulbstudios.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

BULB Studios is a UK-based digital product agency of ~13 people in Leicester and Dumfries and Galloway, designing and building websites, mobile apps, and software for enterprise and mid-market clients across automotive, tourism, SaaS, education, and nonprofit sectors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Leicester

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Project-based digital studio services: Revenue is generated primarily through bespoke, fixed-scope or time-and-materials digital projects including website builds, mobile apps, UX research, brand work, and content production. Engagements are won via consultative 'book a call' sales motion and delivered against custom scopes per client.
2. Strategic and ongoing partnership retainers: Recurring relationship revenue from clients with whom Bulb acts as a long-term digital partner (e.g., ongoing work with Sytner, Jaguar Land Rover, EmbraceScotland, Aspire to HE) where continuous iteration, optimisation, and new feature delivery occur beyond the initial launch.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

BULB Studios is a UK digital product agency that designs, builds and supports bespoke websites, mobile applications, software and brand identities for clients. Services span UX research, UI/UX design, headless CMS web builds, React Native cross-platform mobile apps, native iOS development, branding, digital strategy, and digital engagement (social media, SEM, video). The studio delivers end-to-end projects on a consultative, project-by-project basis across automotive, tourism, SaaS, education and nonprofit sectors.

Product overview

Bulb Studios is a UK-based digital product agency delivering a 360-degree, wraparound service architecture organised around four pillars: Data, Insight & AI; Digital Strategy; Digital Products; and Digital Engagement, with UI & UX Design and Branding sitting as specialist practices. The Data, Insight & AI pillar underpins the rest, supplying analytics, user research, digital audits and AI Engineering (including prompt training on emerging generative AI tools) that feed the Strategy pillar's Discovery Workshops, roadmaps and consulting. The Digital Products pillar then takes projects through Discover, Design, Build and Support to deliver Websites, Mobile Applications, Software (web applications), UX & UI Design and Branding for clients such as Sytner Group, Stack, EmbraceScotland, Maiden Century, Hirestream and Jaguar Land Rover, while the Digital Engagement pillar launches and grows those products via Copywriting, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Video & Motion Graphics. Together the pillars form a single integrated studio offering (15 years in business, 98 digital products launched, 13 team members) rather than a platform-plus-modules software product.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Data, Insight & AI Studio service conducting and analysing user research and market data for clients using analytics, heatmaps, user journey mapping, surveys, digital audits and AI Engineering (training prompts on emerging AI tools) to align products with KPIs.
• Digital Strategy Consulting service delivering Discovery Workshops, Roadmap Creation, Digital Consulting and Marketing Strategy Creation to clarify how a client's project will achieve its goals, identify users, and articulate differentiation.
• Digital Products End-to-end design and build of Websites, Mobile Applications, Software (web applications), UX & UI Design and Branding, delivered through a Discover, Design, Build and Support lifecycle, often as full-service projects or as creative and technical support to in-house teams.
• UI and UX Design Specialist design service spanning Discovery Workshops, Content Auditing, UI/UX/CX design and ongoing Design Support, focused on crafting user journeys, accessible interfaces and a direct line between client teams and the Bulb design team.
• Digital Engagement Digital marketing service covering Copywriting, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Video & Motion Graphics, delivered through a Discover, Strategise, Create and Manage process to launch and grow client digital products.
• Branding Branding service offered alongside digital product design and development, covering logo design, typography, colour palette, illustration systems, brand guidelines, tone of voice and marketing collateral for clients such as BrightBridge, Maiden Century, Hirestream and UKSI.

Quantifiable outcome

• 150% conversion increase, 300% mobile conversion increase, and 124% daily revenue increase for Warner Bros Studio Tour London
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers18 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability8 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered flagship enterprise co-delivery partner and core partner.

• Spark44flagship enterprise co-delivery partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-delivered the Jaguar I-PACE launch digital experience and short films with Spark44, Jaguar Land Rover's internal communications agency. The partnership enabled Bulb to plug into a major OEM launch reaching hundreds of millions of views and 21.2% of global DX page views during the launch window.
• Deloitteflagship enterprise co-delivery partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-delivered the Warner Bros Studio Tour London headless CMS rebuild with Deloitte; 'by teaming with Deloitte, we had the makings of a world class technical solution,' per Bulb. Outcomes included a 150% conversion increase, 300% mobile conversion lift, and 124% daily revenue increase.
• Xibiscore partnerImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerWorked with Xibis as 'our friends at Xibis' alongside Axiom Hyperlaw's stakeholders to deliver the Axiom Hyperlaw digital product build.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Regional players

• Net Solutions: Global digital product studio (India-headquartered with UK presence) offering web, mobile and UX services comparable to Bulb's full-stack digital product capability. Competes with Bulb primarily for UK mid-market and enterprise work where delivery is cross-border rather than fully UK-domestic.

Broad incumbents

• Thoughtworks: Global technology consultancy delivering custom software, design and digital strategy at enterprise scale. Comparable technology stack and end-to-end product capability to Bulb but at vastly greater scale, serving as the upper bound of Bulb's competitive set on enterprise pursuits.
• AND Digital: UK-headquartered digital transformation consultancy operating 'product squads' across enterprise clients. Overlaps with Bulb on digital product delivery but operates at larger scale with a club-based, multi-region delivery model rather than a single integrated studio.

Direct peers

• Waracle: UK digital product studio specialising in mobile apps, connected devices, and IoT experiences, including automotive and health verticals. Closely comparable to Bulb's mobile-app and connected-vehicle work (e.g., the JLR Go I-PACE app) and its health-tech client roster (Healthia, roadtohealth).
• Scott Logic: UK-based bespoke software, UX and digital product consultancy with offices in multiple UK cities. Comparable to Bulb in full-lifecycle digital product delivery for enterprise and public-sector clients and in size and engineering-led positioning.
• Code Computerlove: Manchester-based digital product agency delivering web, mobile, and platform builds for enterprise clients. Comparable UK footprint and service architecture to Bulb, with shared vertical exposure to consumer and travel/hospitality brands.
• Atomic Smash: Southampton-based digital studio delivering strategy, design and development for web and mobile products. Mid-sized UK digital agency comparable to Bulb in service breadth, team scale, and enterprise/mid-market client mix.
• Cyber-Duck: UK digital agency delivering web, mobile, UX and digital transformation for enterprise clients. Similar mid-sized UK profile to Bulb, with comparable service pillars (strategy, design, build, optimisation) and overlap in regulated-sector and enterprise builds.
• Clearleft: Brighton-based digital agency specialising in UX design, research and product strategy. Overlaps directly with Bulb's UI/UX and Data/Insight pillars and competes for the same UK enterprise and public-sector briefs (Bulb holds Clutch UK UX recognition that Clearleft has also historically held).
• ustwo: London-headquartered digital product studio offering strategy, design, and engineering across web, mobile and software. Closely comparable to Bulb in service mix (end-to-end product builds with integrated design and engineering) and in serving enterprise and public-sector clients with similar team sizes in the UK.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/BulbStudios

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 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 BULB Studios