Bent Oak Systems

Software Development Consultingbentoak.systems

Bent Oak Systems is a London-based software development consultancy that delivers AI-assisted product development to startups, growth-stage companies, and enterprises through senior engineering paired with LLM tooling (Claude, Cursor). Engagements follow a five-stage process at fixed per-story pricing with optional monthly retainers.

Company typePrivate
Founded2016
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
Headcount11–50
GTM typeB2B
OfferingServices

What Bent Oak Systems does

Bent Oak Systems is a London-based, privately-held software development consultancy founded in 2016 that delivers AI-assisted product development services to startups, growth-stage companies, and enterprises. Operating with an 11–50 employee footprint and led by Product & Delivery Lead Amin Azarbadegan, the firm positions around senior engineering discipline combined with AI tooling (Claude, Cursor) to ship production-ready software in 2–8 week cycles via a five-stage process (Discovery, Build, Test, Ship, Support). Every engagement ships with CI/CD pipelines, automated tests, and separated dev/staging/production environments by default rather than as scope creep.

The technology stack centres on a human-in-the-loop AI development methodology: AI accelerates code generation while human architects set direction, write tests, perform code review, and execute multi-device QA and security review. Past engagements have spanned AWS-native legacy modernisation (Dijuno.ai serving Coca-Cola and FMCG clients over five years), serverless architecture on Firebase / Cloud Functions / BigQuery (ThisThatApp), offline-first clinical systems (Healthtech HIS across 15 sites with zero critical incidents), AI SaaS platforms with LLM integration and personalisation (Elevista.ai, where Bent Oak acts as CTO), multi-jurisdiction operations platforms integrating Stripe with regional payment gateways (XRW Emirates across UK, UAE, and Saudi Arabia), and discovery-to-Alpha femtech delivery (ScreenMe). An internal stealth build of a consumer mental health platform signals exploration of owned IP.

The commercial model combines fixed-fee project work (a £1,500 base setup plus £400 per user story, with published package pricing of £3,500 for Startup MVP, £7,100 for Internal Tool, and £10,200 for a Full Product) with three retainer tiers for ongoing support: Maintenance (£500/mo, 8 hrs), Growth (£1,200/mo, 20 hrs), and Embedded (from £2,500/mo, 45 hrs). A self-serve online estimator bridges marketing to sales. All customer acquisition flows through direct human conversation — a free 20-minute discovery call booked via WhatsApp or email — making this a sales-led, founder-mediated GTM motion with no self-serve product, marketplace presence, or channel-partner distribution. Customers include Elevista.ai (AI/SaaS), Coca-Cola via Dijuno.ai (FMCG/enterprise analytics), a Healthtech HIS healthcare operator, XRW Emirates (sports/operations), ThisThatApp (MarTech), and ScreenMe (femtech).

Bent Oak Systems firmographics

Firmographics

Name: Bent Oak Systems
Legal name: Bent Oak Systems
Website: https://bentoak.systems
Company type: Private
Founded year: 2016
Operating status: Operating
Headcount range: 11–50 employees
Short description: Bent Oak Systems is a London-based software development consultancy that delivers AI-assisted product development to startups, growth-stage companies, and enterprises through senior engineering paired with LLM tooling (Claude, Cursor). Engagements follow a five-stage process at fixed per-story pricing with optional monthly retainers.
Ownership category
akta.pro rank

Where Bent Oak Systems is headquartered

Location

Headquarters

HQ city: London
HQ country: United Kingdom
HQ region: Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

Bent Oak Systems business model

Business model

GTM type: B2B
Offering type: Services
Cost components: Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

Project-based AI-assisted software development: Clients pay a one-time base setup fee (£1,500) plus a fixed fee per user story (£400). Each user story covers a feature with acceptance criteria, fully tested and deployed. Pricing is transparent and estimator-driven. No billable-hour model.
Ongoing maintenance and support retainers: Optional monthly retainer tiers for ongoing maintenance, bug fixes, dependency updates, security patches, new features, and prioritised support. Tiers are 8 hrs/month (£500/mo), 20 hrs/month (£1,200/mo), and 45 hrs/month (from £2,500/mo). Embedded tier includes dedicated capacity with sprint-based feature delivery and architecture guidance.

Pricing tiers

Model	Billing	Price
Unit Pricing	Pay-as-you-go	Base setup: £1,500 per project
Unit Pricing	Pay-as-you-go	Per user story: £400 each
Subscription	Monthly	Maintenance retainer: £500/month (8 hrs)
Subscription	Monthly	Growth retainer: £1,200/month (20 hrs)
Subscription	Monthly	Embedded retainer: from £2,500/month (45 hrs)

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Bent Oak Systems product offering

Product offering

Core offering

Bent Oak Systems is a lean senior engineering consultancy that delivers AI-assisted custom software development for startups, growth-stage companies, and enterprises. Engagements are scoped as user stories at a transparent rate of a £1,500 base setup fee plus £400 per user story, with optional recurring retainers for maintenance, growth, or embedded engineering capacity after launch.

Product overview

Bent Oak Systems offers AI-assisted software development services delivered through a structured engagement model. The core offering is AI-assisted development services priced at £1,500 base setup plus £400 per user story, with three predefined project packages (Startup MVP £3,500, Full Product £10,200, Internal Tool £7,100) and three ongoing retainer tiers (Maintenance £500/mo, Growth £1,200/mo, Embedded from £2,500/mo). The service follows a five-stage process: Discovery, Build, Test, Ship, and Support. The portfolio includes client engagements across AI/SaaS (Elevista.ai), enterprise analytics (Dijuno.ai), healthcare (Healthtech HIS, ScreenMe, Consumer Mental Health Platform), fintech/operations (XRW Emirates), and MarTech (ThisThatApp).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

AI-Assisted Development Services
Maintenance Retainer
Growth Retainer
Embedded Retainer

Quantifiable outcome

3 products shipped in 6 months without sacrificing code quality, security, or scalability
+5 more outcomes

Companies that use Bent Oak Systems

Customer profile

Named customers6 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Bent Oak Systems technology and API

Technology

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API: No
API docs
API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability5 records

Feature3 records

Bent Oak Systems partnerships and signals

Strategic signal

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Bent Oak Systems competitors and assessment

Company assessment

Direct peers

DockYard: US-based software consultancy delivering custom product development with senior engineers and modern cloud architectures. Comparable in senior-only delivery teams, product-focused engagements, and retainer-based ongoing support.
AND Digital: UK-based digital consultancy building software products alongside in-house teams for enterprise and scale-up clients. Comparable in geography, senior-engineer-led delivery, and emphasis on product engineering rather than staff augmentation.
ThoughtBot: Boston-based product design and development consultancy offering senior-engineer-led project engagements with transparent fixed-scope pricing. Directly comparable in service model, target customers (startups to enterprise), and emphasis on production-grade delivery.
Atomic Object: US custom software consultancy that ships production-grade software in small, senior teams. Directly comparable on lean senior-team delivery model, fixed-price projects, and emphasis on product quality over billable-hour scaling.
Pivotal Labs: Software consultancy (now part of VMware Tanzu) known for pair-programming-led delivery and embedded engineering teams. Comparable on senior-engineer-led model, embedded retainer-style engagements, and product-led partnerships with clients.

Regional players

Netguru: European (Polish-rooted) software consultancy with global delivery and AI/ML practice areas. Comparable on cross-domain product engineering and AI capability claims, though much larger scale and offshore-led delivery.

Broad incumbents

Toptal: Global freelance talent platform connecting clients with senior developers and AI engineers. Competes for the same buyer (teams seeking senior engineering capacity) but delivers via marketplace matching rather than integrated product delivery.
Rightpoint: Digital consultancy offering product engineering and AI capabilities to enterprise clients. Comparable in product-led delivery model and AI service line, though substantially larger and broader in geographic and capability footprint.
Thoughtworks: Global technology consultancy delivering custom software, platform engineering, and AI services to enterprise clients. Comparable in senior-engineering culture and product-engineering methodology, but operates at much larger scale and broader portfolio.

Emerging players

Genie AI: AI-focused consultancy building custom AI applications for enterprises. Comparable in positioning around applied AI engineering and senior-practitioner delivery, with overlap in target customer segments needing AI integration expertise.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Bent Oak Systems financial estimates

Financial estimate

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Bent Oak Systems leadership team

Management profile

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Bent Oak Systems funding detail

Funding detail

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

Bent Oak Systems M&A and investment

M&A and investment

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about Bent Oak Systems

What does Bent Oak Systems do?

Is Bent Oak Systems a public or private company?

Bent Oak Systems is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.

When was Bent Oak Systems founded?

Bent Oak Systems was founded in 2016. It employs 11 to 50 people.

Where is Bent Oak Systems based?

Bent Oak Systems is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.

How does Bent Oak Systems make money?

Two revenue lines are on record. Project-based AI-assisted software development is the primary driver. The others are ongoing maintenance and support retainers.

Who are Bent Oak Systems's main competitors?

Direct peers on record are DockYard, AND Digital, ThoughtBot, Atomic Object and Pivotal Labs. Netguru is listed as a regional player. Broad incumbents are Toptal, Rightpoint and Thoughtworks. Genie AI is listed as an emerging player.

Does Bent Oak Systems have an API?

No public API is recorded for Bent Oak Systems.