Lifestyle

What Lifestyle does

Lifestyle is a UK-based multi-store gift card and rewards platform operated by Motivates Inc. Ltd, a subsidiary of the Red Letter Days Group. It runs a dual B2B and B2C model: it supplies gift card, reward, and incentive programmes to over 2,000 UK corporate clients including the NHS, Unilever, Red Bull, Eurostar, and Virgin Atlantic, while distributing the Lifestyle Gift Card through more than 10,000 retail outlets (including Sainsbury's, Asda, and WHSmith) and serving over 2 million consumers via its digital platform. Core products include the multi-store Lifestyle Gift Card redeemable at 500+ brand partners, the Lifestyle Points tiered subscription reward platform (Spark, Glow, Flame, Blaze), Long Service Awards, Lifestyle Living cost-of-living products, the Whip Round internal fundraising tool, Events services, and the recently launched #SBS Gift Card developed with Theo Paphitis for the small-business segment.

The underlying platform supports self-service card issuance, API-based integrations for corporate reward managers, digital in-store and online redemption, and order tracking for both programme administrators and end recipients. A direct-to-consumer online channel was launched in 2022, complementing retail and corporate distribution. B Corp certification was achieved in 2022, and the company employs approximately 240 staff.

The business model combines consumer card sales across retail and DTC channels, corporate incentive programme fees (often structured per-card or per-recipient), recurring subscription revenue through Lifestyle Points, and partnership economics with brand and retail partners. Founded in its current form via a 2018 management buyout of Red Letter Days, with the Lifestyle Gift Card brand traceable to 2011.

Name

Lifestyle

Legal name

Motivates Inc. Ltd

Website

https://business.lifestylegiftcards.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Lifestyle is a UK multi-store gift card and rewards platform serving 2,000+ corporate clients and millions of consumers, offering 500+ brand redemption options across 10,000+ retail stores via its self-service and API-integrated platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Corporate Rewards & Recognition Services

NAICS

Gift, Novelty, and Souvenir Retailers (45942), Gift, Novelty, and Souvenir Retailers (459420)

SIC

Retail-Hobby, Toy & Game Shops (5945), Retail-Catalog & Mail-Order Houses (5961)

akta.pro primary industry

Novelty & Humor Gifts Retail (CRALAJAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Greeting Cards, Wrap & Party Supplies Retail (CRALAJAE), Home Fragrance, Candles & Small Giftables Retail (CRALAJAN)

Keywords

• Corporate gift cards
• Employee reward platform
• Multi-store gift vouchers
• Employee recognition programmes
• Incentive events services

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Others

Revenue model

1. Gift Card Sales (B2B): Businesses purchase Lifestyle Gift Cards for employee rewards, recognition, incentives and gifting. Revenue from selling gift cards at face value to corporate customers.
2. Gift Card Sales (B2C): Direct sales to consumers through retail stores (ASDA, Boots, Sainsbury's, WHSmith) and online channels.
3. Retailer Partner Commission: Commission earned when customers swap Lifestyle Gift Cards for retailer e-gift cards. Partners provide e-gift cards at discounted rates to face value.
4. Reward Platform Subscriptions: Four tiers of reward platform packages (Select, Plus, Premium, Enterprise) with varying monthly account hours, features and customisation levels. Minimum launch timelines of 4-10 weeks.
5. Event Management Services: Professional events services including conferences, incentive travel, team building, gala dinners and hospitality. Case studies show work with CeX, Eurostar, Sunbelt Rentals.
6. Delivery Fees: Physical delivery fees: £1.99 for up to 3 voucher packs via Royal Mail, £7.25 for next-day courier service.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

Lifestyle operates a multi-store gift card platform (the Lifestyle Gift Card) accepted at 500+ UK brands, sold both directly to consumers via major retailers and online, and to businesses for employee reward, recognition, incentive and gifting programmes. Supplementary offerings include the Lifestyle Points digital reward platform (subscription tiers), corporate event management services, Long Service Awards, and the #SBS Gift Card for small businesses. The business combines physical and digital gift card products, recognition software and professional event services.

Product overview

Lifestyle is a multi-store gift card platform operated by Motivates Ltd, offering a portfolio of reward and recognition products. The core offering is the Lifestyle Gift Card accepted at 500+ UK brands, available in various formats (physical wallet, digital eCard, eCode) for business and consumer use. The product suite includes four key modules: Reward Platforms (Lifestyle Points) for points-based employee recognition programmes; Long Service Awards for tenure celebrations; Lifestyle Events for corporate event management; and Tax Free Rewards leveraging HMRC Trivial Benefits exemption. Additional offerings include the #SBS Gift Card (small business partnership), Whip Round (internal fundraising), and Lifestyle Living (essential retail category). The platform differentiates through no fees, no contracts, 2-year expiry on business accounts, free personalisation, and B Corp certification.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Lifestyle Ultimate: Multi-store gift card with access to 500+ retailers across retail, cinema, holiday, dining and entertainment.
• Lifestyle Eat
• Lifestyle Home
• Lifestyle Fashion & Beauty
• life:style Happy Birthday
• life:style Christmas
• life:style Thank You
• life:style Congrats
• Lifestyle Living
• #SBS Gift Card
• Lifestyle Points
• Whip Round

Products and services

• Lifestyle Gift Card A multi-store gift voucher accepted at 500+ UK brands across retail, dining, fashion, entertainment, travel and home. Sold to businesses for employee reward and recognition and to consumers for personal gifting, with 2-year expiry on business accounts and 18 months on consumer purchases.
• Lifestyle Points (Reward Platforms) A subscription-based digital reward and recognition platform for businesses, with branded points programmes, recognition modules, eLearning, performance tracking, communication tools, and integrations including API and SSO.
• Long Service Awards A personalised employee recognition solution for celebrating tenure milestones, combining the multi-store Lifestyle Gift Card with custom branding, free personalisation and integration with Lifestyle Events for milestone celebrations.
• Lifestyle Events A corporate event management service covering conferences, gala dinners, award ceremonies, incentive events, incentive travel, hospitality and ticketing, and team building experiences, delivered by a dedicated events team.
• #SBS Gift Card An exclusive gift card co-branded with the Theo Paphitis #SBS Small Business Sunday network, giving 4,000+ small UK businesses a channel for brand exposure and customer acquisition via the Lifestyle platform.
• Tax Free Rewards (Trivial Benefits) A tax-efficient corporate gifting solution that leverages HMRC's Trivial Benefits exemption, enabling employers to give up to £50 per employee tax-free per instance as an alternative to taxable cash bonuses.
• Whip Round A workplace fundraising and collection tool that lets colleagues contribute to collective gifts for celebrations, retirements, charitable causes and other shared moments within organisations.
• Lifestyle Living A specialist gift card category focused on essential grocery retailers (Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Tesco) for cost-of-living support, available on request only with a 12-month expiry.
• Christmas Gift Card A seasonal Christmas variant of the Lifestyle Gift Card optimised for corporate Christmas gifting, with HMRC Trivial Benefits tax-free status, 2-year expiry, and custom Christmas branding options.

Quantifiable outcome

• 52% increase in employee retention likelihood with long service awards
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers21 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Future OakscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity Interest Company based at Lopemede Farm focused on regenerative farming principles. Partnership built on doing business better - supporting planet, people and communities. Provides local, tangible environmental commitment where Lifestyle staff can volunteer and participate. Long-term mission to restore natural land through hands-on learning in farming, food and ecosystem restoration.
• Theo Paphitis #SBS (Small Business Sunday)coreGTM or Marketing PartnerPartnership with retail entrepreneur and TV Dragon Theo Paphitis to launch #SBS Gift Card. #SBS is a leading small business network supporting 4,000+ UK businesses. Theo nominates 6 small businesses weekly via Twitter. The partnership opens new avenues for small businesses to gain exposure and incremental revenue through the Lifestyle gift card platform.
• Holmen Iggesund Paperboard MillcoreOthersSwedish paper mill (part of Holmen group with 1.3 million hectares of forest) supplying paperboard for Lifestyle's plastic-free gift cards. Products sourced from regenerative Swedish forests, made from timber byproducts. Mill holds Ecovadis Platinum rating (top 1%). CO2 footprint of a Lifestyle card is less than a banana. Mill also produces packaging for Apple.
• Priory DirectminorOthersPackaging materials supplier. B Corp certified, Carbon Neutral, and 1% for the Planet member. Provides 100% plastic-free, fully recyclable and biodegradable packing materials for Lifestyle products.
• Climate Impact PartnersminorOthersCarbon offset partner providing doubled carbon offsets for Lifestyle's operations. Supports Amazon reforestation and wind power projects in Chile.
• Green Gift CardsminorOthersEco-minded printer for Lifestyle Gift Cards and printed collateral for marketing, trade shows and events. Helps reduce environmental impact of production.
• Green HippominorOthersEco-friendly print supplier for Lifestyle Gift Cards and marketing materials.
• Red Letter DayscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerExperience gifts pioneer (founded 1989). Parent company of Motivates (acquired by management team in 2018). RLD for Business emerged in 2007 as customers used experiences for employee reward, recognition and motivation. Lifestyle Gift Cards include Red Letter Days as a brand partner option.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Xexec: Xexec is a UK provider of corporate gift cards, vouchers and employee reward platforms for businesses. It overlaps Lifestyle on B2B multi-store gift cards and on platform-based reward delivery to UK mid-market and enterprise customers.
• One4All (Blackhawk Network): One4All is the UK's other major multi-store gift card, accepted at 100+ retailers and sold via supermarkets and online. It is the closest direct competitor to Lifestyle's flagship multi-store gift card proposition and competes head-to-head in both B2B rewards and consumer gifting.
• Love2shop: Love2shop is a long-standing UK multi-retailer gift voucher (100+ brands) sold via Post Office, WH Smith and direct. It overlaps directly with Lifestyle on B2B reward and recognition and on consumer gift cards across the same retail distribution channels.

Emerging players

• Virgin Experience Days: Virgin Experience Days sells experience gifts for consumer and corporate use in the UK. It overlaps with Lifestyle's sister brand Red Letter Days and the Lifestyle Events incentive travel/experiences proposition for the same corporate reward buyer.
• Reward Gateway: Reward Gateway is an employee engagement platform with discounts, recognition and reward modules used by UK enterprises. It is a comparable on the Lifestyle Points subscription platform and competes for the same HR buyer purchasing gift card and recognition solutions.
• Perkbox: Perkbox is a UK-based employee perks, recognition and wellbeing platform. It competes with Lifestyle Points for HR buyer wallet in recognition and rewards and offers digital gift card rewards as part of its broader employee engagement proposition.

Broad incumbents

• Edenred: Edenred is a global leader in employee benefits, meal vouchers and gift solutions (Ticket Restaurant, Ticket Compliments). It competes with Lifestyle in the UK corporate reward/gift space but operates as a much larger multi-product, multi-country incumbent.
• Pluxee (formerly Sodexo BRS): Pluxee is Sodexo's spun-off Benefits & Rewards Services division, offering gift cards, vouchers and employee benefits globally. It is a large established incumbent with deeper enterprise penetration and broader international reach than Lifestyle.
• Selecta: Selecta is a European unattended retail and gift/prepaid solutions operator. While broader in vending, its prepaid and gift card operations overlap with Lifestyle in workplace reward and B2B voucher distribution across Europe.

Regional players

• Park Christmas Savings: Park Christmas Savings is a UK Christmas savings/voucher scheme that aggregates retailer gift cards for seasonal B2B and consumer use. It overlaps with Lifestyle's Christmas gifting proposition within the same UK market and seasonal buying window.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/LifestyleGiftCards
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/lifestyle-motivatesltd
• Instagraminstagram.com/lifestylegiftcards

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

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 Lifestyle