Vicinity
Vicinity is a UK SaaS company providing a place management platform for Business Improvement Districts, councils, DMOs, and property owners, combining CRM, branded consumer apps, and an in-development AI data platform called Lili.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersTadcaster, United Kingdom
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Vicinity does
Vicinity (legal entity: Vicinity Trading Limited) is a UK-headquartered SaaS company, founded in 2017 in Tadcaster, that builds a place management platform for Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), Business Improvement Areas (BIAs), UK councils, Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs), and property owners. The platform has three core products: Vicinity CRM, a place intelligence system for managing business data, engagement, and reporting with proprietary modules (Ballot Tools, Scenario Planner, Data Updater); Branded Place Apps, fully customised consumer-facing mobile apps featuring loyalty, deals, push notifications, interactive trails (with QR, AR, audio), and employee-exclusive offers; and Lili (Library of Local Intelligence), an in-development AI platform for unifying and querying local datasets across places. The technology integrates with MailChimp for marketing automation and Miconex for gift card/payment functionality, and offers an API for connecting third-party data sources into customisable dashboards.
The company operates a subscription-based recurring revenue model with quote-based pricing across both CRM subscriptions and managed-service branded apps. Go-to-market combines a direct enterprise field sales motion (book-a-demo consultative sales, 4–6 week implementation, dedicated customer success) with inside sales for mid-market BIDs/BIAs and a product-led consumer surface through iOS and Android app stores. Vicinity reports 130+ placemaking customers, 63,000+ businesses recorded, £6bn+ in rateable value tracked, 200k+ app users, and 1M+ user interactions across its apps, with named customers spanning Liverpool BID Company, Leeds BID, Heart of London Business Alliance, Essential Edinburgh, Belfast One, FOR Cardiff, London Heritage Quarter, Downtown London BIA (Canada), and Cadogan. The company is privately held and privately funded (no disclosed VC/PE rounds), operating with approximately 10 employees and serving the UK plus a newly entered Canadian market.
Vicinity firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Vicinity
- Legal name
- Vicinity Trading Limited
- Website
- https://getvicinity.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Vicinity is a UK SaaS company providing a place management platform for Business Improvement Districts, councils, DMOs, and property owners, combining CRM, branded consumer apps, and an in-development AI data platform called Lili.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Vicinity industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Place Management Software
- akta.pro primary industry
- Customer Success & Account Management CRM (HDAEAFAD)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- POI, Local Listings & Business Directory Platforms (BPAMANAD), Customer Engagement & Messaging (Email, SMS, Push, In-App) (BPAFAFAI), Customer Journey Orchestration & Campaign Management (BPAFAFAF)
Keywords
Where Vicinity is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Tadcaster
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Vicinity business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- CRM Platform Subscription: SaaS subscription model for Vicinity CRM platform with data management, engagement tracking, and reporting capabilities. Implementation timeline 4-6 weeks with dedicated Customer Success team support.
- Branded Place Apps: Managed-service branded mobile apps for BIDs, councils, and property owners featuring loyalty, deals, events, trails, and push notifications. Apps available on iOS and Android.
- Lili AI Platform: AI-powered local data intelligence platform (currently in development with early pilots planned for 2026) for unifying and analyzing local datasets across places.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
Vicinity product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Vicinity sells a place management SaaS platform for Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), Business Improvement Areas (BIAs), local councils, DMOs, and property owners. Its offering combines a purpose-built CRM (Vicinity CRM) for managing business data, engagement, and reporting with fully branded native mobile apps featuring loyalty schemes, deals, push notifications, and interactive trails, plus an AI-powered data intelligence platform (Lili) for unifying fragmented local datasets.
Product overview
Vicinity offers a unified platform architecture comprising three core products: Vicinity CRM (place management platform for data, engagement, and reporting), Branded Place Apps (consumer-facing mobile applications for loyalty, deals, and discovery), and Lili (AI-powered data intelligence platform). Supporting modules include Ballot Tools for BID elections, Scenario Planner for boundary planning, Data Updater for municipality data sync, Loyalty System for stamp cards and tiered rewards, and Interactive Trails for wayfinding and engagement. The platform serves over 130 towns and cities across the UK and Canada, with CRM now expanding to Canadian BIAs.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Vicinity CRM: Place intelligence platform for managing business data, recording activity, and reporting results.
- Branded Place Apps
- Lili (AI Platform)
- Place Data Pledge
- Data Britain
- Vicinity and Beyond Podcast
Products and services
- Vicinity CRM A comprehensive place management platform for BIDs, BIAs, councils, and property managers to manage business data, record activity, track engagement, and report results. Includes project management, mobile tools, marketing communications, reporting tools, and data management features.
- Branded Place Apps Fully branded native mobile apps for towns and BIDs to drive footfall, aid discovery, and reward loyalty. Includes loyalty tools, push notifications, interactive trails, wayfinding, exclusive deals, employee discount schemes, and business insights dashboard. Available on iOS App Store and Google Play.
- Lili (Library of Local Information) AI-powered platform designed to bring together fragmented local datasets and make them searchable, comparable, and useful at every level. Connects data from BIDs, councils, and national partners into a single interoperable framework with privacy by design.
Quantifiable outcome
- 1M+ user interactions across branded place apps
- +6 more outcomes
Companies that use Vicinity
Customer profileNamed customers22 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Vicinity technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration2 records
AI capability8 records
Feature11 records
Vicinity partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- MiconexcorePartnership bringing Miconex's award-winning town & city gift card technology into Vicinity place apps (My Leicester and We Love Merthyr). Enables local gift card functionality within branded apps to lock spend into local economies.
- Scotland's Towns Partnership (STP)coreStrategic partnership making Vicinity the digital partner for Scotland's Towns. STP is the go-to body championing Scotland's town centres and parent organisation for Scotland's Improvement Districts. Partnership opens opportunities for improvement districts to gain insights into data and trends.
- ATCMminorAssociation of Town and City Management partnership for thought leadership and industry collaboration in place management.
- British BIDsminorNational membership organisation representing Business Improvement Districts in the UK. Partnership for industry collaboration and knowledge sharing.
- Innovate UKminorUK government innovation agency supporting business transformation. Partnership positioning Vicinity as an innovative technology solution.
- OBIAA (Ontario Business Improvement Area Association)minorOntario BIA association representing and supporting Business Improvement Areas in Ontario. Vicinity attended OBIAA conference to explore Canadian market opportunities.
- BIABC (BIA Association of BC)minorBIA association for British Columbia. Vicinity attended BIABC conference in North Vancouver to explore Canadian expansion.
- High Streets PositiveminorFounding member of High Streets Positive initiative supporting high street revitalization and place improvement.
- University of WarwickminorAcademic partnership for research and knowledge development in place management and local economies.
Scale indicators19 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Vicinity competitors and assessment
Company assessmentOthers
- Mailchimp: Marketing-automation and email platform that is also a named integration partner of Vicinity CRM (via 'MailChimp integration'). Adjacent rather than directly competitive — Vicinity routes into Mailchimp for email while owning segmentation, CRM and apps.
Broad incumbents
- Capita: UK outsourcing and digital services provider with significant local-government and property-management engagements. Competes for the same council and place-management customer budgets as Vicinity, albeit with a much broader services portfolio.
- Salesforce: Global CRM and customer engagement platform. Vicinity explicitly positions itself against 'generic CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot,' making Salesforce the canonical broad incumbent that BIDs and councils might otherwise standardise on.
- HubSpot: Global CRM and marketing-automation platform that BIDs and councils could use as an alternative to Vicinity CRM. Vicinity's value proposition directly contrasts against HubSpot's generic approach for place-management workflows.
- Simpleview: US-headquartered CRM, content and marketing platform built specifically for destination marketing organisations (DMOs). Comparable to Vicinity because DMO is one of Vicinity's named customer segments and both sell vertical CRM + content tools to destination bodies.
- Idox: UK-listed vendor of software to local authorities and public-sector bodies, including planning, land management and civic CRM. Comparable to Vicinity because both target UK council and place-management budgets, though Idox's portfolio is much broader.
- Agilisys: UK digital transformation and managed-service provider focused on local authorities (part of the Blenheim Chalcot group). Comparable to Vicinity as an alternative for councils seeking data, CRM and engagement technology for place-management use cases.
- Civica: Large private-equity-backed supplier of software and outsourcing to UK local government and the wider public sector. Comparable to Vicinity as an alternative platform that councils and BIDs may evaluate when procuring place-management technology.
Direct peers
- LoyalFree: UK-based white-label loyalty and offers app platform for towns and high streets. Vicinity's own materials note Love Loughborough was launched as a 'replacement for LoyalFree,' making it the closest direct competitor for BID and place-branded apps.
- Yiftee: Digital local gift card and community-commerce platform that locks spend into independent local businesses. Highly comparable to Vicinity's Miconex-integrated apps (My Leicester, We Love Merthyr), serving the same 'local economy' use case.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Vicinity social profiles
Digital presenceVicinity financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Vicinity leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Vicinity funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Vicinity 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 Vicinity
What does Vicinity do?
Vicinity sells a place management SaaS platform for Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), Business Improvement Areas (BIAs), local councils, DMOs, and property owners. Its offering combines a purpose-built CRM (Vicinity CRM) for managing business data, engagement, and reporting with fully branded native mobile apps featuring loyalty schemes, deals, push notifications, and interactive trails, plus an AI-powered data intelligence platform (Lili) for unifying fragmented local datasets.
Is Vicinity a public or private company?
Vicinity is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Vicinity founded?
Vicinity was founded in 2017. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Vicinity based?
Vicinity is headquartered in Tadcaster, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Vicinity make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. CRM Platform Subscription is the primary driver. The others are branded Place Apps and lili AI Platform.
Who are Vicinity's main competitors?
Mailchimp is listed as an others. Broad incumbents are Capita, Salesforce, HubSpot, Simpleview, Idox, Agilisys and Civica. Direct peers are LoyalFree and Yiftee.
Does Vicinity have an API?
Yes. The Vicinity CRM offers an API that allows customers to connect systems and data sources together, customizing dashboards with third party data sources to make important information quickly visible.
What industry is Vicinity in?
Vicinity's product category is Place Management Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEAFAD, Customer Success & Account Management CRM, with a secondary code of BPAMANAD, POI, Local Listings & Business Directory Platforms.