National Ugly Mugs

What National Ugly Mugs does

National Ugly Mugs (NUM) is a UK-wide registered charity founded in 2012 to reduce violence against sex workers and adult industry workers. Headquartered in Manchester with a Glasgow office (NUMbrella Lane), NUM operates a membership platform serving 6,200+ members, comprising 5,200+ individual sex workers and 800+ support workers representing 300+ partner organizations across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

NUM's core products are delivered through a membership platform built around three integrated tools: an Alert Tool that distributes anonymized warnings about dangerous individuals, a Checker Tool that allows members to verify potential clients before meetings, and a Reporting System that captures incident data. The platform is supplemented by Casework Support, mental health resources, NUM Vouchers (distributed via Love2Shop), Restorative Justice for Sex Workers (RJ4SW), Vocational Support, Youth Justice programs, an eLearning module, the Under The Red Umbrella zine, and a Memorial Map. NUM also operates as a Trusted Flagger for Aylo, supporting content removal across major adult platforms.

NUM is a non-profit with no membership fees. Revenue is generated through charitable grants (National Lottery Community Fund, John Ellerman Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Trust For London), individual donations, and partnership funding from commercial counterparties such as VivaStreet. The organization employs 16 staff and is led by CEO Dr. Raven Bowen. Strategic priorities include expanding the SWISWA partnership across the UK and growing into new service areas such as youth justice and restorative justice.

Name

National Ugly Mugs

Legal name

National Ugly Mugs

Website

https://nationaluglymugs.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

National Ugly Mugs is a UK-wide charity founded in 2012 that provides safety tools, incident reporting, casework support, and mental health resources to 6,200+ sex workers and adult industry workers across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Manchester

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Charitable Grants and Foundation Funding: NUM is funded primarily through grants from charitable foundations, trusts, and government bodies including National Lottery Community Fund, John Ellerman Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and Trust For London. These fund specific projects, operational costs, and service development.
2. Donations: Individual and organizational donations from supporters, sex workers, and allies. The organization accepts donations through its website.
3. Partnership Funding: Funding from corporate partners in the adult industry who contribute to hardship funds and safety initiatives, such as VivaStreet match funding during COVID-19.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

National Ugly Mugs is a UK-wide charity that runs a free membership platform for sex workers, practitioners, and venues, providing incident reporting, safety alerts about dangerous individuals, client verification, direct casework support for victims of crime, mental health resources, emergency vouchers, and online content removal. It supplements its digital services with in-person wellbeing support through NUMbrella Lane in Glasgow and a Trusted Flagger scheme that requests immediate takedowns of non-consensual content across major adult platforms.

Product overview

National Ugly Mugs (NUM) is a UK-wide charity operating a membership-based safety platform for sex workers. The core offering consists of a digital membership platform providing incident reporting, safety alerts (Alert Tool), and client verification (Checker Tool). This is supplemented by casework support services, mental health resources, and the Trusted Flagger content removal service. NUM also operates physical support services including NUMbrella Lane in Glasgow and NUMbrella Lane (Scotland) wellbeing centres. Additional modules include vocational support, racial justice services (RJ4SW), youth justice services, eLearning for professionals, the Under The Red Umbrella zine, NUM Vouchers (emergency and vocational vouchers via Love2Shop partnership), and the Memorial Map. The SWISVA Partnership provides sexual violence advocacy while the SWERV project conducts ongoing research into reporting effectiveness.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• NUM Membership Platform UK-wide free membership platform enabling sex workers, practitioners, and venues to report incidents, receive safety alerts about dangerous individuals, verify client details via the Checker Tool, and access casework support services.
• Trusted Flagger Service Content removal service through partnership with Aylo (formerly MindGeek) enabling immediate takedowns of stolen or non-consensual online content across major adult platforms including Pornhub, YouPorn, RedTube, GayTube, Peeperz, and PornMD.
• Casework Support Services Provides emotional, practical, and criminal justice support to sex workers who are victims of crime and harm, helping them access resources for healing and justice. Delivered by NUM's casework team via phone, email, and in-person.
• NUM Vouchers Voucher programme in partnership with Love2Shop providing food and toiletries vouchers to sex workers through emergency support and vocational support services.
• Mental Health Resources Comprehensive mental health support including a directory of sex-worker-friendly therapists, hypnotherapy sessions, grief and loss resources, suicide awareness materials, and free therapy packages.
• Racial Justice for Sex Workers (RJ4SW) Project addressing structural racism and anti-sex worker discrimination across policing, healthcare, housing, higher education, and support services, with policy briefs and a reporting tool for harms by professionals.
• Vocational Support Service Support services helping sex workers access mainstream work, including CV assistance, interview preparation, career goal workshops, and resources developed from the Leaving the Game research project.
• NUMbrella Lane (Glasgow Wellbeing Centre) A wellbeing centre in Glasgow providing a safe, non-judgmental drop-in space for sex workers with harm reduction supplies, caseworker support, and mental health resources.
• Youth Justice Services Specialised support services for young sex workers addressing their unique safety and support needs.
• eLearning Platform Educational resources and training for police and professionals on how to serve and protect sex workers, including guidance on appropriate interaction with sex working populations.
• Under The Red Umbrella (Zine) A zine created with sex worker-led groups across the UK and Ireland, providing space for groups to share updates, raise awareness of issues, highlight events and campaigns, and showcase sex worker art and creative work.
• Memorial Map Interactive map commemorating sex workers who have been murdered, part of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (IDEVASW) commemorations.
• SWISVA Partnership Project Partnership with Basis Yorkshire, POW Nottingham, and A Way Out providing Sex Worker Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (SWISVA) support to sex workers in West Yorkshire, Nottingham, Greater Manchester, and nationally.
• SWERV Research Project Sex Workers Evaluate Reporting Violence - a 30-month study by LSHTM, Brunel University, and NUM exploring how NUM's alerts, checker tool, reporting system and casework support impact members' safety and mental health.
• Leaving the Game Research Research project exploring the relationship between sex work and mainstream work, informing vocational support services for sex workers in London.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 805,443 safety alerts shared to members since inception
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• A Way OutcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2026New partner in SWISVA Partnership Project bringing over 20 years experience of supporting sex workers in and around Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough.
• Basis YorkshirecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2024Partner in SWISWA Partnership Project providing specialist sex worker ISVA support in West Yorkshire, Nottingham, Greater Manchester and nationally.
• POW NottinghamcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2024Partner in SWISWA Partnership Project providing specialist sex worker ISVA support in West Yorkshire, Nottingham, Greater Manchester and nationally.
• UCLH Find and Treat ServiceminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2024Research partnership commissioned Find and Treat Service to investigate sex workers' experiences with NHS healthcare services.
• Love2ShopcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNUM Vouchers partnership providing vouchers to sex workers through Love2Shop for food and toiletries as part of emergency support and vocational support services.
• Aylo (formerly MindGeek)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNUM joined Aylo's Trusted Flagger scheme allowing caseworkers to request immediate takedowns of stolen or non-consensual content across Aylo platforms including PornHub, YouPorn, RedTube, GayTube, Peeperz and PornMD.
• Vagina MuseumminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCollaborative merchandise partnership with NUM x Vagina Museum collection, including zine collaboration featuring NUM content in Issue 5 of 'Lip Service'.
• Umbrella LanecoreOthersFormerly a separate sex worker-led support service in Glasgow. Umbrella Lane Project is now integrated into NUM as NUMbrella Lane.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Market position

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/NationalUglyMug
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/national-ugly-mugs

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Subsidiaries1 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 National Ugly Mugs