About Ant vs Bear
We're an AI venture builder and consultancy based in London. We build and operate our own portfolio of AI products — and we advise companies and investors drawing on that hands-on experience.
Why "Ant vs Bear"?
In every market, there's a choice: be the bear (big, slow, expensive) or be the ant (fast, lean, effective). We chose the ant. We bring enterprise-grade AI expertise without the enterprise-grade overhead. No 20-person teams. No 6-month timelines. No bloated slide decks that say nothing.
Our Background
Before advising others, we built AI products ourselves. We founded Relata, an AI-powered client intelligence platform for financial services. We sold it through enterprise procurement into global banks and Lloyd's market insurers, scaled it to over £1M ARR, achieved ISO 27001 certification, and exited via acquisition.
That experience — building, selling, scaling, and exiting an enterprise AI product — informs everything we do as advisors. We know what works in production because we've operated in production.
Since exiting Relata, we've evolved into a venture builder — launching and operating a portfolio of AI products across fintech, travel, African markets, and more. Not prototypes — live products in production, serving real users. We believe the best advisors never stop building, and that hands-on product experience is what separates genuine AI expertise from slide-deck consulting.
The Venture Portfolio
We actively build and operate AI products. This isn't a side project — it's the core of what we do and where our advisory experience comes from.
AI Product Studio
HatchSolo
AI-powered idea-to-product platform. 20 frameworks from opportunity discovery to scale.
Travel & Aviation
Stirling Access
AI travel concierge with WhatsApp booking engine for private aviation and luxury travel.
Fintech
mNudge
WhatsApp-native invoice chasing for UK tradesmen. Automated payment reminders that get paid.
Fintech
AlphaRules
AI portfolio manager where you define the rules. Evidence-based stock screening and alerts.
African Fintech
iKwenta
Financial tools and calculators for the South African market.
African Fintech
HelaBora
Financial tools for Kenya — loan calculators, product comparison, and CRB monitoring.
AI Research
LLM Mixer
Multi-model AI research engine. Choose your LLMs, data streams, and rules — get grounded analysis.
Plus more in active development across legaltech, recruitment, and consumer tools.
What We Believe
Direct. Answer first, explain second. No jargon, no hedging.
Expert. Speak from experience, not theory. Reference real scenarios, not hypotheticals.
Commercial. Translate technical capability into business impact.
Independent. No vendor agenda. We recommend what works, not what pays us.
Lean. We're ants, not bears. Fast, cost-effective, no overhead.
Where We Work
We're based in London (128 City Road, EC1V 2NX) and work with clients across the UK and internationally. Most engagements are a mix of in-person and remote, though we can work fully remotely where that makes more sense.
We Don't Just Advise. We Build.
Before advising others, we built and shipped AI products ourselves — into enterprise procurement, into production, into people's hands.
Relata
AI-powered client relationship intelligence for financial services. We built it, sold it through enterprise procurement into global banks and Lloyd's market insurers, scaled it to £1M+ ARR, achieved ISO 27001 certification, and exited via acquisition.
"In our second month, one Account Manager closed more than $70,000 using the data. The ROI is unrivalled."
— Founding Partner, Specialist Broker
"Almost 10x more client data captured than traditional CRM workflows."
— Head of Technology, Investment Research Firm
Aphra
AI-powered personal assistant helping people manage the chaos of daily life. 10,000+ downloads. 4.5-star rating. Bootstrapped and live in production.
The combination of enterprise delivery (Relata) and consumer product instinct (Aphra) means we've built, shipped, sold, and exited — not just advised.