About Ant vs Bear Advisory
We're an independent AI consultancy based in London. We help companies build AI capability and help investors evaluate AI opportunities.
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 built and launched over a dozen AI-powered products across fintech, legaltech, travel, recruitment, and consumer sectors. 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.
What We're Building Now
We actively build and operate AI products. This isn't a side project — it's how we stay sharp and how we pressure-test the advice we give clients.
Consumer AI
Aphra
AI personal assistant. 10K+ downloads, 4.5-star rating.
Recruitment AI
WorkCoach
AI career assessment and coaching platform.
Legaltech
Willstead
AI-powered wills, probate, and inheritance tax planning.
Fintech
TaxBase
Suite of eight UK tax calculators with AI guidance.
Private Aviation
CharterCompare
AI-powered charter comparison and empty leg marketplace.
Recruitment AI
JobAgent
AI job matching and automated application engine.
M&A Intelligence
DealFlow
AI buyer identification for corporate finance advisors.
Expat Tools
LandedLife
Multi-country relocation tools and tax comparison for UK expats.
Plus several more in active development across SEIS/EIS investment, quantitative finance, and travel.
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.