What is your pricing model (free vs paid features)?
Loci is designed so the core platform is always free for both residents and councils. Through our Shared Partnership, councils can join at no cost and still get a live presence in the app, with local information, service access, and updates reaching residents straight away, without procurement, integrations, or added workload.
Where there is a paid element, it’s optional and only for councils that want to go further with engagement. That includes things like publishing updates, running surveys, and sending targeted alerts through an enhanced admin layer. Outside of councils, we also support the platform through community promotions and optional subscriptions for local businesses, which helps keep the core experience free.
In practice, it means councils can get immediate value without spending anything, and only choose to invest if and when they want to deepen how they engage with residents.
What are councils actually paying for?
The paid elements for councils are focused on deeper resident engagement rather than access to the core platform. If a council chooses to upgrade, they get admin tools to actively communicate with residents, like publishing updates, running surveys, highlighting local services, and sending targeted or time-sensitive alerts. It’s essentially about moving from a passive presence to a more hands-on way of engaging with the community, using tools that are built to be simple and cost-effective rather than complex or resource-heavy.
What costs scale with usage, features or councils onboarded?
For councils, the core Loci platform stays free regardless of scale, so there’s no cost tied to usage, number of residents, or how many councils are onboarded at that level. Where costs do come in is with the optional engagement features, which are designed to scale fairly based on population size, typically on a per resident basis.
These paid features focus on helping councils take a more active role in their community. From the current roadmap, that includes tools to publish updates, run surveys, highlight local services, and send targeted or time-sensitive alerts to residents.
In practice, it means councils can start using Loci without cost, and if they choose to layer on more advanced engagement tools, pricing scales in line with the size of the community they’re supporting, rather than adding fixed or unpredictable costs.
How is the platform funded long-term?
Loci is currently privately funded through its growth phase by four shareholders, all of whom are directly involved in the business.
Our revenue model is designed to be sustainable without charging residents or requiring councils to pay for the core platform. Revenue would come from a mix of optional paid features and local commercial activity.
For councils, that could include advanced engagement tools such as publishing updates and customer push notifications, custom pages, running surveys and sending targeted alerts, usually priced on a per resident basis. Over time, this would also include API access and integrations with existing council systems, more advanced data and engagement analytics, reporting integrations, and other premium features that help councils get more value from the platform without replacing their core systems.
The direction of travel is to give councils more useful tools around communication, insight and service visibility, while keeping Loci as a user-friendly front end that works alongside existing council infrastructure.
Alongside that, Loci offers low entry point subscriptions for local businesses, giving them a simple way to reach nearby residents, promote services and take part in local campaigns without needing large marketing budgets. We may also support carefully managed, hyper-local advertising within the app, designed to be relevant and useful to residents rather than intrusive.
Taken together, that creates a funding model that keeps the core platform open, while supporting long-term delivery and local value.
How do you prioritise roadmap development?
We prioritise roadmap development through ongoing feedback from the councils, residents and businesses we work with. We use those partnerships to understand what communities need in practice, where the biggest gaps are and where Loci can add the most value.
That means roadmap decisions are shaped by real engagement, not just internal product thinking. We work with our partnered councils, resident groups and local businesses to test ideas, gather feedback and make sure future development stays rooted in community needs and practical outcomes.
How do councils influence product direction?
Councils play a direct role in shaping where Loci goes next. We’re building a consortium of partner councils who come together on a regular basis, with at least quarterly review sessions, to share feedback, highlight local needs, and help guide the product roadmap. It’s a two-way conversation, so what we build reflects real challenges and priorities on the ground, rather than assumptions made in isolation.
What happens if Loci changes ownership or commercial strategy?
If Loci’s ownership or commercial approach were to change, the core services councils rely on wouldn’t shift or disappear. Our branding agreement in place with council's is clear that as long as Loci is operating, those core features stay in place free of charge. That includes your council page, service search across Loci and your website, bin schedules, waste notifications and the waste lookup tool, along with your branding and service setup. In practice, it means continuity for both councils and residents, with no disruption to the essential services people depend on day to day.