Kiwi design consultancy Purple Shirt joins UK tech outfit Elemental Concept
Kiwi design consultancy Purple Shirt has been acquired by Elemental Concept, furthering the UK-based tech consultancy’s push into the Asia Pacific alongside its existing presence in Singapore.
Established in Auckland in 2011 by Steve Alexander and Blake Lough, Purple Shirt specialises in user, customer, and experience design, strategy and innovation, with a team of around 16 advisors and designers serving clients across the private and public sectors.
Elemental Concept was meanwhile founded by four friends in London in 2016, including CEO Bimal Shah, and provides a broad range of technology advisory and services from its bases in the UK, India, and Singapore, the latter which is now led by Chris Mitchell.
“This acquisition marks a shared commitment to creating a place where strategy, design, and technology come together seamlessly to solve real business problems,” the firm stated. “By combining Purple Shirt’s deep expertise in human-centred design with our global technology delivery capabilities, we can offer clients something truly powerful all under one roof.”
Elemental Concept’s core strengths include technology strategy, software development, and platform engineering, with a successful track record of helping businesses to design, build and launch tech products and platforms and clients ranging from startups through to multinationals such as Gift & Go and Santanda, who are served by a global team of approximately 120 professionals.
“Everything about Purple Shirt joining the family feels right”, Shah said. “Their commitment to doing the right thing for their customers and team, whilst consistently delivering exceptional quality work, is something we deeply admire and will continue to learn from. We’re looking forward to bringing their outstanding services to our existing and future clients around the world.”
Meanwhile, Purple Shirt noted that Elemental Concept’s engineering capabilities would be particularly advantageous, such that it will now be able to support local clients from strategy and design through to build an implementation. Nevertheless, Purple Shirt will continue to operate independently under its own brand, with the same leaders in place and no disruption to clients.
“It’s the start of an exciting new chapter, where we can offer more than ever while keeping what matters most at the heart of everything we do: people, purpose, and pragmatic delivery,” the firm said. “As technology continues to accelerate, we see this as more than just growth. It’s a step toward building a global business grounded in principles and partnership, not PowerPoints and process.”
