Founded in July 2026, branchLeft is a 100% worker-owned UK company building technology for people & planet. The name reflects the subversion of the capitalistic model typically associated with tech. Extractive and exploitative practices are not a prerequisite for success, and we're here to prove it.
Technology is an essential part of running any organisation. We're looking to lower the barrier to entry for people doing work that benefits our society. Beautiful, accessible and robust technology is something that can be built at pace and affordably, but this requires some new ways of thinking about how a tech company is structured and how it operates.
Finding ethical suppliers and partners for tech can often be challenging, but good news, you've found us. It's early days, but we're committed to becoming a formal non-profit worker's cooperative as soon as we start scaling. That means we're both culturally and structurally aligned for sustainability, longevity and accountability; in terms of (but not limited to) environment, societal impact, and equitable employment.
We have a laser focus on stable growth according to the means of the organisation. We don't answer to any external investors or private equity, and never will. We don't need to make profits to extract any surplus. We keep our costs low and our pricing fair, so that you can continue to work with us long-term. We enable this through engineering excellence and democratic decision-making.
All projects we work on are assessed for their environmental impact. We calculate the emissions of our deployed infrastructure and tool usage, and offset them such that we are carbon neutral. We proactively seek out work which helps address the climate crisis and reduces environmental harm.
We recognise the ethical, societal and environmental implications of artificial intelligence. AI can be leveraged to build solutions at pace that are a net-benefit to society. Where AI tools are used in software development, we use the most ethical options and use them responsibly. Where AI is used as part of the software we build, we work to ensure that it eliminates bias and uses models that are open source and auditable.
We actively seek out work which has a positive societal impact. We are a catalyst and force-multiplier for people who do good. We find strategic ways to provide our services at low costs to organisations doing this work, without seeking any profit.
All code that we write by default is open source and given permissive licenses. Nobody wins when the same problem that the world faces needs to be solved many times over. We foster a virtuous cycle of development and improvement between ourselves, our clients, and the wider open source community. We actively contribute to, and ideally sponsor, open source projects that we rely on.
We adapt quickly to a rapidly evolving world. We engineer our solutions to avoid lock-in to vendors or platforms. We build solutions that allow you to migrate away from us, and we demonstrate why you should stay.
We do not work with clients or on projects that are exploitative, extractive, or harmful to people or planet, anywhere in the world. Where possible, we avoid financially supporting any organisation engaged in or complicit in the climate crisis, human rights violations, armed conflict, or other forms of harm. We hold a clear political position, but are not affiliated or aligned with any political party.
Our founder is the technical and ideological driving force behind branchLeft.
With a first-class Computer Science MEng from the University of Warwick, and over a decade of experience in software engineering and technical project management, they bring a combination of breadth and depth of expertise to every project.
Robert's experience ranges from the bleeding-edge of emerging AI technology, to highly-regulated industries such as medicines and insurance, to large-scale enterprise and customer-facing systems.
We're building a platform to support journalists reporting on local issues in the UK. Not just hosting and CMS; we're building a professional and technical ecosystem to get high-quality reporting to every county and ward. Whether you're an established outlet, looking to grow your viewership, looking to build sustainable revenue, or just starting out, we've got the expertise you need.
Leveraging Robert's expertise, we can bring anything from the simplest to the most ambitious vision to life. What technology do you want to build to change the world for the better?
