hedgehog lab names Malcolm Seagrave CEO and targets £50m revenue

Digital product consultancy hedgehog lab has appointed Malcolm Seagrave as CEO as the Newcastle-headquartered business prepares to expand across the North of England and Scotland.

Seagrave joined 18 months ago as managing director for UK operations. He takes over from co-founder Sarat Pediredla, who stepped down as CEO at the end of 2025 in a planned leadership change.

The BGF-backed company said turnover grew 30% last year, with growth picking up in the second half of 2025. It now aims to reach £50m in revenue and create hundreds of jobs in the North and Scotland.

Seagrave has scaled several large digital consultancies before. He grew BJSS from 140 to 1,400 staff before its sale to CGI, and helped expand AND Digital from 170 to 1,500 people while running its Northern operations.

hedgehog lab, which took investment from BGF in 2023, has offices in Newcastle, Leeds and Edinburgh and recently bought Edinburgh innovation consultancy Label Sessions. It also has engineering support teams in Romania and Bulgaria, and has named Manchester and Glasgow as future locations.

Seagrave said: “I’m hugely excited to be taking on the CEO role at hedgehog lab. I’ve scaled digital consultancies before, but this is genuinely unique – the company has built an impeccable culture, a great team, and the integrated offering is a real differentiator. We have all the foundations in place to take this business to another level and now it’s about executing our strategy as a tech company that puts people first.”

“AI is a huge strength for us – it’s built into everything we work on, but pure-play AI technologies represent around 40% of our business, and that is growing. Embedding it in sales, products, and design research is allowing us to make rapid prototypes and dialling up our ability to innovate. We invested heavily in the technology a few years ago, and that decision is beginning to pay off.”

“I’m a big advocate for the North of England and Scotland, helping to grow their economies. Job creation has been a big part of my career and something I really enjoy – the businesses I have scaled have gone on to create hundreds of jobs. I want to do that again with hedgehog lab in the years ahead, giving back to the regions we’re part of through our community initiatives at the same time.”

The company has also gained B Corp accreditation and committed a percentage of revenue to impact work, including volunteering, pro bono projects and partnerships with purpose-led organisations.