Skip to main content
Umzi Labs
Software research and product engineering · London

Find out what the software should be before anyone commits to building it.

Umzi Labs is a London software company. We take a product question that nobody has answered yet, put working code against it under real conditions, and hand back the measurement: what held, what broke, and what that means for the build.

Steel dial calipers, a single blank sheet of paper, a brass set square and a graphite pencil laid out on a pale oak workbench, lit by low morning daylight from a window.

Illustrative photograph. It is not our premises and not a record of work delivered.

Registered
England and Wales, 1 March 2026. Company number 17061761.
Classification
SIC 62012, business and domestic software development.
Trading record
None yet. The company is new and this site claims nothing it cannot show.
Availability
Open to first engagements. Written reply within two working days.
The position

Most software is built before the question it answers has been stated precisely enough to test.

Why that costs so much

A team that starts building on an unexamined assumption does not find out it was wrong at the point of writing the code. It finds out months later, in production, with a codebase shaped around the mistake. The expensive part is never the first version. It is the direction the first version locks in.

What we do instead

We spend the first part of an engagement making the question falsifiable, and the second part putting real code in front of it. Sometimes the answer is that the idea does not work in the form proposed. That result is delivered plainly, and it is worth what it costs.

What we take on

Four kinds of work

Described as capabilities the company is set up to deliver, not as a portfolio. Nothing below has a client attached to it, because the company has not traded yet.

Technical feasibility investigation

You have an idea that depends on something being possible: a latency budget, a model that has to be accurate enough, an integration into a system with no usable documentation. We build the smallest thing that would fail if the assumption were false, run it against realistic inputs, and write up what the numbers actually were.

  • Spike builds
  • Benchmarking
  • Written findings

Prototype to decision

A running prototype that real users can hold, built to answer a specific question about behaviour rather than to look finished. We are explicit about what the prototype is not: it is not hardened, not scaled, and not intended to survive into production without a rewrite of the parts that were faked.

  • Working software
  • User sessions
  • Rebuild or stop recommendation

Product engineering to a shipped state

Where a question has already been answered and the decision is to build, we do the build: application development, data model, the deployment path, tests, and the operational instrumentation that tells you whether it is working after we have gone. Delivered as source you own, in your accounts, with a written handover.

  • Web and backend
  • Mobile applications
  • Deployment and observability

Reading an existing codebase

An inherited system that nobody currently on the team wrote. We read it, map what it actually does against what it is believed to do, and produce a written assessment: the parts that are sound, the parts that are load bearing and fragile, and an ordered list of what to address first with an honest estimate of effort.

  • Architecture review
  • Risk register
  • Ordered remediation

Plate 02 Illustrative photograph. Umzi Labs has no published work to show, so this site shows none.

Overhead view of blank white index cards fanned in an arc on a pale concrete surface, beside a graphite pencil, a thin steel rule and a plain glass beaker of water casting a bright caustic shadow.
Method

How an engagement runs

Four stages. Each one ends in something written that you keep, and each one is a point at which you can stop without owing us the next stage.

Stage 01

Frame

A conversation and then a written statement of the question, in a form where a specific result would count as an answer. If we cannot get the question into that shape, we say so and there is no charge.

Stage 02

Scope

A fixed price and a fixed calendar window for the investigation, with the deliverable named. You approve it before any work starts. We do not open ended bill research.

Stage 03

Build and measure

Code written against the question, run under conditions close enough to real to be worth trusting. You get access to the repository throughout, not a reveal at the end.

Stage 04

Report

A written document: what was built, what was measured, what the measurement supports and what it does not, and a recommendation. Including, where it applies, a recommendation not to proceed.

What this site is not claiming

Read this part

Umzi Labs was incorporated on 1 March 2026. A company that new has nothing to point at, and a website is an easy place to imply otherwise. So, plainly:

  • We have no case studies, no client list and no logos, because we have no completed client work to describe.
  • There are no testimonials on this site and no quotes attributed to anyone. Every one of them would have to be invented.
  • We publish no user counts, download figures, revenue, funding or growth numbers. There are none.
  • We hold no ISO 27001 certification, no SOC 2 report and no Cyber Essentials certification, and we have not applied for any of them. If that is a procurement requirement for you, we are not currently a fit and would rather you knew now.
  • We name no individuals anywhere on this site. Officer details for the company are on the public Companies House register under company number 17061761, which is the authoritative source.
  • We claim no awards, no accreditations, no partnerships and no memberships.

Everything on this site that is a matter of public record can be checked against the Companies House register. Everything else is a description of how we intend to work.

The register

The statutory record

Exactly as filed. If any of it does not match the register, the register is right and this page is wrong, and we would like to be told.

Registered name
UMZI LABS LTD
Company number
17061761
Register
Registered in England and Wales at Companies House
Company type
Private limited company
Status
Active
Incorporated
1 March 2026
Registered office
3rd Floor, 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE, England, United Kingdom
SIC code
62012, business and domestic software development
Officers
Officer details are published on the Companies House register for company number 17061761. We do not reproduce personal details here.
VAT registration
[TO CONFIRM: VAT registration number, once the company is registered for VAT]

The registered office is a registered office address. It is not a location that receives visitors, and post sent there is forwarded rather than opened on arrival. For anything time sensitive, email is the faster route.

Getting in touch

One route, and it goes to a person

There is no contact form on this site. A form that posts nowhere is worse than no form, and we would rather you had the address.

Email

Reply within two working days

hello@umzilabs.co.uk

Useful things to include: the question you want answered, what happens if the answer is no, and roughly when you need to know. You do not need a specification. A paragraph is enough to tell us whether we are the right people.

If we are not, we will say so in the reply rather than book a call to say so later.