Malcolm Seagrave named as hedgehog lab Chief Executive Officer

hedgehog lab has appointed Malcolm Seagrave as Chief Executive Officer, tasking him with expanding the digital product consultancy across the North of England and Scotland.

He steps up after 18 months as managing director of the firm's UK operations, succeeding co-founder Sarat Pediredla, who previously served as CEO.

Pediredla had planned to step down at the end of 2025 as part of what was described as a phased succession plan. He said he wanted time to explore other projects.

hedgehog lab is headquartered in Newcastle and also has operations in Leeds. It has built engineering support teams in Romania and Bulgaria.

Growth plans

The consultancy is targeting £50 million in turnover, an ambition it has linked to hiring "hundreds" of people across the North of England and Scotland. It reported turnover growth of 30% over the past year, with momentum picking up in the second half of 2025.

Expansion has included a stronger presence in Scotland. hedgehog lab operates in Edinburgh and has acquired the city-based innovation consultancy Label Sessions.

Manchester and Glasgow are among potential new locations, but no timeline has been given for additional offices.

hedgehog lab positions itself as a digital product consultancy, with teams working across technology and product development. It has also identified artificial intelligence work as a growing part of its activity.

Track record

Seagrave has held senior roles at several UK digital and technology services businesses. He led BJSS through growth from 140 people to 1,400 before its sale to CGI, and worked at AND Digital, where he headed its Northern operation as the company grew from 170 to 1,500 people.

Earlier in his career, he held innovation roles at Vodafone and Morrisons.

The appointment follows investment secured in 2023 from BGF, which describes itself as the UK and Ireland's most active growth capital investor. hedgehog lab said the funding supports its UK and international expansion plans.

The company has not disclosed the size of the investment. The backing places it among BGF portfolio companies that typically use capital for hiring, acquisitions and market entry. The acquisition of Label Sessions is one of the most visible steps since that funding round.

B Corp status

hedgehog lab has also gained B Corp accreditation and said it is committing a percentage of its revenue to impact initiatives.

It described those initiatives as a mix of volunteering, pro-bono and discounted work, alongside collaboration with impact-focused clients. It linked the work to its role in the local communities where it operates.

Seagrave said culture and workforce plans would remain central to the next phase of growth.

"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."