About DefenceLens
Who's behind DefenceLens
Simon Bumford
Co-founder and director
Builds and runs the DefenceLens platform and Periscope, its data engine.
Alex Griffiths
Co-founder
Alex has spent his career telling the Armed Forces' story. He spent around 11 years at BFBS Creative, the creative arm of the British Forces Broadcasting Service, before joining Canny Comms, a communications agency that works only in defence, as Client Strategy Director. He brings that hands-on knowledge of how the defence sector buys, communicates and competes to DefenceLens.
LinkedIn profile
DefenceLens is a UK and European defence contract intelligence platform. Its engine, Periscope, sweeps official UK and EU government procurement sources, keeps the notices that matter to the defence and security sector, and follows each requirement from pipeline notice to contract award — including who won and for how much.
Where the data comes from
Everything on DefenceLens comes from official government procurement publications in the UK and Europe. Periscope checks them for new and updated notices every 30 minutes and links every notice back to its official source. We publish what governments publish: we don’t scrape rumours, and we don’t editorialise the record. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. EU data © European Union.
How notices are classified as defence
Generic alert services drown suppliers in irrelevant notices. Periscope weighs every notice against several independent defence signals and scores its relevance before it ever reaches you. Each defence notice shows why it was included, not just that it was. Sources, cadence, coverage and limitations are on the data methodology page.
What DefenceLens is not
DefenceLens is a market intelligence service. It helps suppliers discover public procurement opportunities and understand the market. It does not arrange, broker or facilitate transactions in controlled goods, and it is not affiliated with the Ministry of Defence or the Cabinet Office.
Contact
Use the contact form or email us — we’re a UK-based team and we answer quickly: [email protected]. For pricing and plans, see pricing; to see the data before you spend anything, start a free trial.
Company details
- Raplin Ventures Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company no. 17276917 (Companies House record).
- Registered office: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ.
- UK-hosted: the DefenceLens application and primary customer database run on UK infrastructure. See the security overview.
Become a pilot partner
We're inviting a small number of UK defence suppliers to use DefenceLens on their real bids and tell us plainly what works and what doesn't. Pilot partners get free access to a paid plan during the pilot, in return for feedback and, if you're happy with the result, a short quote we can publish.
Email us about the pilot