Arbolus
Arbolus is an expert network headquartered in London, UK, and Barcelona, Spain, offering everything from one-hour expert calls to multi-month consulting projects, alongside B2B surveys and other data products. In 2026, the company began repositioning itself as a "data-first" business built around a Customer Review Library, alongside a new brand identity.
About Arbolus
Arbolus is an expert network headquartered in London, UK and Barcelona, Spain. Two former AlphaSights managers joined forces to start Arbolus under the name CiQ Group in 2018. The company rebranded as Arbolus in 2019, which is today the client-facing name; it remains owned by Collective IQ Group Ltd. It initially ran an "DIY Marketplace" model, where experts and clients would self-select each other. Over time, the firm shifted to a regular custom recruiting expert network model.
Over the years, Arbolus has increasingly shifted into market research surveys, as an addition to its 1-on-1 expert interviews. This was shown by the appointment of a former Kantar leader as CRO in 2022, and subsequent press releases about B2B data and surveys.
Arbolus is one of the handful of firms that outright state they use AI and machine learning in their work. Much of this technology is common across all larger expert networks. That said, various networks emphasize it more than others in their marketing. These include NewtonX, ProSapient, Techspert.io, and Atheneum.
Arbolus generated revenues of £3.8m (€4.8m) in 2021, and ~£12-15m in 2022, judging by working capital stated in their annual accounts.
Arbolus now lists offices in New York, New Delhi and San José, Costa Rica.
Arbolus's service offering
In 2025, their product offering contained:
Expert interviews
B2B surveys
Canopy - a video survey tool to collect short video replies from multiple experts.
Customer Insights - a database of B2B customers, based on data generated in the expert interview business.
The company initially offered other services (and still does, to some legacy accounts):
DIY tools for clients to recruit and manage their own networks of experts
A platform for keeping records and transcripts of past expert interactions (reminiscent of the Inex One Knowledge Platform)
In early 2026, Arbolus announced it had adopted a new brand identity alongside a broader strategic shift: from an expert network towards a "data-first" business, centered on a Customer Review Library. According to the company, this product moved from concept to a fully automated platform during 2025, with the goal of reaching 1 million reviews across 20,000 software companies by the end of 2026.
This shift also was reflected in their relationship with experts in their new rewards programme: rather than compensation being solely on a per-call basis, the company claims experts increasingly get access to peer insight and aggregate intelligence on similar companies in exchange for contributing their own reviews. They also are compensated for every time a client engages with their reviews.
Arbolus milestones
2018 - Arbous was founded in London, UK, as CiQ Group.
2019 - CiQ rebranded its service as Arbolus.
Early 2020 - Arbolus acquired Waterside, an upstart expert network firm launched the same year. The Waterside founder left the same year and eventually launched the competing expert network Sanibel Group.
Mid-2020 - Announced the company goal to have 1 million advisory relationships between clients and experts by the end of 2021. The company set a bold ambition, which led to the subsequent fundraising.
2021 - Arbolus raised $6m from Fuel Ventures and Plug and Play Ventures on a tech pitch, hiring a CTO the following month. The company has been growing its offices in Barcelona, Spain, keeping a smaller team in London.
2022 - Arbolus raised £12m from Element Ventures with debt funding from Silicon Valley Bank. The funding announcement said the company's revenues had tripled in the last year and doubled the team size to 100. The revenue number is in line with our working capital analysis above. In the 2022 annual accounts, we see that the loan component was £2.5m, while ~£7.5m equity was injected. £2m was not shown in the accounts, which means it may have been a convertible, a non-cash component, or a delayed (milestone-dependent) equity component.
Mid 2022 - Arbolus expanded its operations into Asia, opening an office in Gurgaon, India.
April 2024 - Arbolus appointed a new Chair, a former EY Managing Partner, setting the stage for its 2024 growth round.
November 2024 - Arbolus raised $20m from Kayne Anderson, Composition Capital, and other investors.
January 2025 - Arbolus started hiring for a team in a new Costa Rica office to serve clients in the US.
March 2025 - Arbolus' VC investor Fuel Ventures sold about half its holding, having generated a ~6x return in 4 years.
May 2025 - Arbolus announced a new senior appointment to its commercial leadership team. Around the same time, the company was named to the Financial Times' "Europe's Fastest Growing Companies" list and Sifted's "100 Fastest Growing Startups" in the UK and Ireland for the year.
Early 2026 - Arbolus adopted a new brand identity alongside a strategic shift toward positioning itself as a "data-first" business, built around its Customer Review Library Product.
FAQ
What does Arbolus specialize in? Arbolus specializes in expert interviews and B2B surveys, increasingly supplemented by data products like Canopy (video survey responses) and Customer Insights (a B2B customer database), for consulting firms and private equity investors.
Is Arbolus available on Inex One? No - Arbolus is not part of the Inex One marketplace.
Looking for expert network options? Explore active partners on the Inex One marketplace.
