Key Points
- Manchester-based technology company Vivify has acquired London-based imin to expand its digital services for finding and booking sports and physical activities.
- The acquisition will help Vivify move beyond its existing school facilities management operations into a broader technology platform serving the sports, leisure and community sectors.
- Founded in 2020, Vivify works with more than 6,000 facilities across the UK, helping schools make sports halls, pitches and other facilities available to local communities outside school hours.
- London-based imin was founded in 2014 and specialises in technology that helps people discover and book physical activities.
- imin co-created OpenActive, the Sport England-backed open data standard designed to improve access to information about physical activity opportunities.
- imin’s technology supports activity discovery and booking across different websites and applications, including Decathlon, LTA Play and ParalympicsGB’s Every Body Moves finder.
- The financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
- The combined business will offer five main solutions: timetable and instant checkout, smart timetable, marketplace, smart insights and school facility management.
- Vivify intends to create a connected marketplace that brings together opportunities available through schools, leisure centres and community organisations.
- The acquisition will allow schools to promote facilities, manage community bookings and generate additional income.
- Leisure operators and local authorities will gain opportunities to reach wider audiences, understand customer demand and increase participation.
- The technology will work alongside existing booking systems rather than replace them.
- imin’s existing team will join Vivify, while its current platform will continue serving customers and partners.
- imin co-founder Nick Evans has been appointed chief product technology officer at Vivify.
- Evans will lead product and technology strategy, including booking, marketplace and data intelligence solutions.
- Vivify founder and chief executive Russell Teale said the acquisition would combine physical infrastructure, technology and intelligence to improve access to community activities.
- Vivify is backed by Arête and William Currie Group.
Why Has Vivify Acquired London-Based imin?
Manchester-based technology company Vivify has acquired London-based physical activity technology business imin as part of an expansion strategy aimed at making sports and leisure activities easier to discover and book across the UK. Announced on 9 November 2026, the acquisition brings together Vivify’s established network of more than 6,000 school and community facilities with imin’s digital technology for finding, promoting and booking physical activities. The transaction marks an important development in Vivify’s business strategy as it moves beyond school facilities management towards a wider technology platform serving schools, leisure operators, local authorities and community organisations. Although the financial terms have not been disclosed, the combined business plans to introduce five connected technology solutions covering booking, timetables, marketplaces, data insights and school facility management.
As reported by Chris Maguire of BusinessCloud, the acquisition is intended to improve how people access sports and physical activities by bringing together two businesses with complementary capabilities.
Founded in 2020, Vivify has developed its business around helping schools make better use of their facilities outside normal teaching hours. Its network includes sports halls, outdoor pitches and other spaces that can be made available to local communities.
The acquisition of imin will extend this model by adding technology that helps people identify available activities and make bookings through connected digital platforms.
Rather than concentrating exclusively on the management and availability of school facilities, Vivify will be able to offer a broader range of services to organisations involved in sport, leisure and community activity.
The transaction also represents a combination of physical infrastructure and digital technology. Vivify brings relationships with schools and facility operators, while imin contributes its experience in activity discovery, data sharing and booking technology.
The companies intend to use these complementary capabilities to make existing sports and leisure opportunities more accessible.
What Do Vivify and imin Do?
Vivify and imin operate in related areas of the physical activity and leisure technology market, although their original business models have different focuses.
Founded in 2020, Vivify works with schools and other facility providers to make underused spaces available to local communities.
Many educational establishments have sports halls, pitches and other facilities that are not fully utilised outside school hours. Vivify helps these institutions make their spaces accessible to sports clubs, community groups and individuals.
According to BusinessCloud, the company currently works with more than 6,000 facilities across the UK.
Its existing services focus on school facilities management, community access and the commercial use of available spaces.
The acquisition provides an opportunity to extend those services through a wider digital platform.
London-based imin, meanwhile, was founded in 2014 and specialises in physical activity technology.
Its platform helps people discover and book activities by connecting information about available sessions and facilities across different digital channels.
The business has also played a role in developing open data infrastructure for the physical activity sector.
In particular, imin co-created OpenActive, a Sport England-backed open data standard designed to make information about physical activity opportunities more accessible.
This technology enables information about activities and facilities to be shared across different websites and applications, making it easier for people to find opportunities without relying on a single booking platform.
The combination of these capabilities gives Vivify an opportunity to connect the physical facilities it already supports with a wider network of digital activity discovery and booking services.
How Will the Acquisition Change Vivify’s Business Strategy?
The acquisition represents a shift in Vivify’s longer-term business direction.
Until now, the company’s central focus has been helping schools and educational institutions make their facilities available to communities outside normal teaching hours.
The addition of imin’s technology will allow Vivify to serve a broader range of organisations and expand its position in the physical activity technology market.
According to BusinessCloud’s report, the combined business intends to offer services to schools, leisure operators, local authorities and community groups.
This expansion could give Vivify access to organisations that operate outside the traditional school facilities market.
For example, leisure operators could use the platform to promote activities and make available sessions easier to discover. Local authorities could use the technology to improve visibility of community sports opportunities and understand participation patterns.
Schools, meanwhile, could benefit from additional digital tools for promoting their facilities, managing bookings and generating revenue from spaces that might otherwise remain unused outside school hours.
Vivify founder and chief executive Russell Teale explained that the company was established around the idea that communities already have physical spaces and opportunities for activity, but people do not always find them easily.
He said the acquisition would extend the company’s existing work with schools by bringing together physical infrastructure, technology and data intelligence.
Teale also emphasised that the transaction was not simply about introducing additional products. The wider ambition is to establish a more connected system in which schools, leisure centres and activity providers can benefit from improved visibility, facility utilisation and participation.
His comments indicate that Vivify wants to develop a broader role in the community activity ecosystem rather than remain focused solely on the management of school facilities.
What Five Technology Solutions Will the Combined Business Offer?
The acquisition will bring together Vivify’s school facility management capabilities and imin’s activity discovery and booking technology.
According to BusinessCloud, the combined business plans to provide five principal solutions.
1. Timetable and Instant Checkout
The timetable and instant checkout solution will bring activity availability and booking functionality together.
This is intended to make it easier for people to identify suitable activities and complete bookings through a streamlined digital process.
For facility operators, a more accessible booking experience could help reduce barriers between available sessions and potential customers.
2. Smart Timetable
The smart timetable solution will form another part of the combined technology offering.
It is designed to support the organisation and presentation of available activities and facility schedules.
By making timetable information easier to access, the platform aims to improve the way organisations communicate availability to their audiences.
3. Marketplace
The marketplace solution is central to Vivify’s ambition to connect different physical activity providers.
Currently, opportunities available through schools, leisure centres and community organisations can be spread across separate websites and booking systems.
A connected marketplace could make it easier for people to discover different activities through a more integrated digital experience.
4. Smart Insights
Smart insights will provide a data-focused element to the combined offering.
The solution is intended to help organisations better understand customer demand and identify opportunities to improve the use of their facilities.
For schools, leisure operators and local authorities, information about activity demand and facility utilisation can support decisions about scheduling, promotion and resource allocation.
5. School Facility Management
The fifth solution will build on Vivify’s existing business.
School facility management supports educational institutions in making their facilities available to local communities and managing the associated bookings.
The addition of imin’s technology will allow this existing service to operate alongside a wider range of activity discovery and marketplace capabilities.
Together, the five solutions are intended to provide a more integrated service for organisations involved in delivering sports and physical activities.
How Will the Connected Marketplace Help Schools and Leisure Operators?
One of the main objectives behind the acquisition is to address the fragmented nature of the physical activity booking market.
Sports and leisure opportunities are often advertised and managed through different platforms, websites and organisational systems.
Someone looking for a sports activity might need to visit several websites to identify available sessions, compare locations and complete a booking.
The combined Vivify and imin platform aims to make this process easier by bringing information about different opportunities into a more connected environment.
For schools, the expanded technology offering will provide additional ways to promote their facilities and manage community bookings.
This could help educational institutions make better use of sports halls, pitches and other available spaces while generating additional income.
For leisure operators, the platform is intended to improve access to potential customers and provide greater visibility of their activities.
Local authorities could also benefit from technology that helps them reach wider audiences, understand demand for different activities and identify opportunities to increase community participation.
Russell Teale highlighted the importance of connecting these different organisations rather than treating them as separate providers.
The company’s ambition is to help more organisations make their facilities and activities visible to people who might otherwise struggle to find them.
The marketplace is therefore intended to address both the discovery and accessibility challenges associated with physical activity.
Will imin’s Existing Platform Continue Operating After the Acquisition?
The acquisition will not result in the immediate withdrawal of imin’s existing technology platform.
BusinessCloud reported that imin’s team will join Vivify as part of the transaction, while its existing platform will continue serving customers and partners.
This arrangement is significant because it allows the combined business to retain the technology and relationships that imin has developed over more than a decade.
The continuation of the platform also provides an opportunity to develop additional services without immediately disrupting existing users.
For customers and partners already relying on imin’s technology, maintaining the existing platform offers continuity while the wider business works towards integrating its capabilities with Vivify’s services.
The acquisition is therefore intended to build on imin’s established technology rather than simply replace its existing products.
Who Is Nick Evans and What Will His New Role Involve?
The acquisition also brings a leadership development, with Nick Evans, co-founder of imin, appointed chief product technology officer at Vivify.
Evans will take responsibility for the company’s product and technology strategy.
His remit will include the development of booking solutions, marketplace services and data intelligence capabilities.
His appointment provides continuity between imin’s original technology development and the combined business’s future product direction.
As co-founder, Evans has been involved in developing imin’s approach to making physical activity opportunities easier to discover and book.
His experience with leisure organisations, national governing bodies and grassroots groups is relevant to Vivify’s ambition to expand beyond school facilities management.
In comments reported by Chris Maguire of BusinessCloud, Evans explained that imin began with the objective of encouraging more people to engage with health and community activities through physical activity.
He highlighted the company’s work with leisure organisations, national governing bodies and grassroots organisations to make activity information more accessible.
Evans also pointed to the similarities between the two businesses.
While imin focused on opening up information about activities, Vivify developed its network by helping schools make sports halls, pitches and studios available to surrounding communities.
He explained that combining the two areas of expertise could create a more powerful service.
For residents, the proposed benefit is a more convenient way to discover activities ranging from leisure centre classes to sports sessions taking place in school facilities.
For partners and local authorities, the acquisition will provide access to a larger team and additional opportunities for technology development.
Evans will lead the work required to develop these capabilities as Vivify expands its digital offering.
What Is OpenActive and Why Is It Important to imin’s Technology?
One of the significant elements of imin’s background is its involvement in developing OpenActive.
Founded in 2014, imin co-created this Sport England-backed open data standard for physical activity.
Open data standards help different digital systems share information in a consistent format. In the physical activity sector, this can make it easier for websites, applications and other services to access information about available sessions and facilities.
Without connected information systems, activity providers may have to manage separate listings and booking processes across multiple digital channels.
This can make it more difficult for customers to identify suitable opportunities and for providers to reach wider audiences.
imin’s technology has been designed to improve the sharing and discovery of information across different platforms.
BusinessCloud identified several services that use the technology, including Decathlon, LTA Play and ParalympicsGB’s Every Body Moves finder.
These examples demonstrate how activity information can be made available through different digital channels rather than being restricted to an individual provider’s website.
For Vivify, acquiring this technology adds an established digital capability to its existing network of physical facilities.
The combination could help connect activity providers with people searching for opportunities across different locations and organisations.
It also creates opportunities to develop further services around booking, marketplace functionality and data intelligence.
Will Vivify Replace Existing Booking Systems?
The combined technology is designed to work alongside existing booking systems rather than replace them.
This is an important distinction for organisations that already use digital systems to manage their facilities, customers and activities.
Schools, leisure operators and local authorities may have established booking processes that support their daily operations.
Replacing these systems could involve additional costs, operational disruption and the need to retrain staff and customers.
By designing the new offering to operate alongside existing platforms, Vivify aims to make its technology accessible without requiring organisations to abandon their current arrangements.
The approach could also make it easier for different organisations to participate in the connected marketplace.
Instead of requiring every provider to adopt one identical system, the technology is intended to improve the visibility and accessibility of opportunities across different existing arrangements.
The success of this approach will depend on how effectively the systems exchange information and support the booking journeys of customers.
However, the stated strategy is to complement existing infrastructure rather than force a complete replacement.
What Is Vivify’s Long-Term Ambition Following the Acquisition?
The acquisition marks another stage in Vivify’s development as it moves towards a wider technology and services model.
Russell Teale said the company wants to become a technology and services partner for organisations seeking to increase participation in physical activity.
He identified schools opening sports halls, leisure operators promoting activities and local authorities encouraging participation as examples of the organisations the business intends to support.
His comments indicate that Vivify’s longer-term ambitions extend beyond managing school facilities.
The company wants to connect different parts of the community activity sector through technology that makes opportunities easier to find and access.
Teale’s stated vision is to increase participation in local communities by reducing the practical difficulties involved in discovering and booking activities.
The acquisition of imin provides additional technology and expertise to support that objective.
Vivify is backed by Arête and William Currie Group, which provide the investor background to the company’s expansion.
Although the financial terms of the imin transaction remain undisclosed, the acquisition represents a strategic investment in expanding the company’s capabilities and potential market reach.
The next stage will involve developing the combined technology offering, integrating the relevant expertise and extending services to a broader range of organisations.
What Does the Vivify-Imin Acquisition Mean for the UK Technology Industry?
The transaction highlights the growing role of digital platforms in connecting physical services with customers.
In the sports and leisure sector, the availability of facilities alone does not necessarily guarantee that people can easily find or book activities.
Information can be distributed across separate organisations, websites and applications, creating challenges for both customers and providers.
Vivify’s acquisition of imin addresses this issue by bringing together a network of physical facilities and technology designed to improve activity discovery and booking.
The development also illustrates how acquisitions can allow technology businesses to expand their capabilities more quickly by combining established platforms, specialist expertise and existing customer relationships.
For Vivify, imin brings experience in open data, digital discovery and booking technology.
For imin, becoming part of a larger business provides access to Vivify’s extensive network of facilities and its relationships with schools and community organisations.
The combined business will now have an opportunity to develop services that address several connected requirements, including facility management, customer access, booking processes and data insights.
These developments are relevant to professionals working across IT and Computer Science, particularly those involved in digital platform development, software integration, information management and technology-led business expansion.
The acquisition also raises important considerations around Management, including technology integration, product strategy, organisational development and the coordination of services across different markets.
Ultimately, the commercial success of the transaction will depend on how effectively Vivify combines the two businesses’ capabilities and translates its wider technology offering into practical benefits for customers and partners.
For now, the acquisition establishes a new direction for Vivify as it seeks to move beyond school facilities management and develop a more connected digital platform for physical activity across the UK.