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Scaling Local Spending into a Global Digital Platform

Six years of partnership with Miconex to scale a platform powering millions in local spending across the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada.

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March 23, 2026

Overview

Miconex is the leading provider of Town and City Gift Card programmes across the UK, helping local economies thrive by keeping spend within communities.

Over a six-year partnership, Bravand has worked closely with Miconex to design, build, and scale the technology that powers these programmes - supporting millions in local spending and enabling national growth.

The Challenge

As demand for Town and City Gift Cards accelerated, Miconex faced the challenge of scaling a successful UK model into a robust global platform.

The existing ecosystem needed to evolve to:

  • Support rapid onboarding of new towns and cities
  • Handle increasing transaction volumes and programme complexity
  • Provide better tools for programme management and reporting
  • Deliver a seamless experience for consumers, businesses, and corporate buyers

Miconex needed a long-term technology partner who could continuously adapt the platform as the business grew.

Scaling a product like this isn’t a one-off build - it requires ongoing iteration, optimisation and technical partnership.

If you’re facing similar challenges, we’d love to help.

The Solution

Bravand partnered with Miconex to iteratively design and develop a scalable, flexible platform that could support global expansion.

This builds on the early platform foundations we created with Miconex, evolving a local solution into a globally scalable product.

What we delivered

  • Scalable platform architecture supporting multi-region growth
  • Consumer and corporate purchasing journeys
  • Mobile apps for digital gift card redemption
  • Reporting and analytics infrastructure
  • Continuous optimisation and feature development

A scalable platform for growth

We evolved the core platform architecture to support:

  • Multiple concurrent Town and City Gift Card programmes
  • Increasing transaction volumes across physical and digital channels
  • Flexible configuration for different local authority and BID requirements
  • Continuous product development

Rather than a one-off build, the partnership focused on continuous improvement:

  • Regular feature enhancements driven by real programme needs
  • Iterative UX improvements for both consumers and administrators
  • Ongoing optimisation to improve performance and reliability
  • Tools for programme success

We developed systems that enable Miconex and its partners to operate effectively at scale:

  • Programme management tools for launching and running new schemes
  • Enhanced reporting and analytics capabilities, enabling Miconex and its partners to track performance and demonstrate local economic impact.
  • Integration with payment systems and fulfilment processes
  • Supporting corporate and public sector demand

As corporate and government-funded initiatives grew, the platform evolved to corporate gifting at scale, with tools for bulk purchasing, fulfilment and large-scale distribution:

  • Large-scale distribution campaigns
  • Bulk purchasing and fulfilment
  • Secure and efficient handling of high-value transactions
‍£24m+ in sales.
60% year-on-year growth.
200+ programmes delivered.

The Impact

Over six years, the partnership has enabled Miconex to scale from individual local schemes to a global platform now supporting programmes across the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada.

Measurable outcomes

  • Millions of pounds retained and spent within local economies
  • Thousands of participating businesses supported across the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada
  • Rapid rollout of new programmes in towns and cities across territories

Proven at scale

The platform has successfully supported:

  • Large public sector funding initiatives
  • High-volume seasonal campaigns
  • Ongoing day-to-day transactions across multiple regions

Long-term partnership value

By working as an embedded technology partner, Bravand has helped Miconex:

  • Continuously evolve its product offering
  • Respond quickly to new opportunities and market demands
  • Build a resilient, future-proof platform for continued growth

You can read more about the journey in our blog on scaling Town and City Gift Cards over six years.

Conclusion

What began as a platform to support local gift card schemes has grown into a global infrastructure for community spending.

Through a six-year partnership, Bravand has enabled Miconex to scale confidently - supporting local economies, empowering businesses, and delivering measurable impact across the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada.

Let’s build something that scales

Scaling a digital product takes more than a launch - it takes the right technology, the right thinking, and the right partner.

If you’re looking to grow a platform, expand into new markets, or handle increasing demand, we’d love to help.

Start a conversation:

UI system for Town and City Gift Cards showing scalable platform infrastructure supporting multiple programmes, transactions and user journeys across a global network.Town and City Gift Card platform across laptop and mobile devices, showing customer journeys from purchase to redemption across a seamless multi-device experience.Town and City Gift Card platform expanding across the UK, Ireland, Canada and USA, highlighting international scalability and adoption across multiple regions.
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