Investors | PRIVATEHIDE

01 Opportunity and market

The cameras are here. The kit isn't.

The Met ran live facial recognition 231 times in 2025 and scanned about 4 million faces.[1] Its fixed cameras in Croydon saw more than 470,000 people in a six month pilot.[41] Retail is following: Sainsbury's is putting Facewatch into more than 200 stores by the end of 2026,[5] and Facewatch says it logged a record 55,462 alerts across more than 125 retailers in May 2026.[44] Most of the public is fine with it. Polls put opposition between 11% and 28%.[6][7][8] That minority is our market, and in London it's big.

Our customer is a Londoner aged 25 to 40 who buys streetwear and cares who's looking. We see three groups: privacy natives, security professionals and style-led buyers who like the story. None of these groups has been tested with real customers yet. The waitlist and survey before Gate G1 are how we find out.

Sizing

Measure	Figure	Basis
London, aged 18 to 44	3,922,781	ONS mid-2024[26]
Core London segment	~392,000	The 10% who strongly oppose police facial recognition (midpoint of 8% to 13%)[7][8]
UK, aged 18 to 44	24,442,010	ONS mid-2024; about 2.44m on the same 10% basis[26]
UK daily VPN users	~900,000	Ofcom, November 2025. About 120,000 Londoners on a population share.[23] Newer Ofcom research, reported July 2026, puts it near 2.2m. Sizing keeps the plan's figure.[48]
Realistic core	100k to 400k	Londoners, allowing for overlap between the two measures
Customers by end of 2029	1,481	0.4% of the London core segment

For context: UK sunglasses alone are worth about US$1.28bn (about £0.95bn) a year.[25] GrapheneOS has about 400,000 users worldwide.[21] Zenni launched an infrared lens coating in July 2025,[14] the Guardian asked in July 2026 whether anti-camera clothing is going mainstream,[15] and Proton saw UK signups jump 1,200% after age checks began.[24]

Competition

Who	What	Price
Reflectacles	IR-blocking frames, US	$148 to $228[12]
Solir	IR-blocking sunglasses	$70 to $100[10]
Zenni ID Guard	IR-reflective lens add-on	$14.95[13]
Cap_able	Adversarial-pattern garments, Italy	EUR 127 to EUR 670[17]
Urban Privacy	Anti-camera tees and hoodies	From EUR 35[16]
ISHU	Anti-flash scarves	From £350[18]
UK GrapheneOS resellers	Pixel with GrapheneOS	~£450 to £800[20]
Represent	UK streetwear benchmark	Tees £90 to £110, hoodies £110 to £160[19]

Much of this category is oversold. IPVM tested Solir's IR-blocking glasses against five video face recognition systems, and all five still identified the wearer, the same result as $25 drugstore sunglasses. The glasses did block iPhone Face ID.[10] We sell what the tests support and nothing more.

We have no patents and no cost advantage. A lens coating is easy to copy. What's hard to copy is a brand people trust and want to wear, so that's what we're building.

02 Product line

Clothes pay the rent. Eyewear makes the margin.

Line	Price inc VAT	Launch	Role
London-Proof tee / hoodie	£45 / £95	March 2027	Brand and first sales. Designed to be slash-resistant and stab-resistant: Kevlar 29 or Dyneema cut-resistant lining, ISO 13997 level F target (30 N), removable panel to a Home Office KR1 target (24 J).[35][36][37][38][40] Design targets. Tested before launch, results published.
Faraday sleeve	£29	March 2027	Low-cost entry product. Call-tested per batch.
Eclipse sunglasses	£139	June 2027	Hero product. About £100 contribution a pair.
GrapheneOS phone	£549	January 2028	Made to order, no stock held. Capped to protect founder hours.

What the eyewear does and doesn't do

Infrared-blocking lenses are aimed at systems that use infrared, like Face ID on a phone and IR night cameras. In IPVM's test they blocked iPhone Face ID but gave no advantage over ordinary sunglasses against video face recognition.[10] The Met's system runs NEC NeoFace on standard cameras.[11] So we never claim to beat police cameras. That's honest, and it's also the law: the CMA can now fine up to 10% of turnover or £300,000 for misleading claims.[27]

Specs are design targets until the lab says otherwise: at least 95% near-infrared blocking from 780 to 1,100 nm for the lenses, and at least 60 dB from 0.7 to 6 GHz for the sleeve. Results get published.

What London-Proof does and doesn't do

The range is designed to be slash-resistant and stab-resistant, as everyday city protection. Two tests, two jobs. Slash resistance comes from a cut-resistant knit across the torso: Kevlar 29, the aramid grade used in cut-resistant protective apparel,[35] or Dyneema UHMWPE, which reaches ISO 13997 levels E and F only with reinforcement.[36] The target is ISO 13997 level F, meaning at least 30 N to cut through.[37][38]

ISO 13997 tests edges, not points.[37] So stab resistance needs a removable panel, targeting KR1, the base level of the Home Office Body Armour Standard, tested at 24 J.[39][40]

These are design targets. Tested before launch, results published. Until a lab report says it passed, we won't call any garment certified, and we'll never call it slash-proof or stab-proof. Nothing makes the wearer invulnerable.

Cost note: the model costs London-Proof as standard heavyweight garments (£16.50 tee and £33.50 hoodie landed). The lining and panel aren't in those figures. Their cost, and any effect on price and margin: TBC

The PRIVATEHIDE name is to be filed as a UK trade mark in four classes (9, 18, 25 and 35) before launch.

03 Why now

2026 is when it got real.

Scanning is speeding up. The Met scanned 1.7 million more faces between January and April 2026.[2]
Fixed cameras are live. In the Met's six month Croydon pilot, more than 470,000 people walked past. The Met reports 173 arrests, one every 35 minutes, and one false alert.[41]
Central London is next. The West End and Soho by the end of 2026, other parts of London next year. The Met cites more than 2,000 arrests since the start of 2024. Liberty wants a pause until there's a legal framework.[3][4][42]
It's going national. The government wants every police force using live facial recognition, with 40 new vans announced for town centres.[43]
Shops are wiring in the police. Facewatch says it works with more than 125 retailers and logged a record 55,462 alerts in May 2026. It plans police alerts this autumn, sent in about four seconds on average. These are company figures.[44][45] Civil liberties groups call it a dangerous escalation, and Liberty calls it an "untested, opaque development".[46] Sainsbury's is still rolling out to more than 200 stores.[5]
The law hasn't caught up. The Home Office consultation ran from 4 December 2025 to 12 February 2026, and the government is still analysing feedback.[9] Police use today rests on "common law powers and a patchwork of equalities, human rights and data protection laws, as well as police guidance".[47]
Big names are testing the water. Zenni launched ID Guard in 2025. The Guardian covered anti-camera clothing in July 2026.[14][15]
People act when it hits home. Ofcom's November 2025 report put UK daily VPN use at about 900,000.[23] Newer Ofcom research, reported in July 2026, puts it at about 2.2 million, against 1.2 million before age checks began.[48] The University of Edinburgh tracked Google searches for VPNs up 147% and online VPN discussion up 145%.[49] The UK ranks 7th in the world for VPN adoption, at 27.48% in 2025, with 18.3 million downloads.[50]

04 Traction and waitlist

Early days. Here's where it stands.

We're pre-launch. We won't dress that up. Where the plan has an open question, you'll see TBC and the target we're working to.

Measure	Now	Target
Website	Live at privatehide.co.uk. No trackers. Waitlist open.	Done
Waitlist subscribers	TBC	400 by February 2027 (Gate G1)
Consent records for marketing email	TBC	Every subscriber
Survey replies	TBC	100 by Gate G1
Customer interviews	TBC	15
Eyewear reservations	TBC	40 by April 2027 (Gate G2)
Sales	None. Pre-launch.	First drop March 2027
Suppliers	Not yet chosen	Eyewear samples February 2027
Incorporation and shareholders	TBC	Limited company before launch
Employer clearance for side business	TBC	In writing before Gate G1
Trade mark	Filing budgeted January 2027	UK classes 9, 18, 25, 35

TBC marks an open question in the plan. We'll replace each one with a real number as it comes in.

05 Go-to-market

Earn it in London first.

Channels

Email. The waitlist is the launch list. No bought lists.
Press. Timed to the news, with lab results to back every claim.
Communities. Privacy, digital rights, security and London streetwear.
Events. Pop-ups and stalls: 4, 6 and 8 a year at about £220 each, taking £600 to £1,100 a time.
Sponsored placements. £250, £650 and £1,100 a month across the three years, at about £0.90 a visit.
Discount codes for partners and repeat customers, tracked by code, not by cookie.

Funnel

	2027	2028	2029
Site visits	21,326	41,585	60,578
Conversion	1.0%	1.3%	1.6%
Web orders	213	541	969
Average order inc VAT	£74	£81	£83
Phones	0	59	110
New customers	192	480	809
Marketing per new customer	£31	£32	£27

Conversion sits well under fashion medians of 2.4% to 3.1% on purpose.[28][29]

Gates. Spend only what the last gate earned.

Gate	When	Pass if	If missed
G1	February 2027	400 subscribers and 100 survey replies	Halve the first drop. At most £450 lost on samples.
G2	April 2027	Samples pass EN ISO 12312-1 and NIR tests; 40 reservations; conversion at least 0.8%	Lose the £2,100 testing fee. No eyewear run.
G3	December 2027	Employer clearance; WEEE take-back scheme joined; warranty advice; 20 names waiting	No phones. That case still makes £2,178 EBITDA in 2028.
G4	Every quarter	Rolling three-month revenue at least 75% of plan	Stop rules: cut stock, marketing and events.

March 2027: London-Proof streetwear and the Faraday sleeve.
June 2027: Eclipse sunglasses, with the lab report published.
January 2028: GrapheneOS phones, made to order.
May 2029: VAT registration, forecast.

06 Unit economics

What each sale leaves behind.

	Tee	Hoodie	Sleeve	Eyewear	Phone
Price inc VAT	£45.00	£95.00	£29.00	£139.00	£549.00
Landed cost	£16.50	£33.50	£7.54	£25.00	£343.50
Card fee	£1.24	£2.34	£0.89	£3.31	£12.33
Packaging and postage	£2.92	£2.92	£2.92	£2.92	£7.00
Contribution, before VAT registration	£21.04	£49.54	£16.14	£102.77	£117.47
Margin	47%	52%	56%	74%	21%
Contribution, after VAT registration	£17.06	£40.63	£13.04	£84.83	£94.67

About 1.33 web orders per customer at about £41 contribution each after VAT registration, so about £54 per customer against £27 of marketing to win one in 2029.
Running costs in 2028 average about £1,950 a month. At about £48 contribution per order before VAT registration, that's covered by roughly 41 web orders a month.

07 Three-year financials

In profit by 2028. Then a choice.

Base case forecast, 2027 to 2029
Base case	2027	2028	2029	3 years
Net revenue	£17,106	£77,162	£124,951	£219,219
Gross profit	£10,578	£36,012	£58,181	£104,771
Gross margin	62%	47%	47%	48%
Contribution	£9,513	£32,107	£51,644	£93,264
Marketing	£5,856	£15,264	£21,688	£42,808
EBITDA	(£8,542)	£8,703	£16,486	£16,647
Profit after tax	(£9,420)	£7,831	£13,121	£11,531
Year-end cash	£7,074	£11,137	£22,460
New customers	192	480	809	1,481

Mar 2028

Monthly break-even

£4,092

Lowest cash, May 2027

£7,808

Loan repaid by December 2029

0

Founder salary in the model

Scenarios

Case	Revenue 2029	EBITDA 2029	Lowest cash
Base	£125.0k	£16.5k	£4,092, May 2027
Downside, no action	£79.3k	(£5.9k)	(£18,848), Nov 2029
Downside, stop rules applied	£69.3k	£13.6k	£880, Dec 2027
Upside	£175.0k	£38.2k	£4,620, Jan 2027

Two numbers worth knowing. Halve organic growth and 2029 EBITDA drops to £3.2k. Buy the full 300-pair eyewear minimum up front and cash goes negative. That's why the first run is about 120 pairs, or refundable pre-orders.

Forecasts from the PRIVATEHIDE financial model, October 2026. Not trading results.

08 Risks

What could go wrong.

Risk	Likelihood	Impact	What we do about it
Demand is lower than planned	Medium	High	Spending tied to gates. Stop rules keep downside cash positive, lowest £880.
Eyewear or London-Proof claims challenged by the ASA, the CMA or the press	Medium	High	Narrow claims only. Lab results and method published. Solicitor reviews all copy.[27]
Brand seen as helping people evade police	Medium	High	Never marketed for protests or evasion. No face-covering products. A know-your-rights card. Calm, factual tone.[31]
Conflict with the founder's employer	Unknown	High	Written clearance before Gate G1. No employer time, contacts or IP.
Founder overload	Medium	High	Busiest month uses 89% of available hours. Phones and events capped. Freelance help from 2028.
Eyewear fails testing, or no supplier makes 120 pairs	Medium	Medium	Test two colourways. Fall back to refundable pre-orders for a 300-pair run.[33]
Phone tampering allegation	Low	High	Seven-step preparation. Customers shown how to verify and reinstall. Records kept.[22]
Copycats and price pressure	High	Medium	Compete on design and trust, not lens coating. Eyewear margin absorbs a 30% cost rise.
Data breach at a privacy brand	Low	High	Minimal data, guest checkout, no trackers, two-factor sign-in everywhere, ICO registered.

Demand, claims and reputation are the big three. One habit covers them: prove it first, then spend.

09 Team

One founder. Gaps named.

Founder

Maximilian Enthoven

Works full time in cybersecurity sales and puts 14 to 16 hours a week into PRIVATEHIDE. Selling security means explaining risks people can't see without scaring them off. That's the whole brand, done in public.

Built and launched privatehide.co.uk: tracker-free, waitlist open, almost no cost.

Wider background: TBC

A solo founder with a day job is the biggest weakness in this plan. It's designed around that, not hidden: staggered launches, capped phones, a hard limit of 16 hours a week, and freelance help in 2028 before volumes need it. Every process is written down, and accounts sit in the company's name with a trusted second person holding emergency access.

How the gaps get filled

Gap	Filled by	When
Garment production	UK blank supplier and printer; streetwear adviser	Before G1
Optics and compliance	UK test lab; optical trade adviser	Before G2
Legal and claims	Fixed-fee consumer and product law solicitor, £1,200	Feb 2027
Finance and tax	Fixed-fee accountant, £1,200 a year	From launch
Mentoring	12 months free with the Start Up Loan[30]	From Feb 2027
Packing and service	Freelance, £250 to £600 a month	From Jan 2028

Three advisers wanted by Gate G2: UK streetwear production, optical testing, and finance for a small direct-to-consumer brand. A small fee per session, or 0.25% to 0.5% in options vesting over two years. Advisers signed so far: TBC

10 Investment

No equity round. Not yet.

PRIVATEHIDE isn't selling shares. The launch is funded by the founder, with spending released in stages against the gates. What we want now is introductions and advice. Investors who like the plan can register interest for 2029.

Where the money comes from

Source	£	Terms
Founder capital	6,000	Founder's own money. Final amount TBC
Start Up Loan	15,000	7.5% fixed, five years, about £301 a month. A personal loan, lent on to the company. Comes with 12 months of mentoring.[30]
Total	21,000	Without the loan, cash would bottom out at (£10,007)

What we're asking for now

Introductions to an eyewear maker and a UK optical test lab.
A mentor who has built a UK direct-to-consumer apparel brand.
Press and community introductions in privacy, digital rights and London culture.
Any grant or investment would pay down personal borrowing first, then fund refundable eyewear pre-orders up to the 300-pair minimum. The plan doesn't depend on it.

Use of funds

Use	£
Stock	6,975
Samples and phone kit	1,300
Lab testing	2,100
Legal, set-up and trade mark	1,670
Photography, site and event kit	1,400
Running costs and buffer	7,555
Total	21,000

Money at risk

Point	Cash used	Stock	Loss if stopped
Before G1, end Jan 2027	£1,380	£0	£1,380
Before G2, end Mar 2027	£10,075	£4,112	£8,019
Lowest cash, end May 2027	£16,908	£6,823	£13,497
Before G3, end Nov 2027	£14,016	£2,906	£12,564

Cash position at the end of the month before each gate decision. Loss assumes leftover stock is sold at half its cost.

Terms

None set. There is no round, valuation or instrument on the table. In the first quarter of 2029 the founder chooses between keeping PRIVATEHIDE as a profitable side business, going part time, or raising money and going full time. Any raise would be sized then from the model, to cover about 18 months of founder pay plus working capital for the next lines. SEIS or EIS eligibility: TBC. Structure: TBC

We'd only raise if all four are true:

Net revenue above £8,000 a month for three months in a row. Base case: February 2029.
At least 20% of orders from returning customers.
Eyewear contribution within 10% of the model, with refunds under 7%.
A clear second product to fund: a new eyewear style, a technical outer layer or a bigger phone service.

Paying a £40,000 founder salary needs about £182,000 of net revenue a year. That's above the base case and close to the upside, which is why the founder stays employed through 2029 unless results beat the plan.

Milestones

Milestone	Base case	What comes next
Waitlist validated, Gate G1	February 2027	First drop; Start Up Loan drawn
Tested eyewear on sale	June 2027	Eyewear reorders
First 100 customers	August 2027	Evidence for repeat drops
Monthly break-even	March 2028	Freelance help; phones after G3
£8,000 a month for three months	February 2029	Decision on outside investment
VAT registered	May 2029	More freelance help
1,000 customers	June 2029	Second eyewear style

Interested in 2029?

Register now and you'll get the quarterly gate reviews as they happen, plus first sight of any raise. Or ask for the full plan and financial model.

Register investor interest Request the full plan

Important

This page is not a financial promotion and is not an offer of securities or an invitation to invest. PRIVATEHIDE is not raising equity. The figures are forecasts from our business plan, not trading results, and they may change. Nothing here is financial, legal or tax advice. Take your own advice before making any decision. To see the complete plan and model, request the full plan.

SRC Sources

Sources 1 to 34 as cited in the PRIVATEHIDE business plan v6.0, accessed 13 October 2026. Sources 35 to 40 added for London-Proof, accessed 14 October 2026. Sources 41 to 50 added in the news refresh, accessed 19 October 2026.