Walpole: Tell us about the history of your brand…
Sylvain Langrand: Velocity Black was founded in London in 2014 in response to a clear gap in the luxury market. Luxury consumers were becoming increasingly digital-first, but concierge services were slow, fragmented and reactive. We built Velocity Black to create a new approach to modern luxury services combining proprietary technology with exceptional human expertise across travel, dining, culture and luxury goods to deliver seamless extraordinary personalised service and experiences.
Today, Velocity Black continues to scale globally with members in more than 60 countries. Yet, our core belief remains the same: the greatest luxury isn’t access, it’s creating meaningful memories that stay with you long after the moment has passed.
What is your brand best known for?
Velocity Black is best known for our 24/7 pro-active and hyper-personalised service. Our members don’t come to us just to book – they rely on us to anticipate, curate, and open doors they didn’t know existed, and provide opportunities tailored precisely to their tastes, preferences and lifestyle.
What truly defines us is a unique pairing of deep human expertise with technology built specifically to power the service. Through the app, members receive 24/7 support and a personalised feed of offerings from sold-out cultural moments and hard-to-access dining, to once-in-a-lifetime travel and rare luxury goods. Through a robust line-up of best in class partners like Aston Martin F1, Sotheby’s, Sushi Club and more, Velocity Black is able to unlock truly unique access moments for our members whether that be at an F1 race, front row seats at New York Fashion Week or exclusive entry to the Pyramids at sunrise accompanied by a renowned Egyptologist. We thrive on delivering the unforgettable and exceptional for our members.
What has been a significant achievement in your company’s timeline?
A defining milestone was Velocity Black joining Capital One. Together, we are a powerful force, pairing Velocity Black’s expertise, relationships and access with Capital One’s scale, technology and commitment to premium experiences.
This partnership has enabled us to open new doors for members across travel, dining, entertainment and the arts, while continuing to invest in the technology that makes our service faster, smarter and more personalised. Importantly, it has allowed us to grow without compromising the quality, discretion, and service standards that define the Velocity Black experience.
Why do you love the brand?
Our passion and care for each of our members and the feedback we receive from our work and ability to create these meaningful memories for them. Velocity Black sits at the intersection of culture, white glove service, and tech innovation – that’s what makes it so compelling. Every member interaction is different, and every request presents an opportunity to create something genuinely special for each of our customers.
I’m also very excited about what we are building for our members in leveraging new access, partnerships, and technologies to define the future of luxury customer services in the age of AI and all our team is creating for our members today and tomorrow.
Why does your brand represent the very best in British luxury?
British luxury has always been defined by discretion, intelligence and service. These values sit at the heart of Velocity Black. We focus on quality of experience rather than excess, and relationships rather than transactions.
We also work closely with many of UK’s leading luxury brands, institutions, and services to curate the best of British luxury to all our members worldwide. We also take great pride working with our partners to ensure our members have the chance to experience the very best of British luxury anytime they visit the UK.
As a British-founded brand, we bring a unique sensibility to a global platform: refined, culturally fluent and quietly confident. We respect tradition, but we are built for the future, combining heritage-level service standards with cutting-edge technology. That balance of craftsmanship and innovation is what we believe modern British luxury should represent.
What attracted you to becoming a Walpole member?
Walpole represents the collective voice and future of British luxury, and joining felt like a natural alignment for Velocity Black. We share Walpole’s commitment to excellence, innovation and collaboration as well as its ambition to ensure British luxury continues to lead on a global stage.
As a brand redefining luxury through experience and access, being part of a community that values thought leadership and cross-sector collaboration is incredibly important to us. We see Walpole as a platform not just for connection, but for shaping how British luxury evolves in a rapidly changing world.
If you could collaborate with another Walpole member, which one would you choose and what would you like to do?
We have the chance to work closely with many members of the Walpole community including delivering bespoke co-branded concierge services to their luxury VIP customers (elite benefit). I’m eager to exchange and share ideas with your community of leaders to reflect and help define the best and future of British luxury services. As service platform, there is also great interest from us to provide our services or access to others or create new opportunities and experiences for our customers.
Tell us about an exciting development or new launch for your brand in the coming months?
We’re entering an exciting phase focused on deepening personalisation and expanding culturally relevant access for our members. In the coming months, Velocity Black will be introducing new curated experiences and brand partnerships across travel, entertainment, art and sport – designed to reflect how our members want to live, not just where they want to go.
At the same time, we continue to invest heavily in our proprietary technology using data, preferences and intelligent systems to anticipate needs and create new meaningful memories for each of our customers.
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