Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 10.09.2025 
Format 3 are an ambitious agency delivering more than the usual service provider, read their story below.
Founded in 2023 by self-made entrepreneur, Hardy Sidhu, Format-3 is living proof that digital agencies can be so much more than service providers.
The studio’s ambition is simple: to move beyond mere transaction and serve as a true catalyst for lasting change. This is achieved through the company’s positioning, not as an agency but as an innovation partner, embedding into clients’ teams to accelerate growth through the co-creation of genuinely valuable ideas and products.
Each and every member of the Format-3 team shares this philosophy, delving deep into client industries and operations to create maximum transformational value for the businesses served. Strong, non-hierarchical relationships are central to the trust required to build the lasting value that Format-3 offers – with the studio’s ability to spark sustainable success over fleeting quick wins seeing it shortlisted for two categories of this year’s UK Agency Awards.
In the running for both Digital Agency of the Year (Small) and B2B Agency of the Year (Small) after just two short years, this is a remarkable feat for the team of 20 – standing testament, not only to its commercial and reputational success, but also to its achievements redefining how B2B agencies work.
A different kind of digital
Format-3 has committed to challenging the traditional ways of agency working from day one. Rather than delivering ready-made solutions from a distance, the studio fosters real closeness with its clients, allowing it to move beyond mere creation and delivery of digital products to position itself as a driver of genuine innovation.
This means asking the difficult questions and organising intensive residential thinktanks that bring both teams together, in order to spark ideas that would otherwise stay hidden. The result is not just a functional app, platform, or strategy that will suffice in the short-term, but a foundation for sustainable growth and market disruption moving forward. It’s all about shaking things up from the inside out.
As Format-3’s founder, Hardy Sidhu, puts it: “We’re not just chasing growth but building something truly impactful. It’s great to be recognised for the unique way we’re doing things in this shortlisting, which we’re also taking as a positive sign that there’s growing appetite for change across all industries. I couldn’t be prouder to be leading it”.
Scaling without shortcuts
For Format-3, success has never been about short-term wins or vanity metrics. Instead, the focus remains firmly on delivering transformational value for each B2B client. The company has already produced some outstanding results across healthcare, SaaS and gaming, to name a few examples, with UK Agency Awards judges particularly impressed by its work with TripleKey, where a co-creation retreat organised by the studio generated go-to-market strategy that secured several key national healthcare partnerships – plus Series B funding – for the client. This is what it truly means to go above and beyond.
Collaborations with the Natural History Museum and Accenture-backed startups also stand out. Format-3 has successfully repositioned the many digital platform offerings to drive high-profile recognition and presence, opening doors to new market opportunities and quality investment. Its collaborative design processes have sparked new industry partnerships, accelerating clients’ future trajectories, as well.
These successes reflect the studio’s key unique selling point: the ability to blend world-class digital expertise with a collaborative working style that empowers clients to grow from idea-stage to market leader status.
Success that speaks volumes
The commercial numbers tell an equally impressive story, with forecast turnover rising to the millions in year two. The company has also expanded into London, Nashville and Dubai in this short time, extending its global reach as the team has scaled from three to twenty members, without once losing its culture of pure hard work, talent, dedication, and collaboration. This has remained the case, even as the company adds new streams of widely recognised, world-leading companies to its list of loyal clients.
Impact extends far beyond the books, however. Format-3 has also made it a priority to support as many startups and SMEs as it can, striving to bring as many socially valuable concepts as it can into fruition. It recognises the disparity that exists for businesses just getting started and wants to see more disruptive value introduced to key markets, rather than sitting back and allowing genuinely helpful concepts to fall to the wayside, simply because founders may lack the resources of large corporates.
Serving as both an incubator and accelerator for smaller clients, Format-3 brings access, funding, and hands-on expertise to the table to ensure promise no longer languishes in notebooks, instead, making it to market where innovations can change lives.
Hardy’s personal ambitions for the future take things one step further. The budding CEO and Founder – only just turned 30 – has pledged to reinvest profits into initiatives that help young people and disadvantaged communities the world over build digital skills, ensuring Format-3’s growth creates opportunities beyond business.
Accelerating the future
In less than two years, Format-3 has guided startups from seed to Series A, B, and C funding, won multiple industry accolades – including Best New Agency and Startup of the Year (Elite Business), and delivered faster outcomes for the businesses served by integrating AI-assisted prototyping into its processes – slashing development cycles from weeks to hours.
These achievements aren’t about chasing recognition. They’re proof that a new kind of agency model is possible: one that values co-creation over control and impact over fleeting results.
For Hardy and his team, being shortlisted for the UK Agency Awards 2025 forms a milestone in a much larger journey.
As Hardy explains: “For me, it’s about proving that working together and caring about people works. It drives results. For the team, it’s a celebration of creativity, hard work, and belief in the mission, which will hopefully springboard the business, allowing us to continue scaling whilst staying true to who we are and what we do”.
Format-3 has demonstrated that growth and impact, collaboration and innovation, go hand in hand, combining to reshape industries and open doors to change that’s truly meaningful.
“This is only the beginning”, says Hardy, going on to explain that “the future of Format-3 is about using technology to build businesses, products, and skills that matter in ways that best support clients, communities, and wider society”.
With bold ideas, collaborative energy, and a belief in doing things differently, Format-3 is a pioneer in recognising that the future of B2B must not just be built – but redefined.
