Bath software pioneer Zynstra has been acquired by a major US tech firm for £100m in a move that will put its products on the global market.
The sale, to global enterprise technology company NCR Corporation, is the second multi-million pound disposal by the founders of Zynstra who were previously the team behind innovative Bath telecom tech group Cramer Systems. 
Ten years after launching Cramer in 1996 they sold it to US-based international specialist software group Amdocs for $425m (£325m at current exchange rates).
They went on to launch Zynstra, which has developed innovative ‘edge virtualisation’ software that helps retailers strengthen customer and employee experiences and reduce costs.
NCR and Zynstra have worked together for several years and a year ago launched the NCR Software Defined Store.
NCR describes the unique, subscription-based virtualisation system as one of the critical pillars of its next-generation store architecture for the retail and hospitality industries.
By virtualising back and front office technology, businesses can make significant hardware cost savings. Devices can be used for a number of tasks, changing with a simple swipe from a point-of-sale terminal to an inventory management console.
Research among hundreds of users of NCR Software Defined Store showed an average of 164% return on investment through store virtualisation.
Zynstra co-founder and CEO Nick East said: “At Zynstra we’ve built a world-class capability that we know can make a significant difference for our clients.
“When we started to work with NCR, we realised that our combined strengths made for an unmatched service, with a global reach. I am personally very excited about what it means for our customers and our team and am looking forward to leading the acceleration of our vision for the market.”
NCR president and chief executive officer Michael D. Hayford added: “This acquisition is another demonstration of our strategy to acquire new companies to enhance product capabilities and extend our leadership in the vertical industries we serve.
“The addition of Zynstra’s virtualization technology to our software stack gives NCR even more solutions to help our customers run their store or restaurant end to end.”
One major US company using Zynstra’s products is Pilot Flying J, the largest operator of truck stops in North America.
Its chief information officer Mike Rodgers said: “We’ve worked closely with the NCR and Zynstra teams and have first-hand experience of their complementary technology and ability to deliver together.
“Software Defined Store is strategic for us, virtualizes all our in-store systems and is delivering a great return on investment. This combination makes sense and we’re excited about what’s coming.”
The Zynstra acquisition was NCR’s first in the UK.
On Zynstra’s board with Nick East, who was an early employee of Cramer, are co-founder and CTO Brian Buggy, who was Cramer’s first employee, non-executive chairman Jon Craton, who co-founded Cramer and was its CEO, and non-executive director Don Gibson, another co-founder Cramer.
As its CTO, Don was instrumental in driving the thought leadership behind Cramer’s success, changing the way service providers perceived, managed and provisioned their network resources.
Atlanta-headquartered NCR’s systems help businesses compete in an evolving landscape of physical and digital consumers by providing advisory and consulting services, hardware/software, payments, support and managed services.
