Bath financial technology firm Roqqett has been sold to a major national tech-led payment group in a deal worth up to £2.25m just three years after its launch.
Roqqett was founded by Glenn Smith, who previously held senior roles with UBS and Barclays in foreign exchange derivatives followed by more than a decade in tech start-ups, including Bath-headquartered commercial kitchen management system Sure Sense and Cloudfind (now Publisher Discovery), also based in Bath and which aims to revolutionise the way businesses use the cloud.
Roqqett’s platform leverages its team’s significant experience across finance, payments, and disruptive technologies.
The firm is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority as both an AISP (Account Information Service Provider) and PISP (Payment Initiation Service Provider), which means it can perform open banking services, including taking payments and accessing financial data.
As a result, it can disrupt the traditional methodology of consumers paying merchants, both in person and online, via debit and credit cards.
Technology-led international payments group Equals, which has acquired Roqqett, does not hold these licences and said the deal would enable it to enter new, fast-growing markets.
Equals CEO Ian Strafford-Taylor said: “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Roqqett and its cutting-edge open-banking payment platform and welcome Glenn and his team to the Equals Group.
“The platform, underlying technology, and licences that we are acquiring fit well with our stated strategy of providing payments solutions to our B2B customer base.
“The ability to provide our corporate customers with an alternative route to acquire payments from their B2B or B2C customers is the last piece of the jigsaw in terms of Equals participation in the full payment lifecycle.
“This acquisition allows us to fast-track this capability which in turn will widen our addressable markets for our services and ultimately drive growth.”
Roqqett CEO Glenn Smith, pictured, who describes himself as a career-long digital disrupter, added: “Roqqett has developed a unique checkout experience for the rapidly growing market in open banking payments.
“This offering is enhanced with the addition of Equals’ capabilities in IBANs and their membership of the Faster Payments Scheme.
“The team at Roqqett is looking forward to working with Equals to maximise the potential for both platforms arising from this acquisition.”
Roqqett made a loss before tax last year of £570,000 and had assets of £200,000.
Equals, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market, is paying an initial £1m in cash for Roqqett, followed by three deferred payments totalling £1.25m. The second and third of these will become due when certain capabilities are added to the platform – expected to be in under a year.
Equals, which was founded in 2007, employs around 285 staff across sites in London and Chester.
