This week intelliflo announced that it is to be acquired from Invesco by Carlyle, a global investment firm renowned for scaling technology businesses.
Nick Eatock, CEO, intelliflo, positioned it as “a powerful vote of confidence in the strength of our business and our people – and in our strategy to deliver even greater innovation and impact for advisers.
“Our commitment to advisers and partners remains as strong as ever. And our focus on shaping the digital future of financial advice is only deepening,” he said. “We are excited about the opportunities ahead and committed to delivering even more value in the months and years to come.”
He also made clear that overseas expansion is also a primary driver. “With Carlyle’s backing, we can accelerate our growth across the UK and Australia – introducing new solutions and evolving our product further to help advice firms thrive in a fast-changing world.
“Building on our continuing and profitable growth at intelliflo, this move gives us the freedom and backing to do what we do best – and with Carlyle’s deep expertise in fintech and SaaS, we have the perfect partner to accelerate our next phase of innovation and growth.
Ahead, he added, was a “new chapter…with renewed momentum, energy and ambition for the future.”
Commenting on the announcement, Ian McKenna, founder of Financial Technology Research Centre and AdviserSoftware.com, said that the deal for was a good one for intelliflo customers and the business itself. “It provides them with the right sort of backers to take the business forward,” he said.
It comes, he added, in “what is undoubtedly the most transformational time since the dawn of AdviceTech”, in which recently, the market has seen Focus Advice Technology buy itself out of Aberdeen, (with the asset manager retaining a stake) and Iress, intelliflo’s main competitor in the UK and Australian markets, announce it is in talks with potential acquirers
“AI has multiplied the extent to which AdviceTech firms can transform financial advice businesses, as demonstrated by the wealth of new AI related innovations intelliflo announced at their June conference,” McKenna said.
Against this background, despite wider economic pressures, “the market for advice tech firms is buoyant and intelliflo must be seen as golden opportunity,” he added. “In recent years intelliflo has grown from a practice management system to deliver a comprehensive end to end adviser proposition, including cash flow planning, portfolio construction and rebalancing, and client portal elements. This now, somewhat controversially, extends into the platform partnership space with the wealthlink arrangements.”
“Wealthlink (described by intelliflo as intelligent platform integration) was always intended to enable integration with multiple partners so I would expect to see a couple more platforms agree the deepest integration with intelliflo. These will probably be from the established platform community as the SS&C partnership already brings “Next Gen” platform functionality to the table.”
McKenna sees the new ownership positively positioning the business for further acquisitions.
“The separation of the Anglo/ Australian and US business units, which had already been confirmed makes good sense. The structure and demands of regulatory standards vary dramatically between the US and the rest of the world. There is a raft of additional regulatory requirements not needed in America that are crucial in other jurisdictions. “
McKenna said the deal “also positions intelliflo well for an entry into the emerging Middle East financial services sectors like Dubai and Saudi Arabia who are strongly leaning towards the UK for their educational and financial regulatory standards.”
“The years within Invesco put the firm through a valuable process where everything was produced to institutional grade standards, however the operational structures of a global asset management business are very different to that of a dynamic fintech firm so moving to an owner that is able to move at great speed should the need arise makes good sense.”
“Significantly, intelliflo founder Nick Eatock and other key members of the senior team that have taken the business from a start-up to the largest player in the UK AdviceTech market are part of this deal so are committed to the future of the business. Strong leadership is an essential component of a successful advice tech business, and Eatock has a 20+ year track record of being such a leader.”
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