Grant Thornton leads sale of Glasgow fintech HubSol

HubSolv was established in 2014, by school friends Lewis Black and Fraser Hamilton, and has grown quickly into a leading provider of automated case management and CRM software to the personal debt and insolvency sectors.

For the 2019 fiscal year, HubSolv ranked 165th across Europe, the Middle East & Africa for company growth, boasting an 850% surge in revenue from 2015-2018.

HubSolv’s founders will be remaining at the helm of the business, which has a team of 18 including 10 developers, to drive its future growth. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Grant Thornton team was led by corporate finance partner and head of lead advisory in Scotland Neil McInnes, assisted by associate director Gary Whyte and manager Neil Allan. The firm was engaged by the shareholders in mid-2020 and supported them throughout the sales process.

During the marketing phase, Grant Thornton identified a number of highly strategic buyers able to appreciate the value created by the founders to date and would be well-positioned to help accelerate growth and elevate HubSolv to the next stage.

Fraser Hamilton, co-founder of HubSolv, said: “The acquisition provides a great opportunity for HubSolv to accelerate product innovation and growth. It made perfect sense to combine forces with so many product overlaps between HubSolv and Aryza.

“Being part of a larger group with private equity backing is the next step in our vision to provide the most advanced insolvency and debt management platform in the world.”

Neil McInnes, partner and head of corporate finance at Grant Thornton in Scotland, added: “HubSolv is an outstanding entrepreneurial success story. Fraser and Lewis deserve enormous credit for their vision in building an exceptional business that has allowed customers to deliver a quicker and more efficient service in the insolvency market.

“It is great to see a Glasgow company establish itself in the fintech sector, earning a deserved reputation for revenue growth and innovation just seven years after its formation. Historically Edinburgh, has been the epicentre of Scotland’s finance sector, so it’s testament to the strength of the fast-growing Scottish fintech community on the West Coast that a business like HubSolv can flourish here.

“We look forward to HubSolv’s continued growth and success as part of the Aryza Group, whose sector knowledge and resources make them an ideal owner.“

Founded in Dublin in 2002, The Aryza Group is now an international business specialising in providing software solutions for the financial services and insolvency sectors with operations in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Mauritius and The Cayman Islands.

Backed by Pollen Street Private Equity, a specialist investor in financial and business services sectors, Aryza has made a number of strategic acquisitions in recent months. In December 2020 it appeared in the Tech Fast 50 benchmark of fast-growth tech firms in Ireland organised by Deloitte.

HubSolv was represented by law firm Burness Paull, while Aryza Group was represented by Eversheds Sutherland and BDO.