Equals Announces the Acquisition of Open Banking Payments Platform Roqqett

Equals Group plc, a leading fintech payments group focused on the SME marketplace, announces that it has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Roqqett Limited (Roqqett), an open banking payments platform, for a total consideration of up to £2.25 million. The Acquisition is conditional upon regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Roqqett is authorised by the FCA as both an AISP (Account Information Service Provider) and PISP (Payment Initiation Service Provider), two licences that Equals currently does not hold. These licences allow Roqqett to perform the full suite of open banking services, namely, to take payments and access financial data.

Established in November 2019 by Glenn Smith, who previously held senior roles with UBS and Barclays in FX Derivatives followed by over a decade in technology start-ups, the Roqqett team leveraged its significant experience across finance, payments, and disruptive technologies to develop the platform.

Glenn Smith, CEO of Roqqett, said: "Roqqett has developed a unique checkout experience for the rapidly growing market in open banking payments.  This offering is enhanced with the addition of Equal's 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."

Commenting on the Acquisition, Ian Strafford-Taylor, CEO of Equals, 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. Similar to the Equals Connect transaction announced in October, the transaction is made possible by the continued strong performance of the Group and our surplus cash balances."