Cavendish Corporate Finance (‘Cavendish’), the specialist sell-side M&A firm, has advised Rapidata Services, one of the UK’s leading payment platform providers, on its sale to Access Group, one of the UK’s leading providers of software to mid-market businesses. 

The sale represents Cavendish’s second payments transaction in the last three months, highlighting its expertise within the payments sector and its ability to complete high-profile technology deals.

Rapidata Services (‘Rapidata’) was founded in 1997 and supports a range of organisations to quickly and easily collect Direct Debit payments and maximise their regular income. With over 20 years of experience in the payments sector, Rapidata executes bespoke technology, helping it to become the leading Direct Debit specialist in the UK and position itself as a market leader in the Not-For-Profit sector.

Rapidata processes in excess of 13m direct debits per year with a consolidated value in excess of £180m. The business has developed a reputation for delivering market leading payment processing solutions that enable their 600 customers, which include more than 10% of the Top 500 UK Charities, to reduce the administration, cut down on costs, and limit time associated with processing payments.

The deal will allow Access Group to infiltrate the payments sector, and integrate payments processing capabilities for its existing Not-For-Profit customers by building on Rapidata’s prior sector expertise and networks. To accelerate growth, Access Group plans to extend the capability to other sectors including Education and Health & Social Care, where there is a great desire for these facilities.

Cavendish, which advised Rapidata Services on its sale to Access Group, has an extensive track record in TMT and Financial Services. Recent notable deals include the majority share sale of the leading MENA-based payments platform TPAY to Helios Investment Partners, the sale of the leading online payroll software firm Star Computer Ltd to Iris Software, and the sale of the leading foreign exchange platform World First to FTV Capital.

The Cavendish team was led by Jon Edirmanasinghe, Partner at Cavendish Corporate Finance, who also led on the TPAY transaction.

Jon Edirmanasinghe, Partner at Cavendish, commented: “We are thrilled to have advised on the sale of Rapidata to Access Group. It was a pleasure working with Rapidata and its new-found potential within Access Group should be amazing for the business. We ran a text-book sale process, yielding significant competitive tension and ultimately an excellent result for all those involved.

The deal highlights Cavendish’s expertise within the payments sector and wider technology landscape, as well as our ability to identify non-traditional strategic partners for a business and complete transactions with them.”

Chris Bayne, CEO Access Group, commented: “This is another exciting step forward for Access as we continue to broaden our suite of solutions through acquisition and internal research & development.  The capability to process payments has been a growing request from our customers in the Not-For-Profit sector, as well as other of our key verticals including Education and Health & Social Care. Rapidata stood out as a leading UK based payments provider and we are pleased that Cavendish assisted in developing a relationship between the two businesses through to the successful closure of the deal.   We will work with the Rapidata team to continue to provide excellent service to existing users while integrating the payments capabilities into our wider product portfolio."

Charles Blackbourn, Rapidata shareholders, said: "On behalf of all the shareholders of Rapidata I would like to thank Jon, Nathan and the Cavendish team for their advice, guidance and unwavering determination throughout the sale process. We are all delighted with the outcome and are very pleased that we put our trust in Cavendish. You have exceeded our expectations on all fronts having not only achieved a successful outcome for all shareholders but a great home for the business moving forward.

It is rare these days to offer unconditional praise and absolute endorsement but, in this case, it is truly justified.  We would all wholeheartedly recommend Cavendish to other business owners looking to achieve an exit. Well done and thanks again."