The latest acquisition news from Ciphr for you;
Ciphr Group has moved into the employee benefits business, with the acquisition of Avantus.
Avantus, founded in 2005, serves over 400 businesses globally through its intuitive, and fully customisable, employee benefits and rewards platform, FlexGenius, and its popular, white-labelled solution MyWorkPal.
This is the third acquisition in 18 months for the ECI-backed group, which bought Marshalls (now Ciphr eLearning) in April 2023 and Shape Payroll in June this year, and builds on Ciphr’s strategy to acquire UK businesses that complement its core HCM offering. It’s also its largest acquisition to date – significantly expanding Ciphr’s customer proposition to include employee benefits and wellbeing for the first time.
Avantus’ robust platform enables employers to deliver unlimited, personalised benefits choices to multi-generational workforces with diverse needs and differing expectations and priorities. It can help strengthen organisations’ Employee Value Proposition, support their talent retention, recruitment and recognition strategies, and streamline the admin process for HR. And it empowers employees to manage and see the value of their eligible core and voluntary benefits, such as salary sacrifice, medical and dental cover, retail discounts, pensions, and financial protection, in one central, easy-to-use, portal.
Philip Curtis, Avantus’ co-founder and CEO, and his 30-strong team will also join Ciphr Group from today.
Sion Lewis, CEO of Ciphr, says the acquisition will accelerate Ciphr’s growth in the UK market and beyond, and underscores the company’s continuing commitment to amplifying HR’s pivotal role in delivering business success.
He says: “This is an exciting acquisition for Ciphr, and we’re delighted to welcome Philip and the Avantus team to the group.
“Avantus has a great reputation across the benefits and rewards industry for creating functionality-rich, people-centric technology that aims to make our working lives better. It’s redefining and democratising employee benefits as we know it. Giving people greater autonomy to choose or approve the benefits they genuinely want or need, and 24/7 access to manage their choices and see their total rewards statement anywhere, anytime.
SEAMLESS TRANSITION
It’s business as usual for Avantus’ clients. They can expect a seamless transition, with continued dedicated support from the Avantus team.
Philip Curtis, CEO of Avantus, says: “We are absolutely delighted that Avantus has become part of the Ciphr Group. With 20 years of experience behind us, our priority was to partner with an organisation that believes in, and shares, our customer-first ethos, and is committed to supporting us in our mission to deliver the very best in employee benefits technology. Integrating with Ciphr will enable us to provide our existing and prospective customers with a comprehensive, end-to-end people management solution. Employees will benefit from a seamless experience, with all their needs met in one place.
“We are really excited about the opportunities that lie ahead, and are very much looking forward to working together with the Ciphr team to continue our growth journey.”
Stephen Roberts, partner at ECI, says: “Benefits has long been a focus for our M&A strategy, and we’re delighted to bring Avantus, a high-quality and fast-growth business, into Ciphr. Employee benefits is a rapidly growing market as employers seek to improve their value proposition and retain top talent in a competitive labour market. We are looking forward to working together to deliver an even better service to HR teams across the UK.”
More than 800 organisations use people management solutions from Ciphr, including Volkswagen Group UK, Lifetime Training, Crisis UK, Bensons for Beds, Natural History Museum, the Met Office, Financial Conduct Authority, Barnardo’s, Police Scotland, Greater London Authority, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and the Irish Universities Association.
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