A UK investment platform company, with bases in Bath, Edinburgh and London, that powers other firms' wealth and investing services.
Seccl is a financial technology company that builds the 'plumbing' behind investing. Many apps and advice firms want to offer ISAs (tax-free savings and investment accounts), pensions and investment accounts but do not want to build all the technology and regulation themselves. Seccl provides that platform for them, including accounts and tax wrappers, holding the investments safely (custody), trading, payments and digital pensions. It says its customers include financial advisers, wealth managers and newer investment apps such as Crowdcube, Chip and Penfold, and it is owned by Octopus Group.
Its own history page says Seccl was incorporated in 2016, gained regulator permissions (FCA) in 2018 and was bought by Octopus in 2019 while still pre-market. Founders Dave Harvey and Hugo Thorman are named on Wikipedia and referred to as "Dave and Hugo" on the company's page; they left in 2024. It moved into its Bath headquarters in 2020, and David Ferguson (who previously founded and led Nucleus) joined as chief executive in 2022. Jonathan Dees, formerly chief operating officer of Octopus Investments, became chief executive in September 2025, with Ferguson as executive chair. The company has a northern headquarters on George Street in Edinburgh (opened 2023), a small London hub in Octopus's Holborn office, and has planned an Irish office as part of European expansion.
Seccl's stated aim is to help more people to invest, and invest well, by cutting hassle and cost for advisers and their clients. It describes the problem as "old tech, dismal processes and misaligned interests". Chief executive David Ferguson earlier described a goal of bringing outdated investment technology into the digital world, and the company says it wants to "build a home for the most talented and principled people in financial services and technology". These are the company's own words.
Products include client onboarding and reporting, custody, digital pensions (an accumulation pension launched in 2022 and an automated decumulation pension, which pays money out in retirement, in 2023), fee and cash management, payments, portfolio management, and portals for advisers and clients. Seccl is B Corp certified, a status for companies that meet social and environmental standards, and holds the ISO 27001 information security standard.
Seccl lists three working principles: never settle, take ownership, and be generous and candid, in what it calls a flat, inclusive culture. It describes a "two-way deal" with staff, with hybrid working, twice-yearly offsites, private medical cover, free therapy, 27 days' holiday and a paid one-month sabbatical after eight years (company claims; it reports 78% of staff feel safe being themselves). Its careers page shows roles in engineering, customer, people and Ireland teams, with most hiring in the South West and Scotland, and about 75 staff in Bath. We did not find graduate schemes or internships, so entry is mostly through experienced roles.
Website: seccl.tech
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