Quake Ventures is delighted to announce the acquisition of Shape Payroll by Ciphr.
HR and payroll software provider Ciphr has strengthened its payroll business by acquiring Shape. The deal marks a significant ramp-up in payroll-focused activities for the Reading-based, ECI-backed tech group, which already processes over £2 billion in payroll and BACS salary payments a year for its clients.
The deal is also significant in the journey of Quake Ventures. Quake invested in Shape Payroll in 2021 whilst looking for a payroll API for an early business idea. After a number of meetings with the Shape founders Alex and Cheri Bartlett, Shape became an investment opportunity that fitted the Quake portfolio perfectly. Quake founder and CTO Dan Leyden explains:
“The technology was immediately appealing to Quake. The product was supported by an incredible set of API documentation, was well built and amazingly well supported by Alex and Cheri. Their clear category and knowledge of payroll made this an easy company for Quake to make an early stage investment in”.
Quake Ventures has supported the growth of Shape Payroll over the last three years. The acquisition process was directly supported by Quake Ventures’ Managing Partner, Rob Wilde. Rob’s first-hand experience of building and selling B2B technology businesses was crucial to the successful sale of Shape Payroll.
Alex and Cheri Bartlett, and the rest of their team, also join Ciphr with immediate effect. They will support the integration of Shape’s market-leading payroll technology to deliver an even better experience for its new and existing payroll customers. Alex Bartlett of Shape Payroll, commented:
“Cheri and I founded Shape with a vision to build the most flexible payroll software possible, allowing integration at any level via our Open API and backing that up with an intuitive user interface and fantastic customer support. We’re immensely proud of what we have achieved over the last five years, and it has been a privilege to work with all the fantastic people we have met along the way. We are both extremely excited about Shape becoming part of the Ciphr Group and taking the next step in this journey. With the help of the amazing team at Ciphr, we will be able to take our application to the next level”.
Quake Ventures extends their best wishes to Alex and Cheri for the next part of the Shape journey.