Ciphr Group has moved into the employee benefits business with the acquisition of Guildford firm Avantus.
Avantus, founded in 2005, serves over 400 businesses globally through its employee benefits and rewards platform FlexGenius, and its 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.
It is also its largest acquisition to date – significantly expanding Ciphr’s customer proposition to include employee benefits and wellbeing for the first time. Ciphr, based in Reading, is a provider of HR and payroll solutions.
Avantus’ platform enables employers to deliver personalised benefits choices to multi-generational workforces with diverse needs and differing expectations and priorities. Employees can 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 portal.
Philip Curtis, Avantus’ co-founder and CEO, and his 30-strong team will join Ciphr 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,” said Sion Lewis, CEO of Ciphr (pictured).
“Retaining staff has been a key challenge for UK organisations this year. And we know from customer research that ‘benefits’ are a real value-add and top priority for HR teams – helping to reduce attrition and support employee wellbeing.”
Avantus will continue to serve its clients as usual, according to Curtis.
“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,” he said.
“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.”