The Citation Group, an international provider of compliance software and services for SMEs, has announced the acquisition of PayCaptain.
PayCaptain, based in London, is a payroll software and managed services provider trusted by hundreds of UK employers.
Founded by Simon Bocca in 2020, PayCaptain is the UK’s first B Corp certified payroll provider.
It recently nearly doubled year-on-year revenue and has a 98% customer retention rate. Its flexible model gives employers the control of a contemporary, AI-enabled platform with smart automation, analytics and reporting.
The acquisition adds payroll to Citation’s technology and advisory solutions that support SMEs across every aspect of workforce compliance and risk, including HR, employment law, health & safety, workforce management, ISO accreditation, cybersecurity, eLearning and employee screening.
The PayCaptain platform includes an employee app that enables workers to see their earnings accrue in real time, access emergency pay advances at no cost to employees, set up salary savings, and understand their pay in plain language.
PayCaptain will operate as a dedicated payroll division within The Citation Group, with founder Bocca remaining as managing director. Existing PayCaptain clients will see no change to their service, platform, or support, the firms say.
“The Citation Group’s mission has always been to take the complexity of compliance off the shoulders of small and medium-sized businesses — giving them the expertise, the software, and the confidence to get it right,” said Chris Morris, CEO of The Citation Group.
“Payroll is the one thing our clients ask us about more than any other, and now we have the perfect product.
“PayCaptain continues a track record of bringing the highest quality solutions into the Group. Together, we now offer UK SMEs something no competitor can match at our scale – a single trusted partner across every major compliance need their business faces.
“Simon and the team have built something exceptional, and we are proud to have them in the group.”
Bocca said: “The Citation Group is the right home for PayCaptain. They have built an organisation that genuinely cares about the businesses it serves – and that mirrors our own mission to be the UK’s most trusted way to get paid and to help employers make a real difference to their employees’ financial wellbeing.
“Being part of the Group gives PayCaptain the scale, the distribution, and the platform to pursue that mission at a pace we could not have achieved independently.
“We see immediate opportunities to combine expertise and expand what we can offer through joint delivery with Citation’s wider compliance solutions, and our clients and team will benefit from access to an expanded product suite and the resources of a major compliance platform.”
This acquisition follows Citation’s acquisition of payroll software provider foundU in Australia in 2025.
Founded in 1995, The Citation Group has grown from its roots in HR and health & safety into one of the UK’s leading providers of compliance platforms, with a suite of more than 15 products designed to support SMEs through increasingly complex operating environments.
Today, its products support over 120,000 businesses across the UK, Canada and Australia, employing close to 2,000 people.