Circit’s David Heath, Elaine McCaffrey, Clodagh Vance and Harry Largey. Image: FTI Consulting
The two start-ups will bring their financial auditing technology together and pursue new markets.
Dublin fintech start-up Circit has acquired Audapio, a UK business that builds data analytics tools for financial auditing and fraud monitoring.
Brighton-based Audapio develops analytics solutions for auditing professionals by leveraging open banking data and artificial intelligence. The company was founded in 2019 by Dudley Gould, a chartered accountant formerly of KPMG.
Circit, which was founded in 2017, develops its own platform for managing financial auditing and is used by the likes of banks, solicitors and brokers. It is cleared by the Central Bank of Ireland to operate under PSD2, the EU regulation that makes open banking and the integration of data across financial services firms possible.
As part of the acquisition Audapio will be merged into Circit, with Gould overseeing the roll-out of the technology into further markets in his new role as vice-president of business development. No figures for the deal were disclosed.
“Data analytics is key to driving audit quality improvements, replacing outdated manual sampling techniques with the ability to test 100pc of transactions at the click of a button,” Gould said. “Connecting to Circit’s network completes the end-to-end process for auditors when verifying business data with an independent source.”
“As audit firms look to improve operational efficiencies and audit quality, there is a growing interest in our real-time audit confirmations and verified transactions platform,” Circit chief executive David Heath added.
“This acquisition strengthens our analytics offering and our commitment to helping auditors drive audit quality and reduce the chances of financial fraud going undetected.”
Last year Circit raised €1.1m in a funding round led by US firm Commodore Investments. Enterprise Ireland, the European Angel Fund, former Ulster Bank CEO Jim Brown, former AIB general manager John Power and former Icon CEO Peter Gray all contributed to the round.
The company said at the time that the funds would be invested in international expansion and adding 20 jobs.
