David Ferguson, the financial services entrepreneur, has expanded his latest fintech venture into Edinburgh.

Seccl, the Octopus-owned embedded investment platform, is a fast-scaling investment technology company whose software and services power a growing roster of firms across the retail wealth landscape.

These include established financial planning and wealth management firms, and younger investment platforms such as Crowdcube, Chip and Penfold.

Mr Ferguson joined Seccl in April last year as chief executive after leaving financial adviser group Nucleus Financial Group which he co-founded and built into a company with £20bn in assets under administration. It was acquired in 2021 for £145m by James Hay. 

Since Ferguson took over at Seccl it has doubled its assets under administration, assembled an experienced executive team and grown its headcount to just over 100 people – nearly 20% of whom are now based in or around Edinburgh.

It occupies the top floor of Clarence House, 131-135 George Street, in addition to its joint headquarters in Bath, where it was founded, and a satellite hub in Octopus’s Holborn headquarters in London.

Octopus, the £12.5 billion group of companies that includes Octopus Energy and Octopus Investments, acquired the group in 2019.

Mr Ferguson said: “I joined Seccl excited to work with the best and most transformational technology in our industry, alongside one of the most ambitious, forward-thinking and principled backers you could find in Octopus. A little over a year later and that excitement has only grown. 

“We have a frankly enormous opportunity to bring the outdated investment technology market kicking and screaming into our digital world – and to build a world-class business in the process.

“Our new base will help us deliver on that ambition, allowing us to tap into Edinburgh’s rich financial services talent pool.”