“Can a UK custodian become the embedded-investments equivalent of Stripe — letting neobanks and consumer brands plug ISAs, SIPPs, and GIAs into their apps in months?”
Founded 2016 as a UK custody and investment-platform-as-a-service play to disrupt incumbent adviser platforms with cloud-native, API-first infrastructure. Acquired by Octopus in 2019, which has progressively increased its stake — culminating in founders departing in 2024 and Octopus signaling international expansion in 2025. Increasingly positions itself as the 'embedded investment platform' for neobanks and consumer brands looking to add wealth/SIPP wrappers, mirroring Octopus Energy's Kraken-style platform thesis but for investments.
SECCL (part of Octopus) discloses Seccl Custody Limited (in-house) — FCA-regulated full custodian, direct CREST member as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
SECCL (part of Octopus) does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Seccl Custody Limited (in-house) — FCA-regulated full custodian, direct CREST member.
SECCL (part of Octopus) processes payments through BACS (bank transfer), Direct Debit (in-house mandate) and Open Banking PIS (third-party recommended provider).
SECCL (part of Octopus) runs its ledger on in-house.
SECCL (part of Octopus) connects to bank accounts through Open banking PIS (provider not named).
SECCL (part of Octopus) integrates with Plannr (adviser CRM) and Adviser back-office CRM integrations (via API).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 5 layers in SECCL (part of Octopus)'s stack: Payments / PSP (BACS (bank transfer), Direct Debit (in-house mandate) and Open Banking PIS (third-party recommended provider)); Banking / BaaS (Seccl Custody Limited (in-house) — FCA-regulated full custodian, direct CREST member); Ledger (in-house); Open banking (Open banking PIS (provider not named)); Accounting (Plannr (adviser CRM) and Adviser back-office CRM integrations (via API)).
SECCL (part of Octopus) was founded by David Harvey and Hugo Thornton and is founded in 2016, headquartered in Bath, United Kingdom.
SECCL (part of Octopus) has raised undisclosed in total (latest round: Strategic investment from Octopus (March 2024, May 2025); valuation: undisclosed).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against SECCL (part of Octopus) and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.