SECCL (part of Octopus)
“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?”
Founded2016
HQBath, United Kingdom
FoundersDavid Harvey, Hugo Thornton
Total raisedundisclosed
Latest roundStrategic investment from Octopus (March 2024, May 2025)
Valuationundisclosed
IndustryInfrastructure / Investment Platform (Embedded Wealth)
The story
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.
Product timeline
2016
Seccl incorporated and seed fund raised· founding
2018
FCA permissions granted· regulatory
2019
Acquired by Octopus Group· acquisition
2019
CASS 'Medium Firm' designation· regulatory
2021
Launched instant deposits via Lloyds Bank Event Driven Notification API· banking
2022
Launched accumulation pension; Dave Ferguson joined as CEO· retirement
2023
Launched fully-automated decumulation pension; Deloitte audit begins· retirement
2024
Octopus increases stake as founders depart; B Corp certification achieved· pivot
2025
Dave Ferguson promoted to executive chairman; UK CEO search launched· leadership
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by SECCL (part of Octopus)
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
Same company
SECCL (part of Octopus) was analysed under more than one name on the same domain, so its stack is split across these dossiers. Each was analysed independently and may name providers the others do not.
The stack
5 layers disclosed in SECCL (part of Octopus)’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
BACS (bank transfer)Direct Debit (in-house mandate)Open Banking PIS (third-party recommended provider)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Ledger
in the full report
Open banking
in the full report
Accounting
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
5 more providers across 4 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.