JSE-listed financial technology (fintech) company Capital Appreciation has concluded agreements to acquire information technology (IT) software services company Dariel Solutions and its subsidiary Dariel Software for R131.2-million, to be settled through a combination of cash and shares.

Capital Appreciation has three business segments, namely payments, software and an international division in the Netherlands. Dariel will form part of Capital Appreciation’s software division, said Capital Appreciation CEO Bradley Sacks.

“Capital Appreciation is a provider of technology-based products and solutions to enterprises across multiple sectors, with a strong focus on financial services. Dariel fits our model of investing in established, asset-light companies that deliver innovative and disruptive fintech solutions to mainly institutional clients, with a culture and business ethos well-aligned with that of the group,” he said.

“We have experienced significant growth in our businesses owing to accelerating digital transformation and the robust demand for cloud services, online applications, data intelligence, electronic payments and other innovative software solutions.

“Dariel participates in many of these compelling areas of activity. In addition to its own growth prospects, we also see significant synergistic opportunities with our existing businesses,” he highlighted.

Dariel founders Malcolm Rabson, Gregory Vercellotti and Wayne Yan said that they were delighted with the transaction.

“By being part of a listed company with a proven growth strategy and the financial resources to support us, we will be able to expand our products and services and will be able to participate in projects for which we are sometimes overlooked. It also provides us with exciting opportunities to access international markets and gain access to a broad base of skills in cloud, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and specialist user experience and user interface capabilities,” they said.

Dariel was founded in 2001 and is a South African IT software services provider involved in providing software, consulting, development, implementation and integration services, as well as maintenance and support, to enterprises in the healthcare, telecommunications, hospitality, mining and manufacturing sectors, with a particular focus and expertise in the financial services, insurance and fintech sectors.

Dariel has delivered a proven record of more than 22 years of helping to solve complex business problems and deliver digital transformation strategies through bespoke and highly engineered software applications and customised software integration services. It also provides cloud services, enabling customers to innovate and test new platforms on the Cloud across the major Cloud platforms including Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud Platform, Capital Appreciation said in a statement.

The acquisitions remain subject to the fulfilment of suspensive conditions, including approval by the Competition Commission.