Ideagen in £3.6m swoop for software firm Covalent

Ideagen, the software group with a sizeable Scottish presence, has acquired a governance, risk and compliance (GRC) specialist for £3.6 million in cash.

Ideagen chief executive David Hornsby. Picture: Contributed

The Aim-quoted firm said the takeover of Somerset-based Covalent Software was in line with its strategy of acquiring businesses with strong intellectual property and recurring revenues. Covalent employs 37 staff and has about 200 customers, generating some £2.2m of annual revenues, of which £1.9m is recurring.

Ideagen chief executive David Hornsby said: “Covalent has established an extremely compelling value proposition and brings to the group a complementary cloud solution offering, a talented workforce and long-term customer relationships which further consolidates our position in the NHS, local government and financial services verticals.”

Following last year’s £21m acquisition of GRC software specialist Gael, almost half of Ideagen’s current workforce of about 250 is based in East Kilbride. The group’s Scottish operation is responsible for its best-selling product, a quality and safety management system called Q-Pulse.

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