AutoRek Wins Two UK Platforms Holding £140 Billion in Assets

AutoRek said on November 11 that two UK digital investment platforms, serving more than 3.3 million customers and holding more than £140bn in client and platform assets, have picked AutoRek reconciliation software to replace manual work.

The wins test whether the backing AutoRek has had from Scottish Equity Partners since 2021 is turning into customers at scale. The Glasgow-based company did not name the platforms, the contract values or the go-live dates.

For finance teams in regulated investment businesses, the announcement shows where operating cost is being pushed. Reconciliation done by hand grows with transaction volumes, and firms that rely on it must add staff as customer numbers rise.

What the two platform wins cover

The two platforms will use AutoRek software for reconciliation, exception handling and financial controls. Between them they hold more than £140bn, an average of roughly £70bn each, and serve more than 3.3 million customers.

The scale is the news. A platform at that size processes large volumes of trades, cash movements and custody records every day, and each must agree across the platform’s own ledgers, banks, custodians and fund managers.

At the centre of the product is AutoRek ARIA, the company’s intelligence engine for financial control. It suggests probable matches, explains irregularities and helps teams decide which breaks to investigate first.

People stay responsible for judgement, review and sign-off. The software handles the repetitive matching and the queue of exceptions that follows.

“Digital investment platforms are operating at a scale where manual processes can quickly become a constraint on growth, while the need for robust financial controls only increases as volumes rise. These customer wins demonstrate the growing demand for reconciliation technology that can handle scale while giving firms greater control, transparency and operational resilience. By automating processes that have traditionally relied heavily on manual intervention, firms can build a stronger operational foundation as their businesses continue to grow.”

Martyn Ward, Chief Revenue Officer, AutoRek

AutoRek did not say which reconciliations are being replaced. The company describes its offer as automated matching, break management and adjustable financial controls, which covers the usual list for an investment platform: client cash, custody positions, trade settlement and fee income.

The Scottish Equity Partners stake

In 2021, Scottish Equity Partners completed a growth equity investment in the company. SEP lists AutoRek in its portfolio as a provider of reconciliation and financial controls software to banks, payment firms, asset managers and insurers.

The investment was made to speed up product development and support international expansion. SEP partner Andrew Davison and director Angus Conroy led the deal and joined the AutoRek board. The size of the investment has not been published.

Gordon McHarg founded the company. Chris Livesey is chief executive.

The ownership matters to buyers. A platform signing a multi-year reconciliation contract wants a supplier with the backing to keep investing in the product, and private equity ownership usually comes with a view on when to sell. Accountio has tracked how that cycle is playing out in accounting and financial services software.

How AutoRek has grown since 2021

The most recent visible use of that investment is acquisition. On August 3, 2026, AutoRek bought Grath, a London fintech founded in 2019 that sells AI-driven reconciliation and regulatory compliance technology. Grath’s clients include banks, payment providers, brokers and fintechs, and it has offices in the UK, the United Arab Emirates and Australia. Terms were not disclosed.

The companies said the combined portfolio covers the full reconciliation process, from data ingestion and matching through to controls, risk and compliance.

“Customers want the benefits of AI delivered through governance, auditability, and human oversight,” Livesey said at the time of the deal. Grath chief executive Matt Povey said institutions no longer want to choose between enterprise controls and the speed of AI-led innovation.

That positioning matches the way the two platform wins were described. Ward spoke of control, transparency and resilience, not only speed.

Why client money rules drive reconciliation

For a UK investment platform, reconciliation is a regulatory duty as well as an efficiency question. The FCA’s Client Assets sourcebook, known as CASS, requires firms to keep client money and safe custody assets separate from their own and to prove it through regular reconciliations.

For client money, CASS 7 requires firms to reconcile their records against those of banks and other third parties and to resolve differences promptly. Under the standard method the internal reconciliation must run at least daily. CASS 6 sets a parallel duty for custody assets held with custodians.

Accountants who audit these firms, or who sit in their finance teams, will recognise the pressure. The same principles apply on a smaller scale to practices that hold money for clients, a subject covered in Accountio’s guide to managing client money.

Operational resilience is the second driver. FCA rules required firms to be able to remain within their impact tolerances for important business services by March 31, 2025. A reconciliation process that depends on a handful of people and spreadsheets is a weak point in that analysis.

Automation does not remove the duty. A firm that adopts matching software still owns the reconciliation, the resolution of breaks and the record that shows it did both.

The competition for reconciliation contracts

AutoRek is not alone in the field. BlackLine sells reconciliation as part of a wider financial close suite, and Trintech and SmartStream also sell reconciliation and controls software to large finance operations.

Those vendors sell to a broad range of corporates and banks. AutoRek’s pitch to the two platforms rests on financial services data, where ledgers, custodians and counterparties each produce records in a different format.

The Grath purchase adds a second product line to that offer. It also shows that the investment is being used to buy capability as well as to build it, a pattern common among private equity owned software firms.

The AI layer is where vendors now compete. Suggesting matches and ranking exceptions saves analysts time, but investment platforms will want to see audit trails that show why a match was proposed and who approved it.

What to watch after the AutoRek announcement

The first signal will be the names. If either platform confirms the deal, its reconciliation scope, contract term and go-live date will show how much of the finance operation is moving to AutoRek.

The second is ownership. SEP has held its AutoRek stake since 2021, and a company that has added acquisitions and large customers is the kind of asset a private equity owner can take to market. Accountio has reported on second ownership cycles in the sector.

No sale process for AutoRek has been announced.