Compyle, a buyer for UK software and digital agencies
You built a good agency. We're the buyer that didn't exist.
Compyle buys small, profitable UK software and digital agencies whose owners want to sell but can't find a buyer. Your agency keeps its name and its brand. Our plan is to keep your team, and to give them better tools for the work.
Compyle status
- Agency name and brand: kept
- Team: the plan is to keep it
- Platform: in development
- Acquisitions completed: none yet
Why good agencies don't sell
There are about 21,500 software, IT, advertising and design agencies in the UK with between 5 and 99 staff. Most are run by the people who started them. Plenty make a profit. Very few find a buyer.
Too small for the big buyers
A consultancy or a network wants scale. To them, an agency turning over £2m is hardly worth the paperwork.
Hard for the team to buy
A management buy-out needs a bank willing to lend against goodwill and a client list. Few banks will.
Brokers run auctions
In an auction the price is all that counts, and the agency ends up with whoever pays most, whatever they plan to do with it.
More owners want out
About a third of UK small business owners are over 55. Many have no one inside the business who could take over.
Agency count: our own analysis of UK company data for six industry codes, 2026. Owner ages: Venta Capital.
What we do instead
We talk to you directly
No broker and no auction. The first conversation is with the founder, and it's about your plans, not a transaction.
Your agency keeps its name
Clients keep working with the agency they chose. Where we appear at all, it's a small line: part of Compyle.
We plan to keep your team
An agency is its people and its clients. We buy agencies for both, so we have no reason to break either up.
We take the back office off your hands
Finance, payroll, HR, contracts and insurance move to a shared team. Your people spend more of the week on client work.
The agencies we're looking for
- UK software, web, app, IT and digital agencies
- Roughly 5 to 99 staff
- Profitable in each of the last three filed years
- No single client above 40% of revenue
- Someone other than the owner can run delivery
When you're ready to think about what happens next
Talk to us. A first conversation is private and commits you to nothing. You don't need to bring any numbers to it.