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ClearCourse acquires e-commerce platform provider Sellerdeck

Dec 01, 2022

London | 01 December 2022 - ClearCourse, a leading group of innovative technology brands providing integrated software and payments solutions, today announces the acquisition of Sellerdeck. Founded in 1996, Sellerdeck provides a range of innovative platforms to help e-commerce businesses scale their operations and revenue by removing the technological challenges that hold back their growth. The company will form part of ClearCourse’s Retail Division and expands the latter’s established and growing footprint in the e-commerce space.


Sellerdeck’s solutions align with its clients’ commercial goals, catering to a wide range of businesses seeking to expand their online commerce operations by allowing them to focus on growth. Through its own proprietary SellerdeckDesktop platform and specialist partnerships with Magento and WooCommerce, the company helps businesses to speed up their sales and handle more orders, with thousands of businesses and organisations transacting over £11 billion in revenue. 


Sellerdeck acts as a valued expert advisor to all its clients. The firm prides itself on its transparency and competency, delivering solutions across all aspects of e-commerce including UI/UX, technical SEO, complex back-office integrations and maintenance. Through its expertise, Sellerdeck has supported pioneering brands, such as a leading UK animal rights charity, an international golf retailer and industrial aluminium solutions provider.


The company is based in Exeter, with team members throughout the UK and an international team based in Chennai, India. Sellerdeck shares a range of integration opportunities with ClearCourse’s existing software and payments offerings, creating significant extra value for customers. For instance, both Sellerdeck and ClearCourse’s EKM will benefit from the sharing of ideas, expertise and best practice with both brands serving different market segments. Sellerdeck will also be able to integrate ClearCourse’s own proprietary payments solution ClearAccept to complement its own Sellerdeck Payments, as well as industry-leading address lookup and data validation system Fetchify.

Gerry Gualtieri and Josh Barling enjoying a match at Exeter Chiefs Rugby

Following the deal, CEO Josh Barling will continue to lead the company, overseeing Sellerdeck’s operations and benefitting from strategic guidance from ClearCourse.


Gerry Gualtieri, CEO of ClearCourse, said: “I’m delighted to be able to announce the acquisition of Sellerdeck. It’s a fantastic company that was one of the first to recognise the importance of e-commerce and I can’t wait to get started working with its superb team. It’s an exciting time for ClearCourse’s Retail Division and our e-commerce offering, which is going from strength to strength. Sellerdeck will bring a great deal of deep expertise to ClearCourse, complementing EKM and developing integrations across the firm. A very warm welcome to Josh and the team.”


Josh Barling, CEO of Sellerdeck, said: “I’m very pleased to share the news that Sellerdeck is joining ClearCourse. At a critical time for our growth, we stand to benefit immensely from working with the group’s warm and highly capable team, with its impressive experience of integrating e-commerce systems. Integration with a diverse set of businesses brings us some promising new opportunities to add value to our customers and give them the best software solutions they need to run successful businesses.”


The financial terms of the deal are undisclosed. 

a man and a woman are playing tennis on a tennis court at night.
07 Feb, 2024
London, 7 February 2024 – ClearCourse, a leading provider of industry-specific software and embedded payments for SMEs and targeted enterprises, announces the acquisition of ThinkSmart Software (“ThinkSmart”), an independent software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) provider delivering an innovative technology for businesses that offer clubs and classes in the UK and Australia as well as other global markets. This strategic acquisition will be integrated as part of ClearCourse’s growing Business Services division. Founded in 2008, ThinkSmart is a scheduling and customer management platform for businesses that conduct classes and take bookings. Today, ThinkSmart serves approximately 2,500 customers predominately within the children’s activities sector, offering a user-friendly, intuitive product which helps “class-based” businesses with managing all day-to-day administration. Its award-winning software helps clients across the tennis, swimming, gymnastics, dance, music and sports sectors automate processes so that they can spend more time managing their business and working with their customers. ThinkSmart’s innovative technology streamlines several business admin tasks, including class scheduling, customer management and communications as well as invoicing and payments systems. Christina Hamilton, Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are extremely pleased to announce ThinkSmart as the latest software business to join our group. We look forward to welcoming the ThinkSmart team, led by founder Andy Leigh and UK Managing Director George Bentley, and working with them to enhance their offering across the growing, class-led activities sector. This investment is a further milestone in the growth of ClearCourse which continues to expand in the UK market as well as internationally.” Andrew (Andy) Leigh, Founder and Managing Director of ThinkSmart, commented: “In ClearCourse we have found a likeminded, customer-focused partner that will support a new phase of growth for ThinkSmart. As part of ClearCourse, we will be focused on continuously improving the industry-specific software solutions we offer our customers across the world, as well as looking for opportunities to expand our services.” George Bentley, UK Managing Director said: “ClearCourse has built a unique and compelling group of software companies and payments capabilities, and we are excited to continue growing our business supported by the rich experience and infrastructure now available to us. In particular, working with ClearCourse will enable us to offer our UK growing customer base market-leading, embedded Direct Debit and card payment solutions which will make accepting and managing payments quicker and easier.” Established in London in 2018, ClearCourse is a leading software and embedded payment specialist servicing SMEs and targeted enterprise customers. The group’s vertical software solutions provide essential, market-leading technology to help their customers manage and grow their businesses. Since inception, the company has undergone rapid growth by acquiring 40 leading software and payments solutions in the market verticals in which it operates: Retail & Hospitality, Golf & Leisure, Business Services and Membership Services. Christina Hamilton added: “ClearCourse is a growth company with a clear ambition to help our customers build great businesses with our industry-specific software and embedded payments solutions. We acquire small- and medium-sized businesses and integrate them into the ClearCourse group of companies to benefit their growth and development, while delivering the same for our customers with their own growth aspirations. Our acquisition of ThinkSmart is our first investment in 2024 and marks a successful start to what we expect to be a year of continued growth for ClearCourse.” The terms of the deal are undisclosed.
Nathan Best ClearCourse Chief Operating Officer
04 Jul, 2023
ClearCourse, a leading provider of industry-specific software and payments for UK SMEs, announces the appointment of FinTech veteran Nathan Best as Chief Operating Officer.
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