Ashtons advise ubisend founders on the acquisition by Soprano Design

Ashtons Legal has advised ubisend, the Norwich-based conversational AI company, on their sale to Soprano Design, an international communications platform supplier.

Under the deal, the founders and management team remain in the business, and Soprano will invest significantly to grow ubisend.

David Sloman and Catherine Turner from Ashtons’ Corporate team, along with Jess Piper from Employment acted for ubisend’s shareholders.

ubisend was incorporated in 2016 and grew quickly to become one of the UK’s leading automation and natural language processing platforms. Its innovative software-as-a-service product enables users to programme and launch customised automated messaging solutions without having to code any elements themselves. Soprano Design is a major international communications-platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) provider and will look to integrate and market ubisend’s products and services to its customer base and beyond. Soprano will invest significantly in ubisend to help it grow further and handle the anticipated substantial volume of customers as part of the deal.

Pictured: (l-r) Alex Debecker – CMO, Joe Dixon – CTO and Dean Withey – CEO.

The team from Ashtons has advised ubisend and the founders on all their commercial, corporate, and employment matters since they incorporated the company in 2016.

David Sloman, who has spearheaded the relationship with ubisend said: “It has been a real pleasure to have advised Dean, Joe, and Alex during their journey from high-growth start-up, to their exit and new partnership with Soprano. I have no doubt that ubisend will continue to thrive under their and Soprano’s management.”

David adds: “We are seeing huge growth across the board in our corporate and commercial team, and in particular in our technology and high growth sectors. This deal is a great example of our approach of spending time getting to know early-stage high-growth businesses, advising them throughout their growth cycle, and then assisting with exits or investments.”

Dean Withey, ubisend’s founder and CEO said: “Working with Ashtons has, and will continue to be, a pleasure. Their ability to quickly understand sometimes very complex commercial and technical requirements and turn it into actionable and understandable legal advice is second to none. Their support over the past six years has been invaluable, and I look forward to continuing working with them in the future.”