ANNA Money has acquired UK Business Forums and Business Data Group to build an AI-powered platform for small businesses.
The two transactions form part of the company's strategy to develop an AI-powered operating system intended to support entrepreneurs through the stages of starting, running, and growing a business.
UKBF is a community platform used by more than 160.000 small business owners and entrepreneurs across the UK. Following the acquisition, ANNA Money will continue to invest in the UKBF community and plans to make its business support tools available to members, with the stated aim of reducing time spent on administrative tasks.
BDG operates in the UK company formations market. Its offering includes eFiling, a partner programme, and a banking comparison page used by formation agents. Through the process of integrating eFiling into its platform, ANNA Money intends to allow entrepreneurs who form companies through BDG's agent network to move directly into managing bookkeeping, tax, and compliance functions within the same system.
Positioning within a broader platform strategy
ANNA Money has described the acquisitions as an important step in a wider effort to consolidate services that are typically handled through separate software providers and advisers, including company formation, banking, accounting, tax, payments, and administration. The company's stated objective is to bring these functions into a single platform that supports businesses as they scale.
Eduard Panteleev, co-founder and co-CEO at ANNA Money, said that the company’s growth is linked to the success of the businesses it supports, and that supporting the independent formation agents who use BDG's eFiling platform is intended to help those agents grow in turn. It was also added that the company aims to invest in technology, automation, and tools that strengthen agents' position in the market, rather than compete directly with them.
Market context
The acquisitions bring together a long-standing SME community platform and a company formations infrastructure provider under a single fintech, at a time when several providers in the sector have been extending their offerings beyond core banking into adjacent business services such as accounting, compliance, and tax administration. Combining a company formation channel with ongoing account management and community engagement tools reflects an approach in which customer acquisition and retention are addressed within one connected system rather than through separate, standalone products.
Further details on integration timelines for UKBF and BDG services within the ANNA Money platform have not been disclosed.
