Private equity firm AnaCap Financial Partners has acquired the £8bn Novia adviser platform, its third platform acquisition in 12 months.

The terms of the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, have not been disclosed.

AnaCap has acquired a large number of financial businesses in recent years, including the Wealthtime platform and Amber Financial Investments.

Novia was set up in 2008 and is one of the smaller UK platforms although one of the larger independents.

It has Assets Under Management of £8.15bn and 67,000 clients advised by more than 1,000 IFA firms.

AnaCap’s deal marks the latest move in the rapid consolidation of the UK platform sector with Standard Life recently announcing it was looking for a buyer for Parmenion, one if its three platforms.

The independent Nucleus platform was also recently put up for sale with a bidding process under way.

In the past 12 months AnaCap has acquired platform Amber Financial Investments in July and Wealthtime in December last year.

AnaCap reports it has now acquired almost £11bn in AuM and says it will continue to focus on tech-focused financial firms and will look for both organic expansion and “attractive bolt-on acquisition opportunities.”

AnaCap has signed 5 private equity deals in 2020 with a combined value of over £450m. It has offices in London, Luxembourg, New Delhi, Madrid and Lisbon.

Nassim Cherchali, partner for M&A at AnaCap, said: “We view this exciting acquisition of Novia as a truly fundamental deal in our strategy across the UK wealth management platform space.

“The investment means we have vastly increased our fund management and technological capabilities. We look forward to this next chapter, working with Novia’s impressive technology platform to increase its growth via planned investments into distribution and the building of in-house asset management capabilities.”

Bill Vasilieff, chief executive and a founder of Novia, said: “Novia was keen to partner with a company that had a strong track record in growing fintech businesses with innovative operational strategies. We believe that AnaCap represents the perfect choice to help us develop and, pending completion, we look forward to an exciting new chapter for the company in 2021 and beyond.”

The investment will be made from AnaCap Financial Partners III, LP.