London, 15 January 2025 – Omni Partners (“Omni”) is pleased to announce the acquisition of Looking Local, a leading provider of digital solutions for social care and benefits case management to local authorities. The deal represents the latest addition to Omni’s growing govtech buy-and-build platform, which launched two months ago as Infoshare+.
Founded in 2017 by Guy Giles and John Latham alongside Kirklees Council, Looking Local is an established trusted partner to nearly 50 local authorities in the UK.
Looking Local provides its clients with innovative digital products that enable significant financial and efficiency savings. By freeing up resources to focus on complex and vulnerable social care and benefits cases, the company’s solutions help drive impactful social outcomes. Key offerings such as BetterCare Finance, BetterCare Support, BetterOff Welfare and ScanStation provide transformative capabilities across adult social care, revenues & benefits and frontline customer services.
The Looking Local team will join Infoshare+, with both Guy and John taking up critical roles on the company’s leadership team as a Managing Director and the Chief Technology Officer, respectively.
This transaction represents the next step in Omni’s strategy to create a govtech and data powerhouse for the public sector. The addition of Looking Local to the Infoshare+ platform enhances the group’s reputation as an innovative, scalable software and data company dedicated to improving public sector decision-making and service delivery. Under the ownership of Omni, Infoshare+ serves as an attractive home for smaller government software providers with ambitious growth aspirations. Infoshare+ addresses a significant gap in the highly fragmented UK govtech market, which has historically been dominated by a few large consolidators.
Wayne Story, Partner at Omni, commented: “We are thrilled to welcome Looking Local into Infoshare+. As we seek to address the evolving needs of the public sector, it is critical that we enhance the existing capabilities of the Infoshare+ platform by integrating complementary innovative technology. Our acquisition of Looking Local does exactly that. Executing this deal so quickly after launching Infoshare+ demonstrates our ability to identify attractive acquisitions and build strong relationships with entrepreneurial owners. We will continue to work diligently to identify additional software solutions to further amplify the platform’s value and impact and are excited about what the future holds for Infoshare+.”
Steve Thorn, Executive Chairman at Infoshare+, said: “We are passionate about enabling public sector transformation with responsible and impactful software that delivers real value and improvement. The acquisition of Looking Local reinforces our position as a trusted public sector partner, adding cutting-edge software that is already relied upon by many within local government. We are excited for the talented Looking Local team to join the growing family of experts at Infoshare+. Together we’re committed to empowering our customers with innovative software and data solutions that enhance decision-making and tackle the challenges of tomorrow.”
Guy Giles, Managing Director at Looking Local, added: “We are delighted to embark on this new chapter with Infoshare+, continuing our mission to empower local authorities with valuable digital solutions. With our shared vision and goals and combined expertise, we look forward to enhancing the impact we have in supporting the public sector deliver meaningful outcomes for the communities they serve. We have strong relationships with many councils across the UK and plan to continue to provide them, and many others, with digital products that have a genuine and positive impact on people’s lives, whilst enabling more efficient and cost effective delivery of critical services.”
Omni was advised by Mayer Brown (Legal), Dow Schofield Watts (DSW) (Financial & Tax), LucidIQ (Technology) and CCC Contract Consultancy (Contracts). Looking Local was advised by Paris Smith (Legal).