IMImobile is buying Infracast, which provides multi-channel messaging applications and middleware to the UK banking and telecoms sectors, for £8.2m. Infracast is a leading technology partner to Telefonica, and through that partnership, IMImobile will now serve four of the top five tier one retail banking groups in the UK.

IMImobile said that Infracast’s customer and product portfolio is complementary to its own existing products and solutions, providing both businesses with significant cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.

IMImobile plans to integrate Infracast’s technology into its banking solution portfolio, which includes secure messaging, compliance and regulatory messaging, fraud and identity management. These can be applied over multiple channels, from SMS and IVR to IP and social messaging channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Push Notifications.

“The acquisition of Infracast helps us strengthen our capabilities and opportunities in the financial services sector, a sector which is profoundly impacted by the shift of consumer behaviour towards digital and mobile technologies,” said IMImobile CEO, Jay Patel. “We expect to rapidly integrate the acquisition over the next six months and take advantage of the close synergies in terms of technology, partnerships, client base and the experienced senior management team.”