Shop Circle remains the retail software division
Circeus has launched as the holding company behind Shop Circle and announced a new equity investment from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with other investors also taking part.
On June 29, 2026, the group introduced Circeus as its new parent brand. Shop Circle will continue as the retail and commerce software division inside the wider business.
The funding will scale its central AI engineering capability and support continued acquisitions of software businesses that serve the everyday economy.
Over the last four years, Circeus has completed 18 acquisitions and now serves more than 200,000 businesses worldwide. This year, the group is adding more revenue than in the previous two years combined.
18 acquisitions in four years
Across the past three years, Circeus has moved AI from experimentation to scaled deployment across its software portfolio. AI-enabled features now drive a double-digit share of net new bookings.
In several products, customer experience automation has reached about 80%. Developer productivity has also improved by more than 100% through AI-assisted workflows.
Those results span multiple businesses across the portfolio. Circeus connects acquired companies to a central AI capability and reuses agents, skills, infrastructure, data and insights across the group.
After each acquisition, Circeus embeds AI into products, automates operations and shares infrastructure across the business. The model aims to improve product performance, operating efficiency and post-acquisition EBITDA.
Luca Cartechini, founder and chief executive of Circeus, said: “We were not running a fundraising process, as we are profitable and well capitalised, but we chose to make space for EBRD given their institutional standing and to lean further into a market that presents several attractive opportunities.”
Circeus says founders who sell their businesses keep their brands, teams and customer relationships. In return, the group adds AI engineering, growth expertise and centralised back-office support.
Further acquisitions are expected to complete in the coming months. The wider strategy is to acquire selective B2B software businesses and connect them to a shared AI operating model.
Bruno Lusic, investor at EBRD, said: “We are backing a team bringing AI to the essential software that businesses across our regions rely on every day, and Circeus’s compounding model aligns closely with EBRD’s long-term mandate.”
