First Intuition acquires Decoded

Apiary-backed First Intuition, one of the UK's leading professional accountancy and finance training providers, has acquired Decoded, the British-founded data and AI capability training company. The acquisition combines First Intuition's mastery of financial fluency with Decoded's data and AI expertise, creating a workforce capability business able to reskill and upskill professionals at national scale.

The acquisition brings together two highly respected organisations with complementary strengths. Decoded has spent over a decade building one of the world's leading data and AI capability businesses, working with teams and boards across organisations of every size and sector. First Intuition brings national reach, an established reputation for quality, and the apprenticeship and levy-funded routes that employers already use and fund.

This move responds to a shift already under way in organisations. Finance, data and AI capability are converging in the workplace, yet employers still have to buy them separately, from different providers and to different standards. The two businesses already share a number of clients, and in several cases those employers were buying financial capability from First Intuition and data and AI capability from Decoded independently. Together they can now offer both through a single partner, benefiting from blended programmes to upskill employees at pace.

Martin Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of First Intuition, said:

“Bringing Decoded into our business alongside First Intuition is a statement of ambition. Finance, data and AI capability are converging in every organisation we work with, and no one in the UK is yet developing all of it properly, at scale, for the people who need it. Every one of us will need to develop new skills and behaviours to navigate the future world of work. And this is the challenge that we will answer: by building one of the UK's, and ultimately one of the world's, leading capability businesses for the future of work”

Jessica French, Partner at Apiary Capital LLP, said:

“We backed First Intuition in 2023 because of the quality of what the business delivers and the strength of its leadership team. The acquisition of Decoded is exactly the kind of growth we wanted to support for the wider organisation: complementary, culturally aligned, and addressing a further capability gap that employers are struggling with globally. Demand for financial fluency and data and AI skills are here for the long term, and the combination of First Intuition and Decoded puts the business in a strong position to meet this need for organisations.”