Financial advisory firm Sedulo, which invested £1.4m in its new Liverpool operation in 2021, reports annual revenues of £13.2m – a rise of almost 30%. Tony McDonough reports

Sedulo says revenues hit £13.2m in the year to October 2022, an almost 30% rise on the £10.5m figure for 2021. 

This was also way above the £8.5m reported in 2020 by the financial advisory firm which opened its first office in Liverpool in 2021 in a £1.4m investment. Manchester-based Sedulo, which was founded in 2009, also has offices in Leeds and London.

Sedulo paid £1m for a lease at Exchange Flags in Liverpool city centre and spent a further £400,000 refurbishing the premises. Weeks later it announced the acquisition of 60-year-old Liverpool accountancy firm Wilson Henry.

Its team offered expertise in audit, taxation and corporate finance. Now, 18 months on, Sedulo employs a 40-strong team in Liverpool and has seen revenues grow by more than 30%. founder Paul Cheetham-Karcz says he aims to double the office in size.

In November Mr Cheetham-Karcz urged other entrepreneurs to follow his lead and invest in Liverpool. He said: ““If I go back to the beginning, everyone at the start was saying ‘don’t do Liverpool’ and ‘you’re a Manc in the middle of Liverpool and they won’t take well to it’.

“I disagreed and felt like we had to embrace the city in order for the corporate world to embrace us – and it’s worked. It’s a lesson to others, I believe a lot of people try to take from Liverpool and not give back.”

Speaking about the latest set of results Mr Cheetham-Karcz said there have been challenges posed by a full return to their working-in-the-office model post-pandemic. But he added staffing levels had also grown by 10%.

He claimed major players in the financial services industry are shedding clients who don’t turn over more than £100m a year. This leaves a “perfect gap” for Sedulo.

Mr Cheetham-Karcz said: “It has allowed us to move further up the food chain and approach businesses around that level. In a big organisation those businesses will be just a number but to us they are a significant partner.

“This year, we’ve grown our own revenues by around 28%, entered the accountancy top 75 and are now in the Mid-Tier Power Index, while also appointing a new management team, establishing ourselves in Liverpool and growing our presence in London too.”