Leicester startup Reviews.io has been bought by American firm AppHub in a deal worth over £70m. 

Reviews.io, which collects and publishes customer reviews of e-commerce merchants, was founded by Callum McKeefery and his partner Nicole Albano at the couple’s kitchen table in 2012.

It has since grown to over 70 staff with offices in Leicester, Irvine, Sydney & Berlin.

Talks between Reviews.io and Apphub began over a year ago and the £72m acquisition is thought to be AppHub’s biggest purchase to date.

Callum said on Linkedin:

“Deciding to sell Reviews.io was without doubt one of the biggest decisions of our life and one that we wrestled with day and night – made harder because of the wonderful clients, partners and team members we were working with.”

“It’s a huge achievement for any start-up to be purchased, and one that myself and all the team are very proud of. That said, I’m excited to work on the next chapter in the REVIEWS.io journey, and show you what we’re capable of achieving with a little funding in our pocket.”

Arjun Batra, co-founder and co-CEO of AppHub said:

“The product suite offered by REVIEWS.io fully supports the AppHub mission to build software that enables ecommerce success.

“Our combined platform addresses a range of pain points for e-commerce businesses, including marketing, conversion, logistics, and now reviews, making it well positioned to serve both SMB and enterprise customers.”

Callum said that he’ll stay on as CEO and as part of the deal will become a board member and shareholder in AppHub.