System⁷ acquired by Vault Ventures plc

In July 2025, Nicolas Baxter logged his second exit - and his first into the public markets. Vault Ventures plc (AQSE: VULT), a technology developer listed on London’s Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market, completed the acquisition of System⁷, the UK AI development and automation company Baxter co-founded with Oliver Yonchev. The completion was confirmed in a regulatory announcement dated 3 July 2025, taking a company that had grown to 13 clients in its first three months into a listed group.

By any measure it was a significant outcome - a seven-figure exit that read less like a sell-and-leave than a step up, with System⁷ moving inside a listed group while its founder stayed firmly at the controls.

Crucially, this was not a step away. Baxter stayed on as Founder & CEO of System⁷, which continues to operate as his company inside the listed group. System⁷ was not absorbed and dissolved into Vault; it became the group’s dedicated in-house development and incubation platform, with Baxter still running it day to day.

On top of keeping the helm at System⁷, Baxter joined the board of Vault Ventures plc itself, appointed as a non-executive director effective 18 July 2025. The dual position - still Founder & CEO of the operating company, and now a director of the listed parent - gave him a hand on both the product and the public vehicle that now owns it.

System⁷ is a UK AI development and automation agency, building agentic AI systems, LLM integrations and automation tooling for clients across software (SaaS), marketing, sales, fintech and more. Alongside its own software, it embeds AI directly into the operating functions of the businesses it works with - closing the gap between companies that want AI and companies that can actually ship it.

The post-deal momentum was immediate. System⁷ secured two new growth mandates, running the go-to-market function for rewards app Fancy.com and expanding an automation mandate across Ellers Farm Distillery’s spirits portfolio, then struck a 12-month partnership with macro analytics firm Quant Insight, folding QI’s macroeconomic signals into its AI agent frameworks.

For Baxter, the deal sits in a clear pattern. His first exit came in 2023, when his creator-commerce platform Outfts was acquired by Amaze, where he went on to serve as SVP of Brand & Product ahead of the company’s US listing. System⁷ is the sequel: a faster build, a larger ambition, and an exit that landed him on a public-company board rather than off the cap table.

The throughline is consistency. Two companies, two exits, and in both cases a founder who stayed in the room afterward - this time as Founder & CEO of System⁷ and a director of the listed group now backing it.