Telescope AI is joining Purple Group
Telescope AI, the company orchestrating frontier AI for capital markets, has agreed to be acquired by Purple Group Limited (JSE: PPE), the South African fintech behind EasyEquities, with businesses spanning retail investing, financial advice, retirement funds, fractional property and crypto.
Purple was Telescope’s first enterprise partner. Telescope’s earliest capabilities went live with the EasyEquities team, and the two companies have worked together since Telescope was founded. The acquisition, signed on 10 July 2026, deepens a relationship that has shaped Telescope from the start.
Luc Pettett will continue to lead Telescope as Chief Executive Officer, with a minimum five-year commitment, and has been appointed Chief AI Officer of Purple Group, leading AI initiatives across the group. The Telescope team has made long-term commitments as part of the transaction. Completion is subject to customary regulatory approval in South Africa, expected shortly.
Telescope has run lean by design. Founded with early access to OpenAI’s GPT-3, a core team of five, working closely with its advisors, built an operating rhythm around AI: loop engineering, autonomous agents running UAT and monitoring compliance, and human oversight throughout. The company is hiring actively, and as it grows it will keep product and engineering in lockstep: one product manager for every engineer. Today Telescope’s capabilities reach more than 3 million end users through platforms including IG Group and CMC, amongst other valued partners, across 7 jurisdictions and 13 languages.
Purple operates across South Africa and, through its partnership with GCash, the Philippines, an addressable audience of millions of investors. For Telescope this provides a live environment to deploy AI capabilities, measure what actually helps investors, and refine quickly: multi-language experiences, AI insights, conversational tools, and over time, more affordable financial guidance developed with regulators and licensed partners. What Telescope learns from these deployments flows back into the platform every partner uses.
”Joining forces with Purple is a wonderful fit that ultimately gives our partners and end-users better AI capabilities. Rapid deployments across millions of investors give us immediate feedback on which solutions drive value, and that learning accelerates what we build for every partner.” — Luc Pettett, Founder & CEO, Telescope
Telescope continues to operate as Telescope, with the same team, products and roadmap. Nothing changes in how the company works with its enterprise partners.
As part of the transition, Kevin Algeo is stepping aside as an advisor to Telescope and will continue his role at Crypto.com.
”Two years ago I wrote about AI and how we needed to lean in. This deal moves us from leaning in to leading in. I have no doubt that Telescope, working with all of us, is the catalyst that will take us and our clients further than we could ever dream.” — Charles Savage, Group CEO, Purple Group
The transaction was managed by Hemisphere Partners.
About Telescope
Telescope AI is an Australian-founded fintech that orchestrates frontier AI for capital markets. Its platform powers investment discovery, research, technical analysis, conversational intelligence and compliance for brokerages and trading platforms including IG Group, CMC, tastytrade, Sharesies and EasyEquities, with features exposed to more than 3 million end users. Telescope’s compliance layer, Guardrails, has completed more than 2.5 million checks across 7 global jurisdictions.
About Purple Group
Purple Group Limited (JSE: PPE) is a South African fintech group. Its businesses span retail investing (EasyEquities), active trading (EasyTrader, formerly GT247.com), asset management (Easy Asset Management and EasyETFs), retirement savings (EasyRetire/RISE), fractional property (EasyProperties) and crypto (EasyCrypto). The group serves 1.24 million active clients with R94.9 billion in client assets, and operates in South Africa and the Philippines, where EasyEquities Philippines has launched in partnership with GCash.