Jacyn P. Heavens

Jacyn P. Heavens
BornJune 1983 (age 43)
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forFounder and CEO of Epos Now

Jacyn P. Heavens (born June 1983) is an English entrepreneur, the founder and chief executive of Epos Now, a cloud-based point-of-sale software company based in Norwich.[1][2][3]

Career

Heavens began his working life in direct sales, first in insurance and then in mobile phones, and by his mid-twenties had become one of the top-ranked handset salespeople at his firm.[2][4][5] He was subsequently recruited by Three to launch its business network.[2][4]

Around 2010 to 2011, Heavens co-invested in and operated a music bar in Norwich. The business was not profitable, which led him to identify technical limitations in point-of-sale systems that served as the basis for founding Epos Now later that year.[2][6][4]

Heavens founded Epos Now in Norwich in 2011 as a bootstrapped venture providing cloud-based point-of-sale and retail-management software for small and medium-sized retail and hospitality businesses.[6][7][8][3][9] The company appeared on The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 in 2015 at number 13, described at the time as the fastest-growing point-of-sale company in the United Kingdom and the fastest-growing technology company in the East of England.[10] In 2016 Epos Now ranked 30th on the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 with reported three-year revenue growth of 597 per cent, and was named the regional winner for Cambridgeshire and East of England.[8][11]

Business Weekly reported that the company subsequently moved its headquarters to Norwich Business Park and opened a US operation, while PwC profile described Heavens's approach to building the company around an "employee-first" culture.[12][13]

In 2016, Heavens was shortlisted in the retail category of the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards in the same year.[14] In 2017 he was featured by Startups.co.uk in its Young Guns cohort of under-35 founders.[6]

In May 2024, according to Reuters, Heavens, who at that date was the sole owner of the business, had engaged BNP Paribas as an adviser to explore the sale of a minority stake at a valuation of up to US$1.5 billion, on reported 2023 revenue of GBP 59.6 million; the report was corroborated by the payments trade publication PYMNTS.[1][15][16]

Academic roles

Heavens was appointed Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of East Anglia in 2017, and in 2018 the university awarded him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his contributions to business in the region.[17][18] In 2024 he joined Tech Nation as a mentor for its Future Fifty programme, which supports late-stage United Kingdom technology companies preparing for initial public offering or acquisition.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 Crowley, Amy-Jo; Sakoui, Anousha (1 May 2024). "British payments group Epos Now explores possible stake sale, sources say". Reuters. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Green, Harriet (12 September 2016). "Epos Now founder Jacyn Heavens on luck, crying, making the most of Brexit and getting mashed". City A.M. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  3. 1 2 "Jacyn Heavens - Personal appointments". United Kingdom: Companies House. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 "The salesman who could afford a Ferrari when he was 24". BBC News. 4 September 2016. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  5. ↑ Campbell, Scott (5 September 2016). "Meet the mobile phone seller who bought a Ferrari at 24 - and is now worth GBP 17 million". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 Williams, Henry (22 June 2022). "Jacyn Heavens: Epos Now - Young Guns Class of 2017". Startups.co.uk. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  7. ↑ "Tech report: Norfolk and Suffolk". UKTN. September 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  8. 1 2 "Epos Now - UK Technology Fast 50 winner profile". Deloitte. 2016. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  9. ↑ "EPOS NOW (UK) LTD - Company number 07666961". United Kingdom: Companies House. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  10. ↑ "Epos Now recognised as the UK's fastest growing POS company in The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100". Retail Technology Review. 9 September 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  11. ↑ "Eastern gazelles make UK technology Fast 50". Business Weekly. Cambridge. 2016. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  12. ↑ "Norwich tech firm announces expansion plans". Business Weekly. Cambridge. Archived from the original on 28 July 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  13. ↑ Melia, Phil (June 2017). "Fast Growth Success Stories: People Make a Business". PwC Fast Growth. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  14. ↑ "Great British Entrepreneur Awards: Shortlist Announced". Cranfield School of Management, Business Growth Programme. 2016. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  15. ↑ "Report: Epos Now Considers Sale of Minority Stake, Other Options". PYMNTS. 1 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  16. ↑ "Epos Now: Robust growth driven by shift to subscription model and global expansion". Business of Payments. 20 March 2023. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  17. ↑ "UEA appoints Entrepreneur in Residence". University of East Anglia. November 2017. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  18. ↑ "UEA's 2018 honorary graduates named". University of East Anglia. 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  19. ↑ "Future Fifty Mentors - Jacyn Heavens". Tech Nation. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
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