Bond International Software, a recruitment software supplier, has bought Gowi Group, the HR software firm, for £8.9m.

This is Bond’s largest acquisition to date and reflects Bond’s strategy of acquiring businesses in similar and related industries.

Gowi is a privately-owned organisation which employs more than 140 people in five locations across the UK, and has a customer base of more than 850 companies. The existing management will stay on to run the company.

“We have previously said that our strategy is to increase our presence in the wider human capital management area by a combination of software development and acquisition,” explains Steve Russell, chief executive of Bond International Software.