PARIS — Rexel announced it has acquired a minority stake in Trace Software International, a software edition company specialized in electrical design and calculation for non-residential building activity, and 100% of Freshmile Services, an independent electrical vehicle charging station operator offering both services and supervision software. The ambition underpinning these two acquisitions is twofold:
- Complete the current range of software solutions with a new proposition dedicated to the nonresidential market to facilitate the daily work of our customers.
- Offer a full range of services to end users, from installed base monitoring to remote maintenance.
Trace Software International: An electrical design and calculation software – software & services upstream of projects
Rexel has taken a 25% stake in Trace Software International, a French company founded in 1990 and specialized in software design for non-residential building and industries such as energy industries. It offers two software suites for the design and calculation of electrical and photovoltaic installations, which interface seamlessly with BIM projects. This minority stake goes along with a commercial partnership to accelerate the transformation of the Group’s sales force towards selling more software and recurring services. With this investment, Rexel enriches its agnostic value proposition to help customers be more efficient and reinforces the non-residential building offering, alongside an already complete residential offering with software such as Esabora and Comtech.
Freshmile: Charging point operator and e-mobility service provider – software and services downstream of projects
Freshmile Services, founded in 2016, is one of the leading providers of charging services for electric vehicles in Europe. Its value proposition encompasses both the operation of charging points and electric mobility services. The company manages more than 8,000 charging points and provides services to more than 50,000 EV drivers, accessing 100,000 charging points in roaming. It operates in France with 25 employees and generates revenues through an efficient subscription fee model.
The acquisition of Freshmile, mainly from Banque des Territoires (a division of Caisse des dépôts) and Arnaud Mora, the company’s founder, will provide Rexel with enhanced development opportunities in the fast-growing e-mobility business offering added-value services to B2B clients. With this acquisition, Rexel is evolving towards becoming a service provider in remote management of connected objects, allowing energy efficiency. It also allows Rexel to further leverage its product offering in e-mobility solutions including EV charging stations and now offers an end-to-end solution in this attractive business including training, financing and subsidizing. Rexel will also leverage its global network to develop the business internationally.
Arnaud Mora, founder of Freshmile, said: “Joining the Rexel Group enables us to accelerate our growth, to expand internationally and to keep serving our clients with the values that made our success until today: independence and openness. We share with Rexel the vision of an energy transition built on the smart alliance of hardware and services.”
Patrick Berard, Chief Executive Officer of Rexel, commented: “The two transactions we are announcing are the first building blocks in software and services that are part of the strategy we presented at our strategic update on February 11th. Through these bolt-on acquisitions, we will reinforce our positioning and extend our addressable market with innovative adjacent activities. These two deals demonstrate our intention to play an active role across the value chain and to seize new market opportunities. They strengthen our capabilities in the day-to-day software used by our customers and allow us to enter the services segment in the EV business”.
Tagged with acquisition, Rexel