A service of

Shiftmove aims to look for acquisitions in UK, Spain, Italy, Benelux – CFO

Summary
  • Mature markets prioritized, but Poland, Romania also interesting
  • Target search may be broadened beyond Europe at later stage
  • France-based Optimum Automotive acquired using 100% debt

Shiftmove, a German-Swiss platform for fleet management software, aims to make further acquisitions, following its just announced buy of France-based Optimum Automotive, CFO Wouter Hendriks told Mergermarket.

Additional acquisitions will ideally serve to realise immediate value for customers through its services, as well as offering geographical expansion, Hendriks said. Initially, the company will look for targets in more mature and developed markets, such as the UK, Spain, Italy and Benelux, he added.

In a similar vein, the acquisition of digital fleet management platform Optimum Automotive will enable Battery Ventures-backed Shiftmove to expand into France, which is Europe’s largest fleet market, the company said in a press release today.

Created in 2023 from the merger of Switzerland-based Avrios and Germany-based Vimcar, Shiftmove has a target for its cloud-based software solutions to manage 1 million cars and trucks by 2027, Hendriks said, but added that it can go faster towards, or even beyond, that growth if it wants to do so – and if it finds the right opportunities sooner.

Following its latest acquisition, the number of managed vehicles will be 550,000.

In addition to its initial focus on more mature markets, developing markets such as Poland and Romania could also be of interest, but they are potential markets for greenfield growth too, he said.

Each country in Europe can offer synergies with Shiftmove for expansion, but every territory also has minor market and operational differences. Hence, an acquisition can be crucial, as such local nuances can make a difference to growth and success in specific target countries, Hendriks said.

“Right now, we are looking at European markets, but we could broaden that later,” he said.

It is too early to say how future acquisitions would be funded, or the size range, but the company’s ambitions are not constrained by a specific number, he said.

The acquisition of Optimum Automotive has been 100% funded by debt, Hendriks said, noting that these were bank loans from entities he declined to name.

Optimum Automotive, which operates heavily not just in France, but in Portugal, Spain and Africa as well, has 107 employees, 7,500 customers and 200,000 vehicles under management, as per the announcement. The acquisition will increase Shiftmove’s number of employees to 350, its corporate customers to 18,000 and the vehicles under management to 550,000, as per the release.

Its sponsor, Battery Ventures, controls some 90% of Shiftmove, which it established after its acquisition of Avrios and Vimcar in January 2023, as reported. It reportedly paid USD 212m for the two companies combined.

The new merged entity assumed the name Shiftmove in October last year. It has a likely to exit (LTE) score of 27 out of a possible 100*, according to Mergermarket’s predictive algorithm.

*Mergermarket‘s LTE predictive analytics assign a score to sponsor-backed companies to help track and predict when an exit could occur through M&A, an IPO, a direct listing or a deSPAC transaction.