FRANKFURT — ChargePoint, one of the world’s largest EV charging networks, has agreed to acquire operating software company has.to.be for 250 million euros ($295 million) to expand its foothold in the European market, the company said in a statement.
Founded in 2013, has.to.be, in which Volkswagen is a minority shareholder, employs 125 people in Austria and Germany. Its software manages more than 40,000 charging points on the continent, with access to 250,000 via roaming agreements.
“As an established leader in North America, our continued investment in Europe is critical to our stated growth strategy,” ChargePoint CEO Pasquale Romano said.
“Our combined assets should position us to accelerate our leadership as electrification continues to take hold across continents.”
The planned stock-and-cash transaction is expected to close this year, pending regulatory approval, the two companies said Tuesday. It will be ChargePoint’s first acquisition since the company went public in March, Romano said.
ChargePoint already operates in 16 countries in Europe.
“I don’t think you can be in this business if you’re not operating in a large percentage of the world,” Romano said. He added that ChargePoint was drawn to the deal by has.to.be.’s customer base, team and technology.
“We get a great engineering team that philosophically looks at the construction of the network the same way we do,” Romano
said.
Has.to.be’s more than 1,000 customers include BP, Volkswagen Group units Audi and Porsche as well as charging joint venture Ionity, whose shareholders include Daimler, BMW, Ford and Hyundai.
ChargePoint’s acquisition comes a week after the European Union unveiled a policy package to combat climate change and bring down emissions, with spending on charging infrastructure expected to be 80-120 billion euros by 2040.
Bloomberg contributed to this report
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