📅 October 16, 2024 — Source: SMEs & Regions — Les Échos
📰 Media type: PQN (National Daily Press)
🎯 Topic: Economy/Services
👥 Audience: 729,000
📄 Word count: 486
✍️ Journalist: Paul Molga, correspondent in Marseille
The merger of the main French and German fleet management software publishers gives birth to a player with a turnover of 100 million euros, aiming for one million vehicles managed by 2027.
Optimum Automotive, an Aix-based specialist in the digitalization of fleet management, will finally not need the growth funds it planned to raise: the company has just been bought by Shiftmove, the German leader in mobility software.
A major player in a rapidly consolidating market
This strategic operation marks the creation of a group of 350 employees, claiming 18,000 corporate customers and 550,000 vehicles under management. While the exact turnover has not been disclosed, estimates place it around 100 million euros.
Their strength? Software that can aggregate and analyze thousands of technical and behavioral data to detect sources of significant savings — up to 15% on operating costs and environmental impact.
Sustained growth, an international footprint
Thanks to this approach, Optimum Automotive grew by 30-50% in recent years, with a park of 200,000 vehicles in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, but also in Africa (subsidiaries in Abidjan and Casablanca).
A strategy based on data intelligence
“With Shiftmove, we are reaching a critical mass of data that is essential to feed our algorithms and find new sources of savings,” explains Daniel Vassallucci, founder of Optimum Automotive, who remains at the head of the group's French subsidiary, who remains at the head of the group's French subsidiary, with 107 employees.
Since its creation in 2006, the company had raised nearly 17 million euros to design its supervision tools. This acquisition is the Shiftmove's first external operation, born in January 2023 from the merger between Avrios and Vimcar, two market leaders, supported by the American fund Battery Ventures.
Massive transformation potential
“Our ambition is to manage one million vehicles via the cloud by 2027,” says Francine Gervazio, president of Shiftmove.
She recalls that only one European company out of three use software from fleet management, against One out of five in France, yet the first continental market, with more than 9 million commercial vehicles.
A response to regulatory pressure
“Sustainability regulations and rising fuel, insurance and repair costs are putting pressure on the sector,” she adds. It numbers at 60 million euros the savings achievable by its customers by 2027, through automation, AI, and planning towards a low-emission mobility.
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