The Ghent-based software builder for charging stations, Optimile, has found a new breath. To expand its operations at a European level, the company has been fully acquired by the German fuel card giant DKV Mobility. The takeover fits into a broader scenario, as the latter has been buying similar companies over the past few years to transition its business from fossil fuels to emission-free energy. 

DKV Mobility has reached an agreement with shareholders BNP Paribas and AG Insurance to acquire the Belgian software provider for charging solutions, Optimile, in full. Financial details about the deal remain undisclosed. In 2024, Optimile had reached €48.2 million in revenue, with a small but meaningful profit of close to €1 million.

Part of a new platform

For the German fuel card company, Optimile is the missing puzzle piece in the new platform it is trying to assemble. After the takeover of Smartlab, specialized in the billing of charge point networks, and GreenFlux, dedicated to smart charging and load balancing, Optimile joins the constellation with software solutions for clients seeking charging management. The Belgian firm also has a charging card division called Mobiflow.

Geography matters as well. “Belgium is one of Europe’s strongest and fastest-growing e-mobility markets,” said Sven Mehringer, the DKV Mobility managing director responsible for energy and vehicle services, in the acquisition announcement

But under German ownership, Optimile will expand far beyond its national borders. Its software is distributed across a network that already touches an additional 1.5 million charge cards and 1.1 million public charge points across the DKV Mobility group.

This is an important scaling operation. Leveraging its charging software across Germany, France, Scandinavia, and beyond requires a different kind of muscle – think sales infrastructure, mastering regulatory requirements, and capital – that a medium-sized company in Ghent simply cannot self-fund or manage.

Success story

Optimile is a success story. It was launched exactly ten years ago. In 2016, a small team started building software for charging stations in Ghent. It focused on the invisible layer that makes charge points actually work: the bits and bytes behind authorization, monitoring, access management, or roaming across borders. The company is hardly known to the general public.

It’s partly due to their main customers, which include petrol station operators, energy companies, charge point installers, supermarket chains, and so on. These are larger players that handle a network of charging poles.

The strategy worked. By the end of 2024, Optimile had 60 employees and moved on to its Mobiflow charging cards, which have now become a recognizable brand in the Benelux. Becoming part of one of Europe’s largest mobility platforms seems a logical step forward on the company’s road map to growth.