Siemens is taking over the Dutch OV (public transport) software company Sqills for €550 million. Sqills was founded in 2002 by a number of former students from the Dutch University of Twente. The company develops software for inventory management and reservation- and ticketing systems for public transport companies.
Sqills had been expanding rapidly over the past few years. It became a company with a number of branches in Paris and Istanbul, amongst others. A total of about 160 employees work there. The company is now part of Siemens Mobility, a subsidiary of Siemens AG. Siemens Mobility has been focusing on transportation solutions for more than 160 years. Digitalization, like the Sqills software solution, plays an increasingly important role in this.
Sustainability
“In order to significantly increase the number of rail passengers and meet the 2030 climate targets, we need to provide passengers with an optimized process that allows them to seamlessly identity and use all train services on offer as seamlessly as possible. The acquisition of Sqills and its easy-to-implement Software-as-a-Service platform provides us with the opportunity to achieve exactly that,” said Michael Peter, CEO of Siemens Mobility.
Global expansion
Bart van Munster, co-founder and CEO of Sqills is happy with the takeover by Siemens. “Joining Siemens Mobility is a fantastic opportunity that enables Sqills to expand its plans to Asia-Pacific and the Americas. Together with a solid and reliable international partner like Siemens Mobility, we will be even better equipped to operate the mobility software business and the optimalization of train and bus travel on a global scale with local representation.”
A sense of pride
Jaap Beernink, CEO of Novel-T, the accelerator for start-ups, spin-offs and scale-ups from the University of Twente, follows the news concerning Sqills with a sense of pride: “This step is a fantastic recognition and appreciation for the fine and hard work of the entrepreneurs and their team. Seeing opportunities and achieving them, Sqills is therefore a wonderful example of successful entrepreneurship.”
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