ChargePoint made its second acquisition after going public in March. It purchased European fleet management company ViriCiti in cash for 75 million. This news comes only weeks after ChargePoint announced that it had purchased European charging software company hastobe.This new deal, similar to the hastobe purchase, will increase ChargePoints hardware and vehicle management software portfolio for electric fleet customers. It also adds another 2,500 networked port and 3,500 vehicles to its expanding portfolio. ViriCiti customers are the Chicago Transit Authority, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority and British public transportation company Arriva. Berlin's main public transport service Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe is also a part of the ViriCiti family.Pasquale Romano, ChargePoint CEO, stated to TechCrunch that the acquisition of ViriCiti would give ChargePoint access to a wider range of software features for customers than its core offerings of vehicle charging scheduling and charger management. This will include battery health monitoring and vehicle operations data, as well as greater vehicle telematics capabilities.Romano stated that it was important for us to make fleets electrify as easy as possible.ChargePoint is the North American's largest vehicle charging network, with over 115,000 charging stations worldwide. Through network roaming agreements, customers can also access another 113,000 charging spots. Although the company is best known for its extensive brand network, it also offers cloud subscriptions and a significant fleet and commercial division. After merging with Blank-check company Switchback Energy Acquisition Corporation, the company went public.Some of the ViriCitis services such as battery health monitoring could be available for residential customers or fleet customers who allow employees to take home or use a company car full-time. It would make sense that vehicles that are driven home with their driver would require that your infrastructure look as if it were an extension of your depots. We were surprised by the amount of commercial and residential value there was.ChargePoint will also absorb ViriCitis's more than 50-person workforce. This whole team of software engineers will be transferred to the new company. Romano stated that if you want to see the evidence of our mindset, just look at the number of software engineers in both of these acquisitions. The majority of the staff of these companies are engineers. They also all use software.
