Sophia Antipolis, France, July 20 2018 – Centile, one of Europe’s leading providers of Cloud PBX, unified communications and fixed mobile convergence solutions for service providers and integrators, has announced that it has joined forces with Swyx Solutions GmbH and Within Reach Group (WRG).
The merger of Swyx, the German Unified Communications Specialist and WRG, a Dutch holding and parent company of Voiceworks, combined with the acquisition of Centile Telecom Applications is one more step towards creating a new European market leader for Unified Communications (UCaaS) and Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) markets that are poised for rapid growth over the next few years.
Together, the three companies already serve approximately two million end users, via more than 1,400 resellers and service providers. Backed by strong investment from private equity fund Waterland, the new group of companies is in a strong position to further accelerate growth in Europe’s telecom and IT markets, currently experiencing considerable consolidations.
Centile brings an increased international footprint to the combined entity, as it already supports over 100 service providers in 20 countries – including some of the Europe’s largest MNOs and Service Providers deployments – serving more than 600,000 end users. ISTRA, Centile’s scalable multi-tenant cloud UC and FMC platform, will become an integral part of the new operation’s technology portfolio. Being part of a larger group will further accelerate Centile’s development capabilities, while providing access to wider support services and increased global potential.
Says Bertrand Pourcelot, Director General of Centile, “This is great news for us and our customers, enabling us to become a stronger leader in the UCaaS market. Being part of this group enables us to further expand the UCaaS portfolio we already offer our partners, bringing us closer to our mission to be Europe’s UCaaS champion. We look forward to working with the group.”
Ralf Ebbinghaus, CEO and co-founder of Swyx says, “With a combined revenue of 130 million euros and 500 employees across 12 European countries, the three companies are creating a new force in the European market, from which even more synergies will emerge. The planned investments give us the power to remain innovation leaders in the highly dynamic IP-based communications market”.
Stijn Nijhuis, CEO and co-founder of Voiceworks, part of WRG, adds, “Swyx, Voiceworks and Centile grow their businesses through a very large network of resellers and service providers. This provides the combined company with an immediate strong market position in Europe, with a solid base in The Netherlands, Germany and France. The merger between Swyx and WRG and the acquisition of Centile are the first significant results of our European expansion, both bringing a significant increase to our international reach”.
“The organic growth and drive for innovation of Voiceworks, Centile and Swyx is remarkable and will be further accelerated through the merger”, mentions Dr. Carsten Rahlfs, Managing Partner of Waterland Private Equity who supports the new combined group as an investor.