Dragons’ Den star and serial entrepreneur Peter Jones has sold Wireless Logic to ECI Partners, a UK mid-market private equity firm, for £38m. Wireless Logic was an independent M2M communications specialist, with 3600 customers and nearly 600,000 sims under management in the UK and continental Europe.
“Wireless Logic is the UK’s leader in M2M networks and has grown significantly in a fairly short time frame since I made the decision to acquire the business in 2002,” said Jones (pictured).
ECI is one of the longest established private equity groups in the UK and has total committed capital of over £1.1bn. Wireless Logic offers an M2M communication service, connecting embedded sensing devices in vehicles via sim-based technology.
Wireless Logic was formed in 1999 by the current managing director, Oliver Tucker, and sales director, Philip Cole – both experienced operators in the telecoms and technology industries. Jones acquired the business in 2002 as he believed that the M2M market had huge potential in the years to follow.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed helping Philip and Oliver to grow the business in that time and I will be watching with interest how the business develops further with the support and backing of ECI,” said Jones.
The company partners with all the major mobile networks including Vodafone, Orange and O2. The capability of sim enabled machines to transmit and receive information instantaneously improves efficiency, reduces costs and improves response times. Applications include vehicle tracking, smart metering, home and business security and intelligent health monitoring.
“We moved quickly to secure a commanding market position in this exciting and rapidly developing M2M market and have created a business model that adds value to our clients and that creates attractive recurring revenues,” said Tucker.
“We look forward to building on our position as market leaders with continual development in our software platform and increasing our service and value-adds to our channel customers.”
Wireless Logic’s technology and services are integral to the continued growth of the internet of things, which refers to the increasing number of devices that are internet enabled. Vehicle tracking was one of the first industry sectors to develop on the back of M2M technology and significant growth remains in this market, with only 20% of commercial vehicles currently tracked.
Rapid growth is also forecast in other sectors, such as smart utility metering, healthcare and security, and new applications are being developed every day such as wireless advertising and PDQ machines in taxis.
“The possible applications for M2M technology are virtually limitless and we are extremely excited by the potential of Wireless Logic in this rapidly growing market,” said Chris Warren, director of ECI.
“We are looking forward to working with the management team and assisting the company in its continuing expansion and market development.”
The M2M market is forecast to experience rapid growth of more than 30% per annum and Wireless Logic is well positioned to benefit from this expansion. The company was ranked 25th in the Sunday Times Tech Track 2010 league table of the UK’s fastest-growing private technology companies.
“We are excited to be moving on to the next stage in our company’s development and expect to benefit from ECI’s backing and knowledge of our sector,” said Cole. “We will continue to drive growth in the UK and further European expansion is our next stop.”
