The Nordomatic Group, the largest independent integrator of open, cloud-based smart building solutions in the Nordic region, has announced the acquisition of Spica Technologies, a Birmingham, UK based provider of digital workplace software.

Founded in 2014, Spica’s cloud-based technology has been deployed across more than 25 million square feet of office space in 20 countries throughout Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Its client base spans large multinational corporates, real estate asset management firms, landlords, facilities management companies and government departments.

Significant deployments, highlighted in our latest Digital Workplace Report, include;

• Development of a user-centric workplace experience solution for Zurich Insurance, for 1,600 users at the insurers’ new state-of-the-art ˈQuai Zurich Campusˈ global headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
• Delivery of a desk booking workplace app for Mace headquarters in London, UK.
• Sensor-based application which monitors office space utilisation and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) at Inspire Integrated Dubai offices.

According to our recent Workplace Experience Apps Report, the company has moved away from its former positioning as a broad-based building IoT platform towards its current focus on their GemEx SaaS workplace experience platform and Luna Digital Workplace app. 

Olov Schagerlund, CEO Nordomatic said: “This is a very exciting move for Nordomatic into the fast-growing Smart Workplace segment. We will combine Spica’s solution portfolio with our existing Smart BMS and Smart Energy service offerings to create a new Nordomatic PropTech division (to be headed up by Tim Streather), predicated on the core themes of ESG and Workplace Experience.”

Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Nordomatic reports a turnover of just over SEK 1 billion (around $103 million), with more than 500 employees. With a presence in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, the group offers full life-cycle capabilities for its customers – from new project integrations, retrofits and upgrades to aftermarket service and support. Its BMS solutions integrate and manage a building’s heating/cooling, lighting, access control and security as well as fire control. 

The Spica acquisition enables Nordomatic to enter the UK market and aligns with their ambition to grow beyond Scandinavia. For the past decade, Nordomatic has pursued an aggressive expansion strategy completing 14 acquisitions to further strengthen its value proposition and gain market share in the Nordics.

In May 2020, Nordomatic announced that the group was speeding up their planned transition to focus on the end-customer market for smart buildings. This strategic change involved further investment in energy optimization services, focusing on projects that bring recurring revenues and which enabled the business to develop ongoing end-customer relationships.

The firm announced a significant minority investment in Stockholm-based Altacogni AB in August 2020. The investment enabled Nordomatic to gain access to a worldwide licensing and development resource for the software and hardware smart buildings platform from Yanzi Networks, which declared bankruptcy in July 2020.

Nordomatic has also augmented its energy software and services offering through acquisitions. Kabona, a Swedish energy efficiency specialist was acquired in March 2018 which enhanced the group’s service portfolio. And Ecopilot, a provider of intelligent energy management software for building optimization was acquired in September 2019 from Bemsiq AB, part of Latour Industries. The software has been installed in more than 1,000 buildings currently saving between 10% and 40% of their energy bills and reducing CO2 emissions by more than 10,000 tonnes per year. 60% of Sweden's largest real estate owners have installed Ecopilot. Recent deployments include projects for IKEA Aalborg, Westminster College, London, UK and projects in Norway and Canada.

Spica will benefit from the wider scope of Nordomatic’s established capabilities in BMS integration and adjacent SaaS offerings in remote access and energy management.

This article was written by Daphne Tomlinson, Senior Research Associate at Memoori.