WiseTech acquires Swedish messaging solutions provider

Australian logistics software provider WiseTech Global has struck again, acquiring another logistics tech firm to extend the range of its CargoWise One logistics planning platform. Sydney-based WiseTech said Monday it had acquired Xware AB, a Swedish messaging solutions provider.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But WiseTech said that Stockholm-based Xware will remain under the leadership of its CEO and CTO, Jonas Ericsson, and its founder and sales manager, Anders Lyckosköld.

WiseTech Global acquires Xware. $WTC Founder and CEO, Richard White, said "We welcome the Xware team who are well-regarded for their innovative and secure message switching technology, into the family." #CargoWise #innovation https://t.co/yGJKh214h7 pic.twitter.com/9W4PPouRGX

— WiseTech Global (@WiseTechGlobal) April 30, 2019

Xware says its secure, interoperable messaging solution, xTrade, is designed to link organizations to their suppliers and partners, allowing them to safely share information among applications, businesses, managed file transfers, business process management and the internet of things (IOT).

"We are acquiring Xware to enhance our messaging gateway and ensure we have greater control over the future development, quality and scalability of this key messaging technology," WiseTech Global Founder and CEO Richard White said in a release. "This is part of our digital straight-through processing strategy to accelerate adoption, reduce risks and costs and encourage wider digitisation within the logistics industry."

WiseTech says the acquisition will expand customers' ability to interconnect their myriad information systems through the company's CargoWise One global logistics execution platform. "Xware will also play a part in our CargoWise Nexus platform, currently in development, designed to enable our customers to rapidly, reliably and securely connect digitally with their own customers and trading partners," White said.

Customers can use the CargoWise One product in place of their transportation management system (TMS) and other software platforms to conduct complex transactions ranging from freight forwarding and customs clearance to warehousing, shipping, tracking, land transport, e-commerce, and cross-border compliance, the company said.

From Xware's point of view, the deal brings the smaller firm new technical and commercial opportunities, such as access to the global market of organizations that operate outside the Nordic nations, Ericsson said in a release.

The acquisition is WiseTech's latest takeover since buying the Swedish customs and logistics solutions provider CargoIT for an undisclosed amount in 2018, and half a dozen other companies in the same year.That string of acquisitions "in line with WiseTech Global's clearly stated strategy of accelerating long-term organic growth through targeted, valuable geographic foothold and technology adjacency acquisitions," the company said.