German technology giant Siemens has announced its acquisition of Mendix, a prominent low-code application development platform, for €0.6 billion (approximately $700 million). While Mendix will continue to operate independently and retain its brand name, Siemens plans to leverage the company's technology to expedite its cloud, IoT, and digital enterprise initiatives.
Jan Mrosik, CEO of Siemens' Digital Factory Division, said: As part of our digitalization strategy, Siemens continues to invest in software offerings for the Digital Enterprise. With the acquisition of Mendix, Siemens continues to add to its comprehensive Digital Enterprise and MindSphere IoT portfolio, with cloud domain expertise, cloud agnostic platform solutions, and highly skilled people.
Mendix has already integrated its services with industry-leading cloud services from IBM, SAP, and Pivotal. Mendix co-founder and CEO, Derek Roos, explained that initial discussions began as a strategic partnership, but eventually progressed towards an acquisition. Roos believes that both companies share a similar vision, with Siemens committed to fueling Mendix's growth, developing its platform further, and integrating it with Siemens' MindSphere IoT system.
In response to the acquisition, Roos stated: If you've ever wondered which low-code platform will have the viability to invest and win in the long term, you no longer have to guess. This commitment and investment from Siemens will allow us to accelerate R&D and geo-expansion investments significantly. You're going to see faster innovation, more reach, and an even better customer experience from us.
Low-code platforms, like Mendix, K2, and AppMaster, have increasingly gained popularity among enterprises that aim to empower their employees with data access and usage, allowing non-developers to create applications without learning programming languages. This approach enables faster development and deployment, particularly for database-intensive apps.
Alongside the Mendix acquisition, Siemens unveiled its new company structure, Vision 2020+. This initiative aims to strengthen Siemens' growth portfolio through investments in areas such as IoT integration services. The inclusion of Mendix into the company's Digital Enterprise and MindSphere IoT assortment is part of this strategy, and more similar acquisitions may be expected in the future.
Prior to the acquisition, Mendix had raised approximately $38 million from investors like Battery Ventures, Prime Ventures, and HENQ Invest.
