Low code software developer Mendix, the genesis of which started in a coffee shop in Rotterdam 13 years ago, has been bought by Siemens for $730 million (£558 million) in cash to help build applications for MindSphere.
Mendix’s software is designed around facilitating the design and delivery of low-code applications. MindSphere is a cloud-based architecture to run analytics on large data sets collected from IoT devices.
The deal comes as Siemens continues a strategic shift towards digital infrastructure; it has invested over $10 billion in the last decade to acquire and build out software businesses, and to create MindSphere.
The acquisition will come with “significant multi-year investment to accelerate R&D innovation and global footprint of our platform”, Mendix’s Derek Roos CEO said, admitting the sale of the company “may come as a surprise to many”.
Low-code software offers workers in enterprises the ability to build and develop their own applications, without the aid of an experienced developer.
When you build using low-code you are essentially combining pre-written templates and plug-ins that are controlled via a simplified user interface.
While this approach is not ideal for enterprises that want to build a very bespoke application, it is very useful for companies that want to quickly build an application that contains standard features and capabilities.
MindSphere
Klaus Helmrich, Managing Board Member of Siemens AG commented in the announcement that: “Mendix is a leader in the rapidly expanding low-code segment and their platform will help our customers to adopt MindSphere even faster by accelerating cloud based application development for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)”
Jan Mrosik, CEO of the Digital Factory Division at Siemens commented in the release that: “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.
Product Roadmap Won’t Change
Derek Roos CEO of Mendix wrote in a blog post that “Becoming a part of Siemens gives us unprecedented access to deep industry know-how, network and expertise.”
“Together with our partner ecosystem, we’ll be able to extend the Mendix platform with deeply integrated vertical solutions across a wide range of industries. Combining low code with best-practice solutions and templates will provide even more value and speed to market for our customers.”
GE, Siemens battle it out to transform manufacturing with cloud-based IoT platforms
Mr Roos stressed to Mendix’s user base that even though the company is now part of a large corporation much of its offering and ideology will strive to remain the same: “Our platform will continue to be open, cloud-agnostic and the most extensible in the low-code space.”
“Our product roadmap and direction won’t change, and we will continue to invest in the partnerships that have made us a leader in our space.”
He will also remain as the head of Mendix, but he will now be reporting to Tony Hemmelgarn, CEO of Siemens PLM.
