HGGC, the private equity firm that controls fixed operations software provider Dealer-FX, said Monday it has sold the company to Snap-on Inc., of Wisconsin.
The giant manufacturer of hand tools, shop equipment, diagnostic software and other service department products paid HGGC $200 million in cash for Dealer-FX, of Markham, Ontario. Dealer-FX’s service lane software platform is used by dealerships selling brands from at least nine major manufacturers, including Stellantis, General Motors, Toyota and Hyundai.
Dealer-FX, which booked $37 million in revenue last year, is being absorbed by a company roughly 100 times bigger in terms of revenue. For 2020, Snap-on reported revenue of nearly $3.6 billion.
“This acquisition complements and expands on Snap-on’s existing OEM and dealership business in its Repair Systems & Information Group that provides electronics parts catalogs, essential tool and diagnostics programs and custom analytics to OEMs and more than 50,000 dealerships globally,” Snap-on said in a statement.
Dealer-FX was founded in 2007 with the goal of using software to improve communication between service department customers and dealerships, and also inside the service department to help make often opaque repair processes more transparent to customers.
HGGC invested an undisclosed amount in Dealer-FX in 2015. Since then, the company has broadened its offerings to include such things as mobile check-in and mobile payments.
Snap-on officials said Dealer-FX will remain based in Ontario and that the company’s current management team will remain in place.