Portland-based software company Routeware Inc. acquired the rival company Wastech Inc. and its RubiconSmartCity and RubiconPro platforms in a move to make the combined company a category leader in its smart city space.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed but it includes product, employees and customers, said Routeware CEO Paul Rafalowski. He described the deal as a “decent-size acquisition.”
“Our missions, what we do and the outcomes we're driving for our customers could not be more aligned. This combination will be truly transformational for our industry,” said Rafalowski. He noted it combines the two largest companies in the category.
Routeware, which was founded in 1999, makes hardware and software used by municipalities and waste haulers to manage fleets, regulatory compliance and system efficiency. The company is backed by Los Angeles private equity firm K1 Investment Management.
Routeware has “several hundred” employees, said Rafalowski. He declined to get into specifics.
Wastech was created in May when it was carved out of waste brokerage Rubicon. Wastech, which makes similar software, was good at selling to municipalities that haul their own waste, said Rafalowski. Routeware has those kinds of customers plus private haulers.
“It made sense that when they carved out this asset we would look at it,” he said. “How can we have the best of both worlds? We had both self and private municipal haulers. It made a bunch of sense. If we can get this to work, the combination of the two companies is transformational in helping us collect and get waste on its way.”
Rafalowski, who is based in Austin, joined the company in late 2022 and was named CEO in May 2023. Coming out of the pandemic the company is virtual-first, though it maintains its headquarters in Portland. Its mission is to help the waste hauling and recycling industry run more efficiently, moving items on to new uses or processing. If the collection step in overall process is difficult, it can derail later sustainability efforts, said Rafalowski.
With this acquisition the company will grow, and it’s a question of how fast, said Rafalowski.
“When we think about the market we think about the world in trucks and how many loads haulers have or municipalities,” he said. “Look at the overall market in North America there are 700,000 trucks and we are in less than 2% of them. There is a lot of room to grow.”
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