Nayax Expands in EV Charging With Its Lynkwell Deal

Nayax Ltd. early Thursday said it has acquired Lynkwell, a U.S.-based technology developer for electric-vehicle charging stations. The $25.9-million, all-cash deal comes as Nayax looks to capitalize on the growth of EV charging as a payments market, particularly in the United States.

“We are opening the door to a more connected and intuitive charging experience, one where software and payments work in harmony to support the next generation of charging networks,” noted Aaron Greenberg, chief strategy officer at Israel-based Nayax, in a statement. Schenectady, N.Y.-based Lynkwell posted $17.1 million in revenue last year, Nayax reported, representing what it called “substantial year-over-year growth.”

Nayax’s latest acquisition comes as the EV charging network in the U.S. continues to expand to accommodate rising EV sales, drawing the attention of payment processors. There are nearly 65,000 charging stations offering some 200,000 charging points, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. Meanwhile, EV car sales reached 438,000 in the third quarter, up 30% year-over-year. Still, at 6.2 million, the total number of EVs on the road still represents just 2% of all vehicles.

That makes for a “highly competitive” market for EV charging, notes Cliff Gray, proprietor at Gray Consulting, a payments advisory. “It’s a highly specialized vertical. The higher the average ticket, the better.” So far, at least, the market is likely subject to a low fraud rate, he adds.

Nayax has already embedded its payments technology in “a range of EV charging equipment,” the company says, a move it says Lynkwell can build on with a platform it offers that relies on artificial intelligence to optimize operations. The deal is also expected to benefit from Lynkwell’s strength in fueling for trucking fleets, the companies say, a client base that includes two of North America’s largest fleets.

Nayax isn’t the first payments platform to take an interest in EV charging, and especially in Lynkwell. WEX, a Portland, Maine-based processor, announced in September it had signed a partnership deal with the company, along with two others, to expand its reach in that market.

And in August last year, EV Connect, a business-service provider for EV stations, said it would work with the payments provider BlueSnap Inc. to offer payment processing to station operators.