PACE expands leadership team and drives European expansion

With the investment of DKV in the summer of 2020 and the securing of financing for further growth, PACE has embarked on a clear course of expansion in Europe in the past year: The number of gas stations connected to the Connected Fueling platform has increased by more than 300% since the beginning of the year to over 3,000 stations. In order to further intensify its growth in Europe, PACE has added two experienced industry experts to its management team in the areas of marketing and finance.

At the beginning of 2021, it was already possible to use Connected Fueling to make mobile payments at the pump at over 700 gas stations in Germany. Over the course of the year, the fintech PACE successfully rolled out its innovative payment solution to seven European countries. Connected Fueling is now available at over 3,000 gas stations. In addition to Germany, drivers can make mobile payments at the pump in Austria, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Hungary, and the Netherlands. Together with PACE shareholder DKV Euroservice, the acceptance network is being further expanded at full speed. In the future, all 60,000 service stations in the DKV network are to become Connected Fueling-capable.

In order to be perfectly prepared for this rapid, continued growth, PACE’s management team has been expanded by two experienced executives. Stéphanie Lesser is now responsible for all press and marketing activities at PACE as Head of Marketing. With over 20 years of international management experience in the IT industry, she brings the perfect qualifications to quickly scale the PACE business in Europe. In the finance department, Markus Reutter will strengthen the PACE team as Head of Finance from May 2022. Markus has 10 years of experience, gained first in his role as a consultant at a Big Four company and later at a leading IT company, and will make a very valuable contribution to the further development of the payment platform with his extensive expertise.

We are very pleased that, with Stéphanie and Markus, we were able to win two very experienced managers for PACE!

Philip Blatter, Co-Founder and Managing Director

Sven Mehringer, Managing Director DKV Mobility: “Together with PACE, we can look back on a very successful 2021, in which together we took a big step forward in digitization in the mineral oil industry.”

Philip Blatter, Co-Founder and Managing Director: “We are very pleased that, with Stéphanie and Markus, we were able to win two very experienced managers for PACE, who will work with us to drive further expansion in Europe. Our strong international growth this year clearly shows that in the end the technologically best solution prevails in the market. In addition to being the market leader in the number of acceptances, with Connected Fueling we also offer the broadest service portfolio for our partners: starting with the largest selection of B2C payment methods, even including use on smartwatches, to the implementation of a variety of digital fuel cards for our B2B partners.”