Exaxe seeks partners for European expansion plans

EXAXE, the Dublin-based software and consultancy provider to the financial services industry, is looking to expand in Europe and is seeking partners in overseas markets to drive the business on.

The company, whose Irish customers include Friends First, Eagle Star and Irish Life, has the backing of Enterprise Ireland and plans to double its turnover to €10 million within four years.

Meanwhile, the group has just signed a significant joint venture contract with software group Liberata, a provider of software back- up for big life and pensions providers such as Barclays and Axa Life, involving close to three million policies.

Norman Carroll, chief executive of Exaxe, who founded the group in 1997, says the last few years represented a period of consolidation. Life and pensions products suffered a huge backlash after stock markets plunged in 2001 in the wake of the high technology bubble burst in the US, as investors shunned products linked to equities.

Exaxe had to scale back and currently employs 45 people.

Apart from its interests in Britain and Ireland, the group has a number of important business links in Holland.

Mainland Europe is set to become a bigger outlet for the business, and a senior sales executive has been appointed to expand the group’s potential.

Business contacts have been established with businesses in Greece which may provide the next major development for the group.

Further funding will be raised privately and a listing is not needed unless the group decides to push for sales closer to €20m a year.

“That’s a decision that will not be made for some time. We have to hit the €10m sales target first,” said Mr Carroll.