Fexa CEO Announces Trakref Acquisition

Why Fexa Acquired Trakref:
A Letter from Kurt Smith, Fexa CEO

Fexa is expanding its capabilities to better help our customers and the industry solve the increasingly important and complex challenge of sustainability and ESG compliance reporting.

Today, we take a big step forward in Fexa’s ability to solve problems for our customers and FM community that we love. It is with great excitement that I announce Fexa’s acquisition of Trakref, an industry leading provider of refrigerant tracking and management software that simplifies compliance and ESG reporting. Read the press release here.

Refrigerant emissions are a major problem. One estimate suggests that refrigeration and air conditioning cause 10% of global CO₂ emissions. The leaks alone produce more carbon than all the air travel in the world. Regulators have taken notice. There are an existing number of compliance requirements in the U.S., mostly at the state level, and even stricter rules in the E.U. But more dramatic actions are expected this year by the EPA and SEC that will mandate auditable refrigerant reporting. More than 22,000 multi-location entities in the U.S. that currently have reporting exposure will be required to track refrigerants in a much more granular way or incur the risk and cost of estimating too high or too low, according to our analysis. It is now clear that once these new regulations are finalized, a quick response will be necessary for businesses to avoid significant compliance risk and face sizable fines. Refrigerant reporting, however, is highly complex due to the wide array of HVAC/R systems in use, the various refrigerant compounds in circulation, and fast-evolving regulations. This poses a massive challenge for facilities, operations, and finance teams.

At Fexa, we’ve heard these concerns from our customers, partners, and the FM community. Software will play a key role in the solution, and we feel well positioned to help the industry address this mounting challenge. Solving the industry’s most pressing issues is why we exist. As we explored ways to solve this problem, it became clear that the Trakref rules engine was the industry gold standard.

Over the past four months, we’ve spent thousands of hours getting to know the Trakref team and solution. What we’ve come to learn is that Ted Atwood and his team are a deeply committed group of “refrigerant geeks” who not only know more about this problem and solution space than just about anyone, but they are also profoundly committed to solving it for the health of our planet and everyone in it. The real “secret sauce” of the Trakref platform is its powerful rules engine that powers the only audit-ready solution on the market. As the tidal wave of refrigerant compliance approaches, we know that this is the best system to solve refrigerant tracking and reporting requirements. Through this combination, Fexa will make Trakref’s rules engine more extensible: integrated tightly with Fexa’s configurable work order management system and also with other systems and platforms that serve the thousands of customers that will need simple, auditable refrigerant compliance reporting.

“We have seen how the Fexa CMMS platform has helped multi-site businesses manage their facilities more cost-effectively. The Fexa platform is extremely efficient and created more than a 35% reduction in clicks to process a work order within my organization. The addition of Trakref is a natural evolution of their platform, as refrigerant compliance will require tight coordination between facilities managers, service providers, and HVAC/R assets,” said Chris Jernigan (CJ), CEO and executive managing director of Cushman & Wakefield Facilities Solutions. “I have first-hand experience with both platforms, and the possibilities of this partnership are very exciting for our clients. It’s the true definition of synergy being created between two great solutions. Fexa should be commended for listening to the market in terms of real needs of facility managers and taking action to bring this solution together all within one platform.”

Typically, cost management and compliance are addressed separately, but growing sustainability compliance requirements, economic headwinds, and the need for efficiency call for a holistic approach. With these added capabilities, Fexa will deliver a comprehensive solution that empowers facility owners, operators, and service providers to manage facilities efficiently, maximize the longevity and performance of assets, meet compliance regulations, and deliver against sustainability goals.

Our vision is one streamlined platform that reduces swivel-chairing between systems, improves data integrity to ensure compliance, and unlocks new actionable insights that save time, reduce cost, and mitigate risk. Not only are we making this commitment with our investment in Trakref, but we are also dramatically increasing our investment in product development to deliver a next generation, integrated, and streamlined platform as quickly as possible. Mapping Trakref’s rules engine into Fexa’s highly configurable work order management system is something that our founder, Marc Balzamo, and I along with  the entire Fexa and Trakref teams are committed to take on! We are excited to bring you along on this journey with us.

At Fexa, we are all deeply driven to find ways to leverage technology that helps facilities, operations, and now compliance teams be more successful in the important work of facilities management. It is a privilege to work with you, our customers, and the facilities management community to improve the human experience in the built environment. I sincerely thank you for your loyalty and trust; we do not take it for granted.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to a member of our team if you have any questions. We look forward to a bright future together!