Barcelona — A seven-year bet on Danish sensor technology has transformed Anticimex 3D Sanidad Ambiental into Spain’s fastest-growing pest management company, with 2024 revenue hitting €72 million.
The numbers tell an unusual story. While most pest control firms still rely on monthly inspections and chemical treatments, this Sant Cugat del Vallés operator built its business around automated traps that send text alerts when they catch a rat.
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The WiseCon Acquisition That Rebuilt a Business Model
Back in January 2015, Swedish parent company Anticimex purchased a 20% stake in WiseCon, a small Danish manufacturer making electronic rodent traps in Helsinge. At the time, WiseCon had 110 employees and specialized in wireless pest monitoring devices that most industry veterans considered expensive novelties.
Two and a half years later, in April 2017, Anticimex bought the rest. Total cost was never disclosed, but the strategic value became clear quickly. WiseCon’s 50-person engineering team became the Anticimex Innovation Centre, dedicated entirely to building what the industry now calls the SMART platform.
That platform generates data from 22,500 connected devices across Spain alone. More than 20,000 additional units operate in 21 other countries where Anticimex provides services.
How Digital Pest Control Actually Works
The SMART system replaces traditional snap traps and poison stations with connected hardware:
Smart Connect units create wireless mesh networks inside buildings. They don’t use customer WiFi or require internet connections. Instead, they communicate through their own radio frequency network, sending data to Anticimex servers.
Smart Eye Mini sensors mount in ceiling voids, under floors, and inside wall cavities. Passive infrared detectors track heat signatures from moving rodents. When activity registers, technicians get immediate notification.
Smart Snap traps use mechanical springs, not poison. After catching a rodent, the device logs the event with a timestamp and GPS coordinates, then resets automatically for the next catch.
Smart Pipe systems work inside sewer lines, where 60% of urban rat infestations originate. Temperature and motion sensors detect rodents moving through drainage networks, triggering alerts before they reach buildings.
The setup eliminates guesswork. Technicians know exactly which locations have activity before they arrive on site. Service calls drop by roughly 40% because crews only respond when sensors confirm problems.
Revenue Growth Built on Two Foundations
Anticimex 3D posted €41.42 million in revenue for 2021. That figure jumped to €54.10 million in 2023, then €72 million in 2024. The company projects €80 million for 2025.
Growth came from two sources. Organic expansion added 24% year-over-year, well above the 8-12% industry average for Spanish pest management firms.
Seven acquisitions in 2024 contributed an additional €4 million:
- Actual Control in Mallorca
- Oiarso Control de Plagas in Donostia
- Anema in Girona
- Biotecnos in Málaga
- Plaserman in Valencia
- GTSA in Extremadura
- Ecotècnic in Andorra
Each purchased company brought existing customer contracts. Anticimex converted those accounts to SMART monitoring within 90 days of closing each deal, creating immediate upsell opportunities.
The business now operates 33 regional offices with 735 full-time employees. About 20% of new contracts specify SMART technology as a requirement, according to company filings with the Barcelona commercial registry.
Municipal Contracts Drive Adoption
City governments became early customers for sensor-based rodent control. The Ayuntamiento de Arucas in Gran Canaria installed Smart Pipe units throughout its municipal sewer system in late 2024, replacing monthly baiting programs that used anticoagulant rodenticides.
Similar projects run in Barcelona, Valencia, and Sevilla. Municipal purchasing departments cite two reasons for switching: lower long-term costs and compliance with EU regulations restricting outdoor use of second-generation anticoagulants.
The technology handles other pests beyond rodents. Smart Sense units detect cockroaches and moths using species-specific pheromones combined with thermal sensors. When insects enter the monitoring zone, glue boards trap them while sensors log the capture.
L’Olleria municipality contracted Anticimex 3D for mosquito control at €7,721, part of a larger €204,706 pest management tender covering urban areas and industrial zones.
How the Platform Creates Competitive Advantages
Anticimex invests 15% of annual profit into R&D at two facilities: the Innovation Centre in Denmark and a second location in Sabadell, near Barcelona. Most competitors spend 2-3% on product development.
That investment gap shows in the technology. Smart Connect units can manage up to 200 sensors and traps simultaneously. The mesh network self-heals when individual devices fail, maintaining coverage even if some units lose power.
Data accumulation creates another barrier. Eight years of sensor readings from installations worldwide feed algorithms that predict pest behavior based on temperature, humidity, building type, and seasonal patterns. New competitors would need years to build equivalent datasets.
Parent company Anticimex Group licenses the platform to independent pest control operators in North America. Those licensing fees generate margin-rich recurring revenue while spreading development costs across a larger customer base.
EQT Partners, the Swedish private equity firm that owns Anticimex Group, has backed the platform strategy with €1.523 billion in capital deployed across 22 countries. The group employs 11,000 people and posted consolidated revenue exceeding €1.5 billion in its most recent fiscal year.
Environmental Regulations Accelerate Market Shift
European Union directives increasingly restrict outdoor use of anticoagulant rodenticides due to secondary poisoning risks for raptors and scavengers. Spain implemented stricter controls in 2023, requiring licensed applicators and limiting placement locations.
Mechanical traps avoid those restrictions entirely. Smart Snap devices kill instantly through spring mechanisms, eliminating the 3-7 day poisoning period that exposes non-target wildlife to contaminated rodents.
Chemical-free monitoring also works in food processing facilities, pharmaceutical plants, and hospitals where contamination risks make poison baits unacceptable. Those sectors represent high-value contracts worth 3-5 times standard commercial accounts.
What the Numbers Actually Mean
Revenue growth of 30% in a mature industry signals something structural changed. Anticimex 3D isn’t just selling pest control anymore. The company sells data, predictive analytics, and regulatory compliance.
Twenty percent of all new business now comes from SMART product sales. That percentage has climbed steadily since 2019, when digital offerings represented just 7% of new contracts.
The estrategia de plataforma built around WiseCon technology created recurring revenue streams that traditional service models can’t match. Monthly monitoring fees for sensor networks generate predictable income compared to one-time service calls.
Whether that advantage holds depends on how quickly competitors develop similar capabilities. Patents on core sensor technology expire between 2026 and 2029. Chinese manufacturers already produce lower-cost alternatives, though without the integrated software platform.
For now, Anticimex 3D Sanidad Ambiental owns the high ground in Spain’s digital pest management market. The question isn’t whether the technology works. Seven years of revenue growth settled that debate. The real question is how long the company can maintain its lead before the rest of the industry catches up.
