Take a German company to the UK market.

The problem to solve

vaylens was entering the UK as a business, not just shipping its software into a new country. The company had built its charge point management system (CPMS) for the German market, shaped by EU regulation and by what European drivers expect from charging. The UK is different. It has its own charging regulations, separate from the EU’s, UK drivers expect a different charging experience, and the commercial and legal terms were all written for Germany.

To launch in the UK, vaylens needed a product UK customers would buy, terms they could sign under UK law, and a launch that put the brand in front of the market. My job was to shape the product for the UK and to help align the whole offer with the UK market.

Illustrative. What changed between the German product and the UK launch.

The decision

I owned the UK product strategy, roadmap, epics and prioritisation. Working with the Business Development Director, I identified and prioritised the features the platform needed to be fully compliant with UK regulations and commercially competitive, so it was ready for market rather than simply translated.

We treated the launch as a company launch. Product, contracts, partnerships and go-to-market had to be ready together, because a UK-ready platform is no use if customers can’t sign for it.

How I approached it

Product. I bridged product development and commercial requirements. I translated complex regulatory and customer requirements into clear development objectives, and worked across sales, product and technical teams in Germany and the UK to deliver them. I acted as the domain expert on UK legislation.

Partnerships. Commercial partnerships let us deliver for UK customers quickly with minimal in-house development. I set up payment processing with Stripe and roaming with Hubject, so UK drivers could charge across partner networks. I also supported integrating Planet as a new UK payment service provider for the vaylensPay terminal, and personally commissioned the first vaylensPay terminal installed in the UK, for our launch customer.

Contracts. I worked on the legal side of the launch, adapting vaylens’ existing German contracts for UK law. That produced contract documents for two groups: new UK customers, and the customers of a sister company that had been reselling the same product, who needed migrating onto vaylens UK contracts.

Propositions. I built end-to-end propositions spanning customer experience, payment processing, partnerships, legal terms and go-to-market.

Launch. vaylens launched in the UK at Fleet & Mobility Live at the NEC, Birmingham, in 2024. I contributed to preparing and running the launch, as part of the team that introduced vaylens to UK fleet operators, customers and partners.

What changed

Over two years, vaylens went from a German-market business to an established UK presence, with a UK-compliant, commercially competitive CPMS, UK contracts for new and migrated customers, and a UK go-to-market. Public milestones included:

• October 2024: a UK suite for fleet operators. Fleet charging with automated home-charging reimbursement and mileage reporting, community charging with tariffs for staff and visitors, and the vaylensPay payment terminal. Each could be used alone or as one integrated system (EV Fleet World).
• May 2025: vaylensPay launched UK-wide. UK rules from November 2024 require new public charge points over 8kW to offer contactless payment. One vaylensPay terminal serves several chargers, so operators can comply without retrofitting payment hardware on every unit (CFOtech UK).

Illustrative. How one contactless terminal per site replaces a card reader in every charger.

See the result at vaylens.com/uk.

“His ability to collaborate effectively across sales, product, and technical teams was instrumental in the successful evolution of the platform.”

— Russell Olive, Business Development Director, vaylens