AppDirect has made a bold strategic move, acquiring Broker Online Exchange (BOX), North America’s largest retail energy network, at an enterprise valuation of $85 million. The deal marks AppDirect’s official entry into the energy space—a domain increasingly linked to the future of AI, data infrastructure, and digital business continuity.

The acquisition gives AppDirect’s advisor community access to energy services and platforms—alongside cloud, connectivity, AI, mobility, and UCaaS—creating a new category of value for both technology and energy advisors.

“The future belongs to companies that control the foundation,” said AppDirect CEO Nicolas Desmarais. “By bringing energy into our marketplace, we’re setting a new standard for how businesses buy and manage the critical services they need to succeed.”

This move is inline with our interview a few months back with Emanuel Bertolin (Bert) from the company where he told us AppDirect is building the everything store for business advisors. Moreover, he told us, “We were pigeonholed as just another TSD, but we’ve always been a technology platform company at heart.” That distinction matters, because AppDirect offers a white-labeled, advisor-facing marketplace that allows partners to deliver a modern, Amazon-like experience to business customers—with the personalization and complexity that B2B requires.”

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Why It Matters: Energy Is No Longer Optional

This move comes as energy use by digital infrastructure companies—especially those building and operating AI systems—continues to surge. A recent Gartner report predicts global electricity demand will rise by 42% by 2035, driven by growing reliance on data centers, AI model training, and always-on distributed systems.

As energy costs fluctuate and sustainability pressures mount, energy procurement is becoming a strategic priority, not just a line item. By enabling advisors to offer tailored electricity and gas procurement through BOX’s My Service Cloud platform, AppDirect expands its ability to help businesses manage not only their tech stack, but the physical inputs that power it.

In short, this is not just a diversification play—it’s an infrastructure move.

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What BOX Brings to the Table

BOX offers direct access to over 2,000 energy brokers and a full suite of tools:

• A CRM platform for contract creation and automated renewals
• Access to pricing from top energy suppliers across North America
• White-labeled tools and flexible payments for brokers
• Back-office automation to streamline quotes, commissions, and renewals

These services allow AppDirect to now support end-users who want to make smarter, more sustainable, and cost-efficient decisions around power sourcing—particularly relevant in industries managing heavy compute, remote facilities, or ESG mandates.

Arthur Gruen, CEO of BOX, emphasized the alignment between the two companies’ ecosystems:
“AppDirect’s deep commitment to technology advisors mirrors BOX’s commitment to energy brokers. This partnership enables our brokers to expand their share of wallet and deliver even more value to their customers.”

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A Broader Strategic Pattern

The BOX acquisition follows a string of AppDirect moves—including the acquisitions of Builtfirst, ADCom, Firstbase, and the expected addition of vCom. Together, these point to a strategy aimed at owning the full stack of business procurement: technology, infrastructure, and now energy.

AppDirect’s goal is to become a B2B version of the “everything store,” giving businesses a one-stop marketplace to buy and manage critical services across domains.

And for advisors, this cross-category integration opens up new revenue opportunities and deeper customer engagement, especially as businesses seek bundled solutions that combine telecom, cloud, AI, and sustainability.

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Looking Ahead

With BOX now part of the AppDirect ecosystem, advisors gain a new tool to meet growing customer demand for smarter energy strategies. Meanwhile, BOX’s brokers gain access to AppDirect’s suite of technology services—fueling expansion on both sides.

This move not only reinforces AppDirect’s platform model but also reflects a broader market reality: in an AI-driven economy, energy is infrastructure. Those who broker, manage, and optimize it will shape how the next generation of businesses are built.