Vodafone has agreed to buy Cobra Automotive Technologies, an Italian provider of electronics services to the car industry, for €197m (£115m), in a move to grow its presence in the connected devices market.

Cobra Automotive Technologies specialises in providing security, telecommunications and vehicle tracking to the automotive and insurance agencies. For Vodafone, the acquisition represents a chance to expand into the machine-to-machine (M2M) industry beyond connectivity, and enables it to provide a more comprehensive, end-to-end service to automotive customers.

“The combination of Vodafone and Cobra will create a new global provider of connected car services,” said Erik Brenneis, Vodafones director of M2M. “We plan to invest in the business to offer our automotive and insurance customers a full range of telematics services.”

The M2M market is expected to be a significant source of growth for mobile carriers and device manufacturers. Smart energy meters that monitor usage are already present in many homes, and Apples recent iOS 8 announcement included details about an app that would gather a variety of connected home functions under one umbrella.