BGF-backed Miss Group has acquired Hemsida24 along with its sub-brand HEYMO. Hemsida24 is an internet-based sitebuilder for websites and e-commerce and has delivered solutions for small and medium-sized businesses in Scandinavia since 2008. The strategic acquisition consolidates Miss Group’s position as one of the leading web hosting provider for SMB companies in Scandinavia.
“I have been following Hemsida24 AB for many years and I am impressed by their organic growth and simple and user friendly sitebuilder. With this acquisition we are adding 14 000 paying customers and now exceeds 80 000 customers in Miss Group. Hemsida24 also contributes with an EBITDA of 1 million Euros” said Mattias Kaneteg, founder and CEO at Miss Group
Ludvig Granberg, Co-founder & CEO at Hemsida24 added: “When we started Hemsida24 ten years ago I could never imagine that we would have more than 14,000 customers and such a great team. To continue to grow from here Hemsida24 and Heymo needs to be part of something bigger and this is where Miss Group comes in. I’m truly impressed with their expertise in marketing, sales and growth and I’m confident that Hemsida24 and Miss Group will continue to grow into something much larger.”
About Miss Group
Founded in 2014, Miss Group is an International Web Hosting Group that offers a range of Hosting related services at favorable prices such as Web Hosting, Domain Registration, VPS, Dedicated Servers, Sitebuilder, SSL-Certificate, SEO Tools, Web Security and Domain Management. Miss Hosting is also an ICANN-accredited Domain Name registrar via NameISP. The company is headquartered in Manchester, UK.
About Hemsida24
Hemsida24 is an internet-based sitebuilder for creating websites and e-commerce. You get professional results while you have full control and can update the website from any computer. Today, more than 14 000 Swedish companies use Hemsida24 and HEYMO’s website tool to build, manage and customize their websites.
High-growth Miss Group, a web hosting company, has received a £6.4m investment from BGF to accelerate its international expansion strategy. The group will use the funding to build further scale through driving organic growth and acquisition of web hosting companies in new and existing markets.
Founded by serial entrepreneur Mattias Kaneteg and headquartered in Manchester, Miss Group provides a range of services predominately to SMEs, including domain registration, site building, website hosting and email management.
Since its launch in 2014, the group has opened more than 70,000 accounts, established offices in Stockholm, Miami and Sofia and have also acquired two businesses in the UK and USA with the assistance of Manchester-based Corporate Financiers, Sedulo. Miss Group now employs more than 50 people globally and has developed a reputation for high quality customer service with a 9.8 rating on TrustPilot.
To further support its buy and build strategy, Miss Group has appointed Phil Male as Non-Executive Chair following an introduction by BGF. Phil is a former Chair of UK2 Group and previously served as Chief Strategy Officer at Cable & Wireless Worldwide. He is also Chair of BGF-backed Virtual1 and has successful built and exited multiple businesses in the technology sector.
Mattias Kaneteg, founder and CEO of Miss Group said: “We have moved at pace to add scale to our platform, improve our market share and increase our global coverage. Now that we have an established model and highly successful marketing campaigns which have generated strong organic growth, we are in a strong position to accelerate our expansion through acquisitions.
“As our minority partner, BGF provides access to a large network both in the UK and internationally and potentially more funding as we expand. We are very much looking forward to working with them.”
Pinesh Mehta, an investor at BGF who will join the Board of Miss Group said: “With a proven track record in building successful businesses, Mattias and his team have quickly scaled Miss Group by attracting and retaining a high volume of customers. This is testament to the group’s model, relationships with customers and partners, and focus on high-quality service.
“Miss Group has a clear and well thought out international growth strategy which they are ready to push ahead with. We’re delighted to be supporting this and to be backing such an ambitious, innovative and professional team.”
The investment in Miss Group was coordinated by Stuart Dutton of Sedulo, and led for BGF by Pinesh Mehta, Rhys Davenport and Neil Inskip who are part of the Manchester-based team covering the North West. The team recently announced investments in the owner and operator of Albert’s Schloss and Rudy’s Neapolitan Pizza, Mission Mars, and digital mapping company Gaist.
About BGF:
BGF is the most active and influential investor in small and mid-sized businesses in the UK, with £2.5bn to support a range of growing companies – early stage, growth stage and quoted – across every region and sector of the economy. In Ireland, BGF has an additional €250m to support Irish SMEs on a similar growth path.
BGF makes long-term equity capital investments in return for a minority stake in the companies it backs. Initial investments are typically between £1m-£10m followed by significant follow-on funding as required. BGF is a minority, non-controlling equity partner with a patient outlook, based on shared long-term goals with the management teams it backs.
With a specialist internal team of over 150 people, combined with an unparalleled international network of business leaders, sector experts, and board-level non-executives, BGF has a unique platform and capability to support growing UK and Irish SMEs. This is further reinforced through dedicated in-house support with Chair and senior executive selection and appointments provide by our Talent Network, now some 5,000 strong.
BGF invests off its own balance sheet allowing it to offer truly flexible investment structures with a mix of equity and loan notes as appropriate. BGF can also provide equity release for existing shareholders, and funding to support acquisitive and organic growth strategies at home and abroad.
www.bgf.co.uk
Social media: @BGFinvestments
