International private equity firm, Cinven, today announces that the Sixth Cinven Fund has agreed to acquire One.com, a leading European supplier of web hosting services, for an undisclosed consideration.

Established in 2002 in Denmark, One.com is one of Europe’s leading providers of domain names and web hosting services to small to medium enterprises (‘SMEs’) and small-office home-offices (‘SOHOs’). One.com has 270 employees and serves more than 1 million customers, with a focus on Northern Europe.

The Cinven TMT sector team identified One.com as a compelling investment opportunity based on its direct experience in HEG (formerly ‘Host Europe Group’), a leading European provider of hosting and domain services acquired by Cinven in August 2013. Cinven invested in HEG as a platform investment from which to successfully consolidate the fragmented European hosting market. Cinven ultimately sold HEG to US-listed strategic acquirer, GoDaddy Inc. in January 2017.

Cinven’s TMT sector team believes One.com is an attractive investment opportunity for the Sixth Cinven Fund given:

  • The mass hosting industry is growing steadily, driven by the structural increase in web-presence and usage of web applications amongst SMEs and SOHOs;
  • One.com has a well-recognised brand, a significant customer base which has been developed organically, and a scalable technology platform;
  • The business model is attractive and resilient due to its diversified customer base and subscription model, resulting in highly recurring revenues, earnings visibility and strong cash flow generation; and
  • There are opportunities to accelerate the growth of the business organically and through acquisition: Cinven’s strategy centres on helping One.com realise its growth potential drawing on its sector expertise and experience through its successful investment in HEG.

Thomas Railhac, Partner at Cinven, said:

“We are very excited to invest in One.com alongside Jacob. It is a high quality business with an attractive brand and scalable technology platform, operating in a market with structural growth drivers. This is a subsector we know well through Cinven’s successful investment in HEG in Fund 5, continuing to invest in both the organic growth story and targeted acquisitions.”

Jacob Jensen, founder and CEO of One.com, said:

“We have more than 15 years’ experience in web hosting services and are today one of the leading companies in Europe in the sector. The pride we have in our achievements to date is matched by our growth ambitions for the future and, in Cinven, we have a partner whose expertise in the sector and financial resources can support our compelling growth strategy.”