Cinven reinvests in group.ONE alongside Ontario Teachers’

• The Sixth Cinven Fund acquired group.ONE in February 2019
• Group.ONE provides online presence services via mass hosting and business software products to small-and medium-sized enterprises
• Under Cinven’s ownership, group.ONE completed 10 add-ons

Cinven announced that the Seventh Cinven Fund, in partnership with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, has agreed to acquire and combine group.ONE and dogado group. Jacob Nordestgaard Jensen, founder and non-executive director of group.ONE, is reinvesting alongside Cinven and Ontario Teachers’ in the new transaction for a significant minority stake in the combined group.

Based in Malmö, Sweden, group.ONE offers online presence services via mass hosting and business software products to small-and medium-sized enterprises and small-office home-offices through brands including one.com, Hostnet and WP Media.

Dogado is a provider of online presence services in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, offering mass and cloud hosting and digital marketing services to more than 380,000 customers through brands including dogado, Metanet and Herold. The company is headquartered in Dortmund, Germany. Dogado is part of EDSA Group, a portfolio company of London-headquartered private equity firm Triton.

The Sixth Cinven Fund acquired group.ONE, formerly one.com, in February 2019. Cinven’s growth initiatives for group.ONE included driving new subscriber growth, expanding product offering and focusing on data analytics to drive customer acquisition. Under Cinven’s ownership, group.ONE also completed 10 add-on acquisitions. The company’s EBITDA has more than trebled over the past four years, according to Cinven.

“We see the combined business as a great fit for our European private capital portfolio given group.ONE and dogado’s leading positions in their respective markets and resilient subscription-based business models,” said Jean-Charles Douin, senior managing director, private capital for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Ontario Teachers’. “We have a strong, long-standing relationship with Cinven and look forward to working together with them and management to support the company in the next stage of its growth.”

London-headquartered Cinven is a global private equity firm that has made over 140 investments, making more than €44 billion in realised proceeds.

Toronto-based Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board is a global investor with net assets of $242.5 billion.