LONDON, December 20, 2018 — Accel-KKR, a technology-focused private equity firm, announced today that One.com, one of Europe’s leading providers of domain names and web hosting solutions, has reached a definitive agreement to be acquired by Cinven. Accel-KKR, which made its initial growth investment in the business in 2014, has supported One.com as it has generated significant organic revenue growth and increased profitability during their four-year partnership.
Under Accel-KKR’s ownership, One.com has realized a range of achievements:
• Expansion of solutions offered to its customers and continued expansion across Europe through a single-brand organic strategy;
• Acceleration of organic growth to 20%;
• Doubling of revenue (from c. €30 million to c. €60 million) while profitability expanded by over 50x.
Maurice Hernandez, Head of the European office for Accel-KKR, said, “Over the past four years, One.com accelerated its market leadership position in Europe while innovating its product offering. We’ve been fortunate to work closely with the talented One.com management team to grow the company to its current stage and market position.”
“The vision of One.com since its founding has been to deliver value-added and easy-to-use solutions to small- and medium-sized businesses and prosumers. We’re proud to have further accelerated that vision with Accel-KKR, which provided strategic and operational experience, including its extensive expertise in cloud and web hosting companies,” said Jacob Jensen, Founder and CEO of One.com.
“We are very proud that One.com cemented its leadership position in Europe under our ownership. Jacob and his team have been tremendous partners and we look forward to seeing One.com’s continued growth and success with Cinven,” added Greg Williams, Managing Director at Accel-KKR.
The planned exit from the One.com investment bookends a very active year for Accel-KKR and its European growth capital and control buyout portfolio investments. In September 2018, Accel-KKR announced the sale of Stockholm-based Episerver to Insight Venture Partners for USD $1.16 billion.
In the transaction, Arma Partners and DC Advisory acted as financial advisors to One.com and Taylor Wessing acted as legal advisor.
About Accel-KKR
Accel-KKR is a technology-focused investment firm with over $5 billion in capital commitments. The firm focuses on software and IT-enabled businesses well-positioned for top line and bottom-line growth. At the core of Accel-KKR’s investment strategy is a commitment to developing strong partnerships with the management teams of its portfolio companies and a focus on building value through significant resources available through the Accel-KKR network. Accel-KKR focuses on middle-market companies and provides a broad range of capital solutions including buyout capital, minority-growth investments, and credit alternatives. Accel-KKR also invests across a wide range of transaction types including private company recapitalizations, divisional carve-outs and going-private transactions. Accel-KKR is headquartered in Menlo Park with additional offices in Atlanta and London. For more information, please visit www.accel-kkr.com
Contact:
Todd Fogarty
Kekst CNC
(212) 521-4854
todd.fogarty@kekstcnc.com
