Miss Group increases global footprint with WordPress specialist acquisition
Miss Group, the fast-growth international web hosting business, has completed its second acquisition this month – acquiring US-based web hosting provider and WordPress specialist CloudAccess from Cloud Equity Group.
Headquartered in Michigan, USA, CloudAccess was founded in 2008 and offers comprehensive hosting and support platform services, specialising in WordPress and Joomla content management systems.
CloudAccess currently hosts over 20,000 websites and services over 4,000 customers, primarily located in the USA, across a range of sectors including education, healthcare, non-profit, and governmental institutions. The business will add-on to Seravo – a premium hosting and WordPress provider within Miss Group that’s listed as the world’s fastest WordPress provider.
CloudAccess’ 25 staff will join Miss Group’s team of over 300 people, adding to its customer base of >700,000 businesses globally in the Nordic and DACH regions, Europe and North America.
Fredrik Björklund, Co-founder and CEO of Miss Group, said: “CloudAccess is a growing web hosting provider with an impressive client base that will help us expand our reach across North America. Its specialist WordPress knowledge and capabilities are an excellent strategic fit with Seravo that will further strengthen our global WordPress service offering across the Group, as well as opening our international network of technical expertise, products and services to CloudAccess’ current customers to support their businesses as they grow.”
Sean Frank, Managing Partner at Cloud Equity Group, said: “Today is an exciting day for the CloudAccess team. I am proud of the business we have built together, and most recently the advances in making CloudAccess a truly unique player in WordPress and Joomla hosting markets. Under its new ownership, CloudAccess will have the backing it needs to further develop its leadership position as the premier managed hosting solution in the software as a service space.”
Jonathan J. Gafill, CEO of CloudAccess, added: "We look forward to a bright future with Miss Group. The resources that they bring to the table will help to put CloudAccess on an even greater trajectory. Clearly it is a perfect fit that will benefit both our clients and team.”
Miss Group’s ambitious growth trajectory saw proforma revenues for the year ending December 2021 reach €66 million with a 43% EBITDA margin. With strong organic growth and future acquisitions, the Group anticipates reaching €100 million turnover and 45% EBITDA margin within the next 12 months. Earlier this month, Miss Group acquired one of Sweden’s largest web hosting companies, Cloudnet.
Perwyn, the family-backed private equity business, acquired a majority position in Miss Group in February 2020 to support the growth ambitions of the business through international expansion and ongoing M&A. CloudAccess takes the total number of acquisitions completed under Perwyn ownership to 11, and the total number of acquisitions completed by Miss Group since 2018 to 20.
Miss Group was supported on this transaction by:
- Legal advice – Squire Patton Boggs (Matt Canipa and Mona Mojtabavi)
- Financial due diligence – EY (Steven Kingham and Jace Swift)
About Miss Group
Founded in 2014, Miss Group is an international web hosting group that offers a range of hosting related services at competitive prices including web hosting, domain registration, VPS, dedicated servers, website builder, SSL-Certificate, SEO Tools, web security and domain management. Miss Group is also an ICANN-accredited Domain Name registrar via Name ISP. Miss Group is a well-established operator in its core markets, with a customer service-oriented model driving industry-leading performance metrics for its >700,000 web hosting customers. The majority of Miss Group is owned by Perwyn, an international private equity and growth equity investor.
About Perwyn
Founded in 2013, Perwyn is a family-backed, international private and growth equity investor. Perwyn works closely with investee companies applying strategic and operational expertise in addition to providing capital. Perwyn is free from the usual private equity funding cycles, focusing above all on our investments rather than fundraising. We approach investment with an evergreen model and believe in genuine partnership with management teams, seeking to facilitate long term growth and development.
There are two main focuses of our business. Perwyn Private Equity is an active lead investor, seeking buyout opportunities in established, growing, cash generative market leaders headquartered in the UK or Europe where it can make a material impact on growth and profitability. We invest in businesses with an EV of £/€50-300m, seeking partnership investment support for growth initiatives or transition.
Perwyn Growth Capital invests in growing businesses across the same markets, with a passion for backing entrepreneurs and founders on their winning strategy. We seek primarily growth equity investments of £/€20m-100m.
