Eshgro attracts new investor for further growth
Boxmeer/Blaricum, August 31, 2022 - Strikwerda Investments (SI) becomes the new majority shareholder of IT service provider Eshgro, headquartered in Boxmeer (NL) and merges Eshgro with its portfolio company Total Specific Hosting (TSH). SI takes a majority share in the company from the Amsterdam investment firm Holland Capital. Eshgro receives support from the TSH organization and receives permanent capital from SI to shape the next growth phase and realize follow-up acquisitions. This transaction further accelerates the growth path for customers and employees.
Over the past years, Eshgro has grown out into one of the most important Dutch players in the field of Microsoft365 Cloud technology and has additionally developed its own software platform Smarter365. This innovative platform ensures that organizations can work measurably faster, easier and safer. This transaction gives Eshgro the opportunity to pursue a long-term buy-and-build strategy with the ambition to become the leading Microsoft 365 Cloud supplier for medium-sized organizations in the Netherlands. Together, the two companies employ more than 850 employees.
Edwin de Ruijter, CEO of Eshgro: “This acquisition is a logical next phase In the growth path for our company. Our strategy is to combine organic growth with acquisitions in adjacent market segments, further expanding our portfolio and customer base. We are therefore specifically looking for parties that seek for a partner to enable the transformation to the cloud that we can help accelerate with our self-developed Smarter365 platform. In this way, more customers can use Eshgro's proven cloud solutions. Our entire management team will continue in their current role to realize this next step.”
Strikwerda Investments (SI) is a family investment firm that focuses on healthy, ambitious, medium and large-sized SMEs. It is a Dutch investment fund with a strong track record in the ICT sector. SI is majority shareholder in the ICT outsourcing company TSH and via this transaction will also become a majority shareholder in Eshgro. TSH has a long-term investment horizon and, in addition to the current strong organic growth, also wants to connect other leading ICT outsourcing companies within the group.
Joris Dierick, CEO/CFO of Total Specific Hosting: “Eshgro has a proven approach to bring clients to the Microsoft cloud and accelerate the customer journey through their Smarter365 Platform. The joining of forces gives the other companies within TSH the opportunity to benefit from the collaboration. Edwin and his team are a welcome addition to our team of ambitious entrepreneurs. In addition, Anton Loeffen, founder of Eshgro, in his new role as Chief Technology Officer of TSH, will help our company accelerate in the next steps to the public cloud and the rollout of the modern workplace, enabling us to serve our customers even better in the future.”
Hubert Verbeek, managing partner Holland Capital: “Since 2015, we have been involved in Eshgro as an active shareholder. We have actively supported management in the buy-and-build and strategic development of the company and are proud of what we have achieved together. We wish the team, together with SI, every success in this next phase of growth.”
Financial details of the transaction will not be disclosed. The transaction is subject to approval from the supervisory authority of the Dutch Autoriteit Consument & Markt (ACM).