Shock Media attracts investor for European expansion

Almelo, February 1, 2022 – Shock Media B.V. ("Shock Media"), a leading Dutch managed hosting company, today announces that the family-owned investment company Strikwerda Investments B.V. (“SI”) will invest in the company. As part of this collaboration, Shock Media will have access to knowledge and capital to realize its next stage of growth. This enables Shock Media to accelerate the expansion of its strong Dutch position and become a relevant European player through acquisitions both at home and abroad.

Shock Media is a managed hosting specialist for business-critical websites, webshops, and (web) applications and was founded in 1999 by Alain G tz. By focusing on the most demanding customers with solutions for complex hosting issues the company has been able to build a leading position in this niche market. Providing both excellent support and in-depth technical knowledge, customers are optimally advised and supported in achieving their online goals. Shock Media has grown considerably in recent years and has won the FD Gazellen Award, an award from the Dutch Financial Times (Het Financieele Dagblad) for the fastest growing companies in the Netherlands, nine consecutive times since 2013. With the investment from SI, Shock Media expects to be able to scale further and attract new talent.

SI is a family investment company targeting ambitious, medium to large SMEs and has a strong track record in the IT sector. SI is also the majority shareholder in TWS, which has created a market-leading position within the traditional web hosting market in recent years. Although mass-market web hosting is a large market, there is higher growth potential in specialized hosting segments, such as e-commerce hosting and hosting of mission-critical environments. SI is already active in this segment due to previous investments. Shock Media will further expand this specialism over the coming years and Alain G tz will, in addition to his existing role as CEO of Shock Media, participate and advise within TWS.

Alain Götz: “The collaboration creates a unique opportunity because a platform is created with a lot of striking power, capital, and specific knowledge. By working together, Shock Media can further scale up while the customer-oriented culture and approach are fully preserved and will also be secured by the existing management. As a strong financial partner, SI now makes it possible to do M&A in addition to our strong organic growth. Shock Media will become the target platform for all specialized and business-critical hosting solutions within TWS. In addition to takeovers in the Netherlands and abroad, we will become an even more attractive employer for, for example, scarce Linux talent.”

Abe Bakker: “Shock Media is one of the most beautiful companies in the Netherlands and a true pearl within the European hosting market. The company has shown impressive growth in recent years, thanks to its high level of knowledge, customer satisfaction, and excellent reputation. We are convinced that we complement and strengthen each other based on our different expertise and that together we can make a big leap in this attractive market. In our view, the collaboration can only be successful if the power of Shock Media can be safeguarded, among other things by preserving the team, culture, and autonomy. Our role in the collaboration will therefore consist of supporting the management team in continuing the company, its own identity, and growth. We are very excited to help Shock Media and her team accelerate its growth even further in the coming years. Together we can build a leading European player. We look forward to a successful and pleasant collaboration in the realization of the company's further growth strategy”.