How team.blue is rapidly building a European ecosystem for SMB software.
team.blue is a leading European digital enabler for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), offering solutions across domains, hosting, e-commerce, SaaS tools, and compliance services.
Founded in 2019 through the merger of Combell Group (Belgium), TransIP Group (Netherlands), and Register Group (Italy), and backed by Hg Capital, team.blue now operates in 22+ countries, serves over 3.3 million customers, and employs 3,600 professionals.
Under CEO Claudio Corbetta and President Jonas Dhaenens, the group is expanding beyond hosting into software and SaaS, supporting entrepreneurs across Europe’s increasingly digital and regulated markets. Recent acquisitions – including AssoConnect, Ticimax, Shoptet, and B2Brouter – show its commitment to building a full suite of digital tools for SMBs.
“It’s a continuous process”
M&A Director Maarten Remmerie joined around 2019 and has overseen a rapid pace of deals. “Yes, it’s actually a continuous process. We’re doing quite a few acquisitions indeed. Since I started, we’ve completed about 50 acquisitions in total. So that’s roughly 10 per year. It’s part of an integrated strategy and part of our DNA; we continuously look for new opportunities.”
Building a digital ecosystem
team.blue began in hosting, but now offers a wide range of growth tools. “For instance, we provide tools like Metricool, which help businesses stand out on social media”, says Remmerie. “Or tools that help attract customers, such as Leadinfo. And then: how do I convert those customers?”
The goal is to build an ecosystem of connected products that automate processes and reduce complexity for SMEs. “We try to take care of as much of the rest as possible”, he says.
Scaling in e-commerce
In 2025, team.blue strengthened its e-commerce footprint with acquisitions such as Ticimax and Shoptet. “They’re designed for small and medium-sized businesses that want to run an online store. With these platforms, you get everything in one package. So, you could think of them as local versions of Shopify, in a way.”
“The main advantage is that they’re deeply tailored to local entrepreneurs’ needs. They operate on an international scale and allow entrepreneurs to sell internationally, but unlike large US players they are well embedded in the local ecosystem, having integrations with the local CRMs, accounting solutions, etc. Which is very important for small and medium sized businesses”, Remmerie adds. “It’s a similar dynamic as our hosting roots – local brands, local sales teams, local-language service.”
What team.blue looks for
team.blue is currently active in the following categories:
1. Online presence: Think of digital identity (domains), hosting, email, websitebuilders,…
2. Compliance: Think of consent management, privacy tools, accessibility software,..
3. Engagement: Think of sales and marketing tools for small and mid sized businesses such as social media tools, lead gen solutions
4. E-commerce: all-in-one shop solutions
5. Transaction formalization: Anything you need to complete a sale. Think of booking solutions, e-invoicing, POS systems,..
"We recently also invested in Assoconnect, which is an all-in-one solution for non-for-profit organizations", says Remmerie.
Key acquisition criteria include market position, product strength, and team quality. “We look for top-performing companies in their specific niche or region – strong product, strong team, good go-to-market execution, good management, solid KPIs – and, as we’d say in Flanders, a lot of goesting to keep growing.”
Targets typically generate 5–25 million euros in ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue), though the group also completes larger strategic or smaller tactical deals, which are then add-ons for existing clusters.
The founders that team.blue partners with are typically very strong in vision and product creation. team.blue is very strong in scaling, professionalizing and operational growth, so it can support founders with international expansion, improving business metrics, enabling cross-selling, and broadening the product so they can become category leaders in their space. “That’s really our specialty”, says Remmerie.
“We look for top-performing companies in their specific niche or region and, as we’d say in Flanders, a lot of goesting to keep growing.”
Maintaining autonomy and the entrepreneurial spirit
Integration follows a clear pattern: centralize the essentials, protect autonomy elsewhere. “All the ‘boring’ stuff like accounting, cybersecurity, and communication tools are integrated right away. Hence here the companies benefit from our shared service centers”, says Remmerie. “But for product, team management, and commercial strategy, we try to give as much autonomy as possible. The last thing we want is for it to feel like a large corporate takeover. We want them to keep being entrepreneurs.”
Founders meet regularly in what he calls a “founder ecosystem” with frequent physical offsites. That’s where the real magic happens”, he says. “They learn a lot from each other and that creates a dynamic where people say, ‘Maybe I can use that from you’, or ‘We tested this, maybe you can try it too’. Although they operate in different fields, they can learn a lot from each other since they all built a very strong business (often bootstrapped), all excel in different things and often bump into similar challenges.”
At the local level, team.bue also encourages collaboration between functions, such as the tech teams, even though the teams remain local. “That way, you belong both to your local business and to the larger group’s product or tech team”, says Remmerie. And that’s important, because it’s about much more than just sending someone a pen with a team.blue logo on it. You want people to genuinely feel part of something bigger.”
It’s about striking the right balance. Remmerie: “If you only focus on the team.blue story, you risk losing brand value locally and what each company has built. But if you only focus locally, you end up with a loose collection of small groups with little synergy.”
Local insight as a competitive edge
team.blue’s M&A model is deeply local. “We understand local nuances very well, and we want to keep that”, says Remmerie. “That’s one of our biggest advantages compared to American players. They often come in with one style, one deal structure – ‘this is it, take it or leave it’. But the way you approach a deal in Bulgaria or the Czech Republic is completely different from how you do it in Denmark or the Netherlands.”
“In the Netherlands and Denmark, people get straight to the point”, he continues. “They’re also fine with doing a lot of things digitally. But the further east or south you go, the more time people want to spend together in person. Deals take longer, but that’s part of it. It’s also about truly listening to what the entrepreneur wants and that’s not always the same thing. Some want to roll out their product across Europe, while others prefer to refocus on a specific activity.”
Eastern Europe has become an important focus for team.blue. “Last year we completed a fairly large acquisition – the Loopia Group – which was very interesting for us, particularly in hosting. And this year we acquired Shoptet, the CZ based e-commerce solution. We spend quite some time there, mainly because there are many ‘product-first’ companies – businesses that build genuinely strong products. That makes it a very interesting region for us.”
“We understand local nuances very well, and we want to keep that. That’s one of our biggest advantages compared to American players."
From hosting to software
Originally built around hosting, team.blue now blends infrastructure with SaaS. “These things are all starting to blend together, and that’s a good thing – that’s exactly what we want”, says Remmerie.
The customer journey has therefore changed, the M&A director observes. “In the past, a new customer would always start by registering a domain name, and everything would flow from that. That still happens, but we now also see the reverse process: someone might start with a Facebook page for their bar or restaurant, and begin by using a tool like Metricool to manage their social media. Then they realize it’s useful to have a website, maybe add a booking system, and so on. So there’s now cross-pollination in both directions.”
Deal flow is shifting accordingly. “In my first or second year, we did about 9 deals: 2 were software-related and 7 were in hosting. Now that ratio has completely flipped. The opportunities are increasingly in software.”
“The market is enormous”
Despite its scale, team.blue sees plenty of runway. “We review around 300 to 400 companies per year. Out of those, maybe around 10 end up as actual deals”, says Remmerie. “That’s because we’re highly selective and do a lot of research.”
Their method is simple but disciplined: integrate where necessary, preserve what works, and think long-term. “We want entrepreneurs to choose us deliberately – not just for price, but because it fits where they are on their journey. If we keep delivering on that, the rest will follow.”
READ ALSO: Steven Brouchkaert explains PIA’s “don't fix what's not broken” strategy
