Two European investors have together acquired a majority stake in the Amsterdam-based digital marketing solutions company Spotzer. The two companies investing in Spotzer are Amersterdam-based private debt firm Pride Capital Partners (an existing investor) and Belgian investor AtlasInvest Holding. Atlas, notably, is a private investment firm that ordinarily specializes in the energy sector.
The fresh infusion of capital will accelerate Spotzer’s growth strategy.
Spotzer Rolls Out Sales as a Service as New Avenue for Growth, Retention
“Spotzer has been in our portfolio since September 2017. So we know the company and management for quite some time now,” said Lars van‘t Hoenderdaal, a Partner at Pride Capital Partners. “We are supporting Spotzer Digital to bring them to the next phase of scalable growth.”
So Localogy Insider caught up with Spotzer CEO Peter Urmson today to ask him about the investment. He told us this investment came about because of Spotzer’s lengthy and solid execution track record. He said Spotzer has finished building the platform. So now it’s time to scale the business.
“We have built a strategy and executed on it to drive growth and customer lifetime value. I have moved our proposition from a simple website fulfillment business to a full-service digital marketing solutions business. One where we also upsell to customers paid search, SEO, and other products and services,” Peter told us.
“This allows us to provide a whole business solution for partners and customers. We have built our workflows and technology platform to enable us to do this. And with multiple product layers in several languages. Big growth areas for us have been the US, Germany, France, UK, Australia, and Italy.”
Booming Website, eCommerce Sales
Peter also told us that recent stunning growth rates in both eCommerce and website sales validate the company’s full-service model.
“Globally we have grown 160% in websites YOY, and 250% in eCommerce and far exceeding pre-pandemic growth numbers,” Peter said. “Full service ‘Do It For Me’ is taking off. And we are now well placed to capture that. Above all, I have focused the business on quality products and services. And I have built a solid positive reputation for delivering on our customer promise. That focus is now paying off.”
Service as a Differentiator
Spotzer has been around a while in the local digital space. It was founded in 2006 and has since evolved from its original mission as a digital fulfillment house into a full-service digital marketing platform that works with companies that aggregate large numbers of small businesses. Spotzer does this on a white-label basis. Its partner list features some really big names in the SMB space, including Wix, Telstra, IONOS, Orange, FCR Media, and ItaliaOnline.
Today, Spotzer offers a full suite of digital marketing solutions. These include websites, videos, mobile sites, and social media. Additionally, service is a major component of Spotzer’s offering. Spotzer also provides creative services and ongoing services to refresh, redistribute, and further optimize material to improve search rankings.
Currently, Spotzer’s team numbers about 125 employees.
