Freshstream has agreed to invest in Worldstream and acquire a majority stake in the Netherlands-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service company. Worldstream is a fast-growing IaaS provider with company-owned data centers benefiting from rising data consumption, more complex IT infrastructure deployment use cases and the ongoing transition from in-house to outsourced, hosted IT infrastructure. Financial terms of this acquisition were not disclosed.
The organization has seen growth above the market in the past, stated Freshstream, supported by its advanced data centers and best-in-class customer support. The company has gone through a massive transition over the past 12 months that has amazed Freshstream. This change has strengthened the company’s strong historical growth track, improved its market offering and professionalized its organization and governance, according to Freshstream.
Dirk Vromans and Lennert Vollebregt launched Worldstream in 2006 and oversaw the early stages of the company’s expansion. Following the transaction, they will continue to hold minority shares in the company, after they step back from their leadership roles at Worldstream in 2020.
“Freshstream’s investment will be transformational for Worldstream, providing us with the support to grow our offering to meet the rising demand for outsourced cloud and IT infrastructure,” said Ruben van der Zwan, Worldstream’s new incoming CEO. “I am very excited to be leading the business through this next stage of growth with a shareholder who understands our journey and shares our entrepreneurial mindset.”
“As we look to the future, we see huge demand for dedicated servers and cloud solutions. With its infrastructure, expertise and strong focus on customer experience, Worldstream is well placed to benefit from the positive macro drivers in this sector,” said Paul Tutein Nolthenius, Director at Freshstream. “Furthermore, the entrepreneurial spirit instilled by Dirk and Lennert continues to run throughout the workforce and will be a key pillar in Worldstream’s success under Ruben’s leadership.”
Stengthened Worldstream Management Team
“Freshstream’s investment will be transformational for Worldstream, providing us with the support to grow our offering to meet the rising demand for outsourced cloud and IT infrastructure,” said Ruben van der Zwan, Worldstream’s new incoming CEO.Serving more than 2,500 customers worldwide with a dedicated workforce of more than 70 employees, the company is based in Naaldwijk, the Netherlands. One of the world’s largest Internet exchanges, AMS-IX, has a direct presence in the company’s two in-house data centers, which house over 15,000 servers for the companies clients worldwide.
With Freshstream’s majority investment, Worldstream aims to accelerate its ambitions for organic expansion under the leadership of newly appointed CEO Ruben van der Zwan and non-executive chairman Eric Boonstra.
Ruben van der Zwan has proven himself as Managing Director, entrepreneur, CCO and CTO at several companies within the cloud and hosting world, including Sentia Group, Amsio, Argeweb, SaasNow, and most recently as Managing Director Accenture Netherlands – Cloud First Infrastructure Engineering Lead. As Worldstream’s newly appointed CEO, Van der Zwan will lead Worldstream’s accelerated growth strategies backied by Freshstream’s majority investment. This strategic move aims to significantly expand Worldstream’s impact on the data services market both in the Netherlands and globally.
Eric Boonstra has held key management positions at several leading data center companies, including Iron Mountain, EvoSwitch, and currently as CEO at a newly established data center services company, KEVLINX. Prior to joining Kevlinx, Boonstra was Vice President and General Manager at Iron Mountain Data Centers in Western Europe. Before that, he was CEO of EvoSwitch, a role in which he led the company through significant growth phases until its acquisition by Iron Mountain in 2018 for more than 205 million euros. His leadership in these roles and his extensive experience in managing and expanding data center services operations across Europe will be a welcome addition to the strengthened management structure at Worldstream.
In Freshstream’s first independent fund, which closed last year after raising €762 million, Worldstream will be its seventh investment. The investor’s portfolio now includes fast-growing and entrepreneur-founded companies including Project Better Energy, DeterTech, Bella Figura Music, Big Motoring World, Nafinco and MCR.
“We are immensely proud of what Worldstream has become and we are very excited to start this new chapter,” said Dirk Vromans and Lennert Vollebregt, Co-Founders of Worldstream. “The timing couldn’t be better to hand over to Ruben and Eric to steer the company to the next level. We are delighted to remain on board as investors alongside Freshstream.”
