The IT provider is steadily increasing despite great competition. The entry of two investors should help with the expansion a first goal could be Scandinavia.
The competition in the cloud market is intense. Many IT companies rent storage space and computing power in their huge data centers. The Cologne based startup Gridscale still believes in its opportunities as an IT provider in these fields. “The market is extremely large and growing at great speed. So it offers a lot of space for providers who specialize in individual segments, “says co-founder Henrik Hasenkamp. The IT startup, which has been on the market for three years and has been profitable for some time now, is accelerating the pace of growth. As WirtschaftsWoche founder learned in advance, new and existing shareholders are investing a total of seven million euros in Gridscale.
New on the one hand are the Dutch venture capitalist Endeit Capital and on the other hand the investment arm New Ventures of the energy group EnBW. Its investments were aimed at investing in smart infrastructure beyond the power grids, says Hasenkamp. In addition, the existing shareholders, the regional BLSW seed and growth fund from the Bergisches Land. And the semi state early stage investor High Tech Gründerfonds, are investing more in Gridscale.
Server for Scandinavia
With the money, the startup wants to conquer new markets. At the moment, the business is concentrating on the German speaking area, Scandinavia could soon be added. Most of the work continues to be handled by the headquarters. “99 percent of the processes in a data center are controlled by our technology,” says Hasenkamp. The startup cooperates with data center operators and sets up its own hardware and software there. In addition to two locations in Frankfurt, it could soon be a place in northern Europe.
Gridscale wants to grow primarily through cooperation with so-called system integrators. They are in direct contact with user companies and set up their IT. But they use the Gridscale offers for a fee. As a distinguishing feature, the startup relies on a possible simple and straightforward integration of the cloud services. One wants to continue to take responsibility for the user, Hasenkamp describes the strategy. At the same time, the team is expected to double by the end of the year with just under 30 employees.
Some customers also book additional storage or computing services directly from Gridscale. Usually this happens for a longer period of time. But Gridscale has already been used to cover extreme peak loads. Such as startups, which were seen in the TV show “The Cave of the Lions” and numerous hits on their website during the broadcast had to deal with.
Also published on Medium.