In the past year, the business trajectories of Sweden-based digital signage providers Zetadisplay and Vertiseit (Grassfish, DISE) differed significantly. Despite Vertiseit having to manage the integration of MultiQ, sales grew by 10%, while ZetaDisplay only managed to maintain the previous year’s sales. In fall 2023, almost the entire management team was replaced with newcomers to the industry.
Swedish digital signage providers play a special role in the European market. Digital signage was born in Scandinavia with Scala, and to this day, a lot of inspiration comes from Northern Europe.
Vertiseit increases sales and profits
The western Swedish digital signage provider Vertiseit, renowned for its Grassfish and Dise platforms, saw a 10% increase in sales last year, reaching 30 million euros in a challenging market environment. Vertiseit’s profit (EBITDA) also surged by over 50%, reaching 4.9 million euros.
CEO Johan Lind and his team have long emphasized the development of ARR sales, which represent recurring income from software sales. Their efforts bore fruit, with ARR rising by 17% to 14.2 million euros in 2023.
In 2023, Vertiseit divested a Danish MultiQ subsidiary focused on DooH and digital signage in public transport, aligning with its strategy as a retail experience provider. In 2022, Vertiseit acquired a southern Swedish competitor and integrated it into the Grassfish and Dise organizations in 2023. This integration involved introducing new ERP and CRM platforms and streamlining some duplicate headcounts.
A significant client win in the fourth quarter was with the American betting and lottery platform provider, Scientific Games. Dise secured a five-year software contract worth EUR 1.8 million.
Despite a challenging year, Vertiseit’s stock market price has shown signs of recovery in recent days, nearly reaching the previous year’s level. The company’s overall market capitalization currently stands at 50 million euros.
New beginning at Zetadisplay
For Zetadisplay, the major Swedish competitor based in Malmö, the year 2023 brought significant changes: CEO Per Mandorf, the CFO, and CCO Laila all departed from the integrator, leaving the company under the leadership of Anders Olin, who transitioned from the telecommunications industry. Furthermore, Zetadisplay’s country manager for Germany, previously Nordland, was replaced by Stefan Hoffmann, a former Google manager.
In addition to these changes, British investors took over key management roles in the fall, coinciding with Zetadisplay’s acquisition of the Austrian digital signage integrator Peakmedia. This acquisition now allows Zetadisplay to serve the DACH market from both Hamburg and Tyrol. Additionally, the country manager in the Netherlands was replaced at the beginning of the year.
Zetadisplay’s sales development was more or less flat, with sales equivalent to 46 million euros, one percent below the previous year, with recurring SaaS sales increasing by 12% to almost 19 million euros.
