PrestaShop changes hands again, four years after its acquisition by the Italian group MBE Worldwide, the French platform for creating online stores comes under the control of the Polish group cyber_Folks, alongside Sylius. The operation goes beyond a simple change of shareholding and must be considered as a strategic recomposition of European digital commerce, which changes the global balance, where Shopify dominates.
PrestaShop, a mature open source champion
Founded in 2007 in Paris by Bruno Lévêque and Igor SchlumbergerPrestaShop has established itself as one of the French pioneers of open source e-commerce. Its initial promise was to enable traders, particularly VSEs and SMEsto create and operate an online store without relying on a closed SaaS model.
This positioning has favored massive adoption, in France alone, PrestaShop historically claims nearly 17% market share. Globally, the platform counts today approximately 230,000 active storeswhich generated 22 billion euros in business volume (GMV) in 2024. The ecosystem is structured around thousands of modules, partner agencies and technical service providers, making PrestaShop much more than a simple CMS.
Notable fact in the European tech landscape, this course was built with limited financial means with approximately $14.7 million raised since the beginning, notably with XAnge, Serena, Seventure Partners and business angels.
From MBE Worldwide to cyber_Folks: a change in logic
In 2021, PrestaShop is acquired by MBE Worldwidean Italian group specializing in shipping, logistics, printing and marketing services. The operation therefore aims to enrich the MBE offer for VSEs and SMEsin a context of accelerating online commerce post-pandemic. Alexandre Eruimy also remains at the head of the company, with the mission of expanding the presence of PrestaShop in Europe and Latin America.
The passage under the control of cyber_Folks marks a deeper rupture. Where MBE approached PrestaShop as a lever for operational services, cyber_Folks integrates it into a platform and application infrastructure strategy.
Cyber_Folks, from hosting to digital commerce orchestration
Formerly known as R22cyber_Folks is a Polish technology group listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Historically positioned in web hosting, domains and cloud services, the group has gradually broadened its scope towards SaaS solutions and tools dedicated to e-commerce.
In recent years, cyber_Folks has multiplied targeted acquisitions to build a coherent whole: Shop for SaaS e-commerce, Apilo And Sellintegro for marketplace, ERP and logistics integrations, Vercom for transactional communication and marketing automation. With PrestaShop, the group adds a global open source platform to its portfolio.
This strategy is supported by strengthened financial capacity, including capital increase of more than 47 million euros supplemented by bank financing.
Sylius, the Enterprise and composable brick
Alongside PrestaShop, Sylius plays a key role in the project. Also of Polish origin, Sylius is a open source, headless and API-first e-commerce frameworkbuilt on Symfony. Unlike packaged solutions, it is mainly aimed at complex projectshighly personalized and integrated into existing information systems.
The projects carried out with Sylius would represent approximately 7 billion euros in annual GMVwith a resolutely oriented positioning Enterprise And composable commerce. Its integration allows cyber_Folks to cover a segment hitherto difficult to access with PrestaShop alone: that of large tailor-made e-commerce architectures.
A 35 billion euro GMV set
With PrestaShop, Sylius and the group’s SaaS solutions, cyber_Folks now claims approximately 35 billion euros of cumulative GMV, a symbolic threshold, which allows management to compare its European footprint to that of Shopifywhile claiming an alternative approach.
Where Shopify relies on a homogeneous and closed SaaS model, cyber_Folks assembles three complementary models :
– SaaS for simplicity and speed of deployment,
– open source for the autonomy and flexibility of SMEs,
– composable for Enterprise projects.
This diversity constitutes one of the structuring axes of the industrial project.
Synergies and monetization: beyond the CMS
The expected synergies go beyond the strict scope of the creation of online stores, cyber_Folks is banking on cross-selling and up-selling between the customer bases of the different platforms, as well as on the increase in value of associated services.
Apilo and Sellintegro integration tools must meet the growing demand for connections with marketplaces, ERPs, logistics operators and marketing tools. Vercom strengthens the communication brick, from transactional messaging to marketing automation. The group also plans to structure a global marketplace for modules and solutionsgiving access to more than 200,000 merchants.
In this logic, PrestaShop is not considered by its future owner as a simple e-commerce solution, but becomes a entry point to its service ecosystem.
