Your.Online, a Dutch hosting and digital services group that has completed more than 60 acquisitions, is backing a new trust business built from scratch rather than buying one. Invicta Trust Services, announced on October 1, focuses on qualified trust services under the EU’s eIDAS framework. It is led by Patrick Beckman Lapré, who joins from QuoVadis, a qualified trust service provider that DigiCert acquired.

According to the announcement, Your.Online provides long-term capital, knowledge and its peer network of entrepreneurs, while Beckman Lapré, who brings more than two decades of experience in public key infrastructure (PKI), digital identity and qualified trust services, leads Invicta independently. Invicta will initially operate within the environment of Reconi, one of the group’s existing trust businesses, while it establishes its technical and commercial foundations.

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eIDAS 2.0 and the Route to Qualified Status

The announcement ties the venture to eIDAS 2.0. Regulation (EU) 2024/1183 requires member states to provide EU Digital Identity Wallets by the end of 2026, according to the European Commission, and extends trust services to electronic ledgers and the management of remote electronic signature and seal creation devices. In Your.Online’s view, these rules are turning trust services from standalone products into a foundational layer of digital infrastructure, and Invicta is meant to serve organizations that need that layer.

Trust services under the regulation include the issuance of certificates for electronic signatures, electronic seals and website authentication, according to the Commission’s questions and answers on the rules. Qualified services carry a stronger legal effect than non-qualified ones: a qualified electronic signature has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature across the EU.

The route to qualified status is set out in the same document. A provider first passes an audit by an accredited conformity assessment body, then applies to the supervisory body of the country where it is established, which should verify compliance within three months. Only once the provider has been added to the national trusted list may it start offering the qualified service.

Invicta’s website marks its qualified trust service provider status as in progress. It lists a first phase of advanced electronic signatures and seals, with signing and validation services, as available soon. A second phase, covering QTSP qualification and qualified signatures, seals, time stamps, validation and electronic attestations of attributes, is marked as in progress.

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A Trust Segment Assembled Through Acquisitions

Your.Online entered digital trust by acquiring Reconi and founded its Trust segment. Reconi is a Dutch eHerkenning and PKIoverheid specialist whose services, according to the group, give businesses access to more than 2,600 secure government websites and over 100 B2B platforms. DigiTrust, a Dutch information security auditing and certification specialist, and Avensus, a Dutch cloud security company focused on encryption, key management and hardware security modules, later joined the group’s security and trust division. The group’s Security & Trust segment also includes Aangetekend, which it describes as a Dutch qualified trust service provider offering registered and secure email, digital signing and large file transfer. NordLEI, a Swedish issuer of the Legal Entity Identifiers used in financial regulation, is now part of the Trust segment.

The trust business sits alongside a hosting and domains portfolio. Its hosting and domain brands include Gandi and o2switch in France. As we reported, Blacknight in Ireland and Zone in Estonia announced in June and August that they were joining the group. Founded in 2017, Your.Online reports more than 1.3 million customers and over 1,000 employees, with acquisitions in seven countries. It is backed by Strikwerda Investments, a Dutch family office specializing in IT investments, and is part of Your.World, which it describes as a global web hosting, online productivity and managed IT services group.

Your.Online’s Trust page addresses founders directly, offering operational independence, leadership that stays in place and no fixed investment horizon. Invicta shows that the group also backs companies built from the ground up. For owners weighing that kind of shareholder, an outside view of how a buyer might value the business can help before talks begin. A one-on-one M&A consultation can provide it.