Empowering SMEs: Insights from Claudio Corbetta, CEO of team.blue

Team.blue has rapidly established itself as one of Europe’s fastest-growing digital enablers for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Under the leadership of CEO Claudio Corbetta, the company has focused on empowering businesses by providing them with essential digital tools and infrastructure. In this Q&A, Corbetta shares insights on team.blue’s strategy, the evolving European tech landscape, and the importance of sustainability and innovation for SMEs.

Q&A with Claudio Corbetta, CEO, team.blue

Team.blue has become one of Europe’s fastest-growing digital enablers for SMEs. What do you think has been the key to scaling successfully across multiple markets while maintaining a strong local focus?

We’ve built team.blue not by creating cookie-cutter brands, but by bringing together established companies with deep local roots and market insight. We help them scale by giving them access to a shared backbone — common tools, technology, infrastructure, and AI-enabled capabilities, combined with strong cybersecurity and compliance standards. This hybrid model lets us scale quickly without losing local relevance. It’s a shared engine supporting businesses that stay close to their customers.

The European tech ecosystem is evolving rapidly — from AI to cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure. How is team.blue positioning itself to stay ahead of these shifts and continue empowering small and medium-sized businesses in a more digital world?

Europe’s SMEs remain under-served in modern digital infrastructure, yet many global vendors assume a level of scale, resource, and digital maturity these businesses find challenging. At team.blue, this understanding is embedded in our digital tools. We’re integrating generative AI, automation, secure cloud hosting, compliance, and tooling into a stack that SMEs can consume without the complexity that has held many businesses back. Our job is twofold: build the stack, and build trust and clarity. That’s how SMEs go from not knowing what’s possible to competing confidently.

You’ve overseen numerous acquisitions and integrations across Europe. What lessons have you learned about blending different company cultures and creating a unified vision across such a diverse group?

The key belief that drives our acquisition and integration strategy is that it’s critical to preserve what made a business thrive in the first place. We work with highly innovative companies, including entrepreneurial start-ups, to ensure that, together, we’re solving real challenges for SMEs. Successful integrations respect what makes each team unique while connecting them to the common tools, technologies, and capabilities that power team.blue’s growth engine. That means giving them autonomy, but also aligning them clearly on our mission to empower European SMEs. Successful integration isn’t just about business: it’s cultural. It’s finding where local insights and group capabilities strengthen each other. And that’s the balance we work hard to hit.

The pandemic accelerated digital adoption among SMEs. Have you seen this momentum sustain post-pandemic, and where do you think the next wave of growth for Europe’s digital SMEs will come from?

Yes, the pandemic triggered a digital shake-up. SMEs realized digital isn’t a nice-to-have, but a core building block. And now what we’re seeing is that digital presence alone is not enough: the next wave is about digital maturity. That’s where generative AI, automation, data sovereignty, end-to-end hosting, and compliance converge. In our 2025 Data Hosting report, over 57% of SMEs said they didn’t know whether their cloud provider guaranteed EU-based storage — and 72% said they worry about their data being stored outside Europe. We’re providing a platform where data lives in Europe, compliance is baked-in, and digital tools are not intimidating but accessible and practical. The SMEs that treat digital maturity as fundamental to how they operate, not as an add-on, will define Europe’s next generation of growth companies.

Sustainability and responsible tech are becoming boardroom priorities. How is team.blue incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles into its operations and long-term strategy?

Sustainability is central to how we think about our business. Since 2022, we have made it a core part of our strategy and set up a committee to ensure that our decisions reflect environmental, social, and governance responsibilities. In 2025, we joined the United Nations Global Compact Initiative, which guides responsible business practices across human rights, labour, the environment, and anti-corruption. We have taken concrete steps to reduce our environmental impact; our data centres run entirely on renewable energy, and in 2023, we cut our carbon emissions by 29 percent, including emissions across our supply chain. We’ve invested in wind farms, captured methane from landfills, generated electricity from organic waste, and planted thousands of trees through reforestation and biodiversity projects. Our Science-Based Targets commit us to reducing both direct and supply-chain emissions. Sustainability is more than reducing carbon. By embedding it in everything we do, we help the millions of SMEs we support strengthen operations, protect data, and innovate efficiently. This approach gives businesses the tools, resilience, and confidence to grow responsibly and compete globally, gaining a clear advantage over peers in the US and Asia.

As a leader in Europe’s digital infrastructure space, what do you see as the biggest challenges facing the continent’s tech competitiveness compared with the U.S. and Asia — and how can Europe close that gap?

Data sovereignty is now a defining issue for European competitiveness. Over half (57%) of SMEs are unsure if their cloud provider guarantees that their data is hosted within EU borders. This uncertainty affects trust and can make it harder for companies to comply with European regulations. There is a clear imperative for Europe to act swiftly to address its data sovereignty issue. For Europe to close this gap, SMEs need to place data sovereignty at the centre of their digital strategy. It is not only about regulatory compliance; it is about control and confidence in how their data is stored and managed. Working with partners that provide transparent and localized hosting solutions ensures that data remains within European borders and under European jurisdiction. By focusing on these elements, European SMEs can build trust with their customers, protect their data, and strengthen their operations, which is essential for enabling growth and supporting digital innovation across Europe.

Finally, on a more personal note, what drives you as a CEO, and how do you foster a culture of innovation and purpose within such a fast-moving, geographically diverse organization?I believe that millions of entrepreneurs across Europe deserve access to the same digital infrastructure that large companies have at their fingertips. That ambition drives me, and it shapes how we build team.blue.
We focus on clarity, trust and ownership. Teams across countries have the freedom to innovate locally, but they operate with a shared mission and a common backbone that ensures consistency and scale.
Despite our geographic spread, we’re aligned by the same mindset: a commitment to serving customers better every day. That’s what keeps us moving fast and improving constantly.