Invest-IQ

Enterprise Investors, through their Enterprise Venture Fund I (EVF I), have invested EUR 5.5 mln in BLStream, a mobile software technology company. The funding will put 35 percent of the company’s stake in the hands of Enterprise Investors, and will be used to expand the company through acquisitions, as well as to develop their software [...]

RUSNANO has recently added to its nanotechnology portfolio with a EUR 25 mln investment in Beneq, Finland-based manufacturers of thin-film and specialized functional coating equipment and technologies. The investment was made in the form of share purchases and capital injection, and will be used to expand the company’s activities as well as focus on markets [...]

CapMan Plc. portfolio company Walki Group has bought out the owner’s stake in Meuwissen, a family-owned construction materials company.

Marking its third Finnish transaction in the last 10 months, secondary investor Verdane Capital has acquired a portfolio of 12 technology companies by acquiring the Eqvitec Technology Fund III from Eqvitec Partners. The acquisition was made via the Verdane Capital VII Fund. Verdane Capital also purchased Eqvitec’s Technology Fund II late last year. Eqvitec Partners [...]

Sweden’s Ratos has announced a deal with the Sanoma media group which will allow the company to acquire 100% of a cinema chain based in Finland. Ratos will provide private equity funding of € 50 million for Finnkino, Finland’s largest cinema chain, in a deal that’s been valued at € 94.3 million. The sale includes [...]

Making good on last year’s announcement of a planned exit from European medical supplies distributor OneMed, CapMan has completed the sale of its shares to 3i. CapMan initially invested in OneMed in 2006, then oversaw an expansion that has resulted in the doubling of annual revenues. With the OneMed exit and a partial exit from [...]

Ruukki Group has agreed to sell off the majority holding in Pohjolan Design-Talo, the Finnish house builder to funds managed by CapMan. Total size of the deal is approximately EUR 76 million in cash for 80% stake. The other 20% of the company remain with its management. Transaction is expected to be completed by March [...]

Business solutions provider Affecto recently announced that it received notification from CapMan, as required by the Finnish Securities Markets Act, a change in the investor’s holdings. CapMan reduced its ownership in the company from 12.3% to just under 4%, with a total of 855,373 shares. The shares are owned by the CapMan Public Market Fund. [...]

International private equity investor 3i has reached an agreement to acquire one of Europe’s leading medical supply distributors, OneMed, from PE firm CapMan. Since CapMan’s original 2006 investment in OneMed, annual turnover has more than doubled. The acquisition by 3i now allows OneMed to continue business development by working to consolidate their industry all across [...]

In a somewhat complicated three-way deal between CapMan, Access Capital Partners, and Pohjola, CapMan has sold the Finnish bank a 30% stake in Access Capital for EUR 28 million. Access Capital will take over management of Pohjola’s private equity investment business in exchange for a 10% holding which will be transferred to Pohjola. When all [...]

Finland’s CapMan recently announced the first close of its new fund, CapMan Mezzanine V, at €60 million. Despite the June closing of a previous fund below target, Capman is confident mezzanine investing still offers investors a high enough risk-to-return ratio to attract them to the fund, even in the difficult fund raising atmosphere that currently [...]

CapMan Plc has announced a partial exit from its Lumene investment of 2003. The firm has joined co-investor Langholm Capital in selling its interest in Farmos Holding Oy to KilltoClean Oy, which plans to merge the two under the Kiilto name. Farmos was spun off from Lumene in 2008, and various CapMan funds combined to [...]

Veraventure has announced that it has made a significant investment into Finnish hi-tech company HammerKit. This makes it the 100th recipient of investments from the public investment fund along with private investors. The funds will be utilized to help grow HammerKit with the goal of attracting more investments and industrial partners. The exact details of [...]

The investment groups Seed Fund Vera and Ambient Sound Investments made an equity investment in Senseg, a Finnish company developing a breakthrough touch interface technology. Senseg (www.senseg.com) Senseg develops a breakthrough touch interface technology for consumer electronic devices. The technology allows major improvements in the usability of electronic equipment from mobile handsets to game controllers. [...]

Martinson Trigon Venture Partners invested € 1.75 million into Apaja Online Entertainment. Apaja Online Entertainment Oy (www.apaja.com) Apaja is an entertainment company specialising in online gaming community services. The Company was founded in 2001 and currently employs 44 people in Finland and abroad. The company is based in Helsinki, Finland. Apaja’s main product is Playray, [...]