The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Finnish Industry Investment Ltd invest each EUR 17 m in CapMan Capital Management Oy's newest FinnVenture V ET fund, co-investing with FinnVenture Fund V in Finnish technology-high growth SMEs. CapMan is Finland's leading private equity investor managing funds of EUR 660 million. CapMan's investment activity within the technology sector will be strengthened greatly by the new equity financing resources of FVV ET raising the total capital allocated to the financing of rapid growth and internationalisation process of technology companies to EUR 84 million.

CapMan's objective is to increase its investment activities in promising companies in the Internet, Telecommunication and IT sectors. Heikki Westerlund, CapMan's partner, considers the EUR 34 million investment a crucial step in increasing CapMan's investments in the technology sector: » The investment from the EIB and Finnish Industry Investment increase our investment capacity substantially. With our experienced technology team we are one of the leading technology investors in the Nordic market ».

Ewald Nowotny, Vice President of the EIB, during the signature ceremony which took place yesterday in Luxembourg, stated: «  This is the third EIB investment in the venture capital field in Finland in one year and the second with Capman. Through its venture capital investments the EIB supports the development of SMEs at regional level and their internationalisation process in order to foster economic development and job creation in Europe. The investment in FVV ET should create further growth opportunities for some of the over 6,000 Finnish SMEs operating in the high-tech sector and contribute to the strengthening of the overall competitiveness of European industry ».

Also Juha Marjosola, Managing Director of Finnish Industry Investment ltd, considers the investment significant. "Our participation in the new fund is a consistent follow-up to the company's efforts to reinvest the State's privatisation funds and to secure financing for Finnish growth-oriented technology companies".

Capman actively seeks opportunities to participate investments in technology companies (particularly IT and telecom) especially in Finland and other Nordic countries. CapMan's technology investments include software and consulting companies such as AtBusiness Communications, Aldata Solution and Satama Interactive. In addition, CapMan has invested in the Internet content provider Infopiste (Helsinki.net) Accelerando and in LPG Innovations and Iobox which are software companies developing mobile Internet solutions. CapMan also participates in financial and management buy-out transactions.