Inventure announces a new early stage venture capital fund Inventure Fund II. The EUR 50 million first closing of the fund was led by European Investment Fund (EIF), FoF Growth, and Finnish Industry Investment among several institutions and private investors. The fund is also supported by European Union through the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (ClP). Fund raising continues in 2014 towards the target size of EUR 75 million.
Inventure Fund II will invest in approximately 20 high-technology companies in Finland, the Scandinavia, and the Baltic countries. Inventure focuses on early stage investments in device, electronics and component domains and in mobile internet and software sectors. The portfolio of Inventure’s previous funds includes internationally successful companies such as Canatu, Rightware, Merus Power, Freespee, Conmio, and Thinglink.
”We are increasing our stakes in the creation of North European success stories. We see an unprecedented high number of experienced entrepreneurs and innovations with global potential. With Inventure Fund II we have a unique opportunity to invest in and to build a new group of international, most competitive, and profitable growth companies“, states Sami Lampinen, Managing Director of Inventure.
“We are very pleased with the development of Inventure. Its portfolio, originating from Finland, has a global reach and Inventure is helping its companies to be present in China to facilitate the Asian expansion. Inventure has made a positive impact on the Finnish venture capital eco-system and is well positioned to take advantage of the attractive Finnish early stage opportunity. We are happy to be contributing to the further development of a thriving startup eco-system of Finland, which has proven that it can produce success stories, rivaling those of Silicon Valley”, states Tatiana Issaeva, Venture Capital Investment Manager at EIF.
”New growth companies have to go international right from the start. We expect Inventure to accelerate the growth of young companies through their new fund as well as their expertise and international network,” says Esko Torsti, Chairman of the Investment Council of FoF Growth and Director at Ilmarinen.
”In a challenging international market situation companies can only be successful by providing their customers with better solutions than their competitors. We trust that Inventure, with its stable market position, will find these companies to its portfolio,” says Anne Riekki, Director at Finnish Industry Investment.
Inventure’s venture capital team consists of Sami Lampinen, Timo Tirkkonen, Tuomas Kosonen and Fei Xu. Inventure operates in Helsinki, Finland, and Shanghai, China.
More information:
Sami Lampinen,CEO, Inventure, tel +358 40 520 5295
Anne Riekki, Director, Finnish Industry Investment, tel: +358 50 337 4434
www.inventure.fi