Helveta’s timber track and trace technology receives £3m investment
Published - Thursday, 02 July, 2009Oxford, United Kingdom, 2 July 09: Helveta Limited, the leading provider of global timber track and trace technology, today announced that it has raised £3m in a new funding round. French technology investor Succés Europe led the round to completion, supported by existing investors Albion Ventures and Oxford Capital Partners. The investment will finance the continued international growth and expansion of the company.
In the tropical timber industry, a key concern is ensuring that only timber from legal and sustainable sources reaches the market. Illegal logging costs the Governments of timber-producing states between 10 and 15 billion Euros a year in the form of theft, non-collection of forest taxes and depressed timber prices. Illegal logging also increases the rate of deforestation, which is the second biggest driver of climate change, accounting for 18 – 25% of greenhouse gases released globally. The scale of the problem has led to legislation in both the US and EU aimed at putting measures in place to verify the legality of timber, and technology such as that delivered by Helveta is playing a pivotal role in projects across Africa, SE Asia and the Amazon basin.
Helveta’s unique technology is focused on the timber sector. It enables customers to trace assets through the supply chain, providing traceability and verification. Production is monitored using Helveta’s mobile device-based software applications – CI Mobile™ – and barcode or RFID reader technologies, which in turn link into Helveta’s web-based suite of tools and reports – CI World™. Helveta has extended its capability to the food storage and distribution sector, providing valuable information on the origin of food produce.
“Helveta is the only technology solution for timber and food supply chains capable of delivering global traceability and remotely verifiable regulatory compliance data over the web. We are pleased that our continued expansion has received investment from Succés Europe, as well as continued support from Oxford Capital Partners and Albion Ventures,” said Helveta CEO Patrick Newton. “This investment is an endorsement of the progress we’ve made in supporting real change within the industry, and comes as we are poised to announce a number of new contracts in key timber producing nations.”
“Succés Europe is delighted to be making its first investment in Helveta, and we have been struck by the company’s unique opportunity for growth within the current climate. The Company has strong management and a solid pipeline of opportunities and we look forward to working with the board and our co-investors to build on the Helveta success story.” commented Mario Anid, Director and Investment Committee President at Succés Europe.
“Helveta has made encouraging progress since we last invested in 2008, winning a number of highly significant contracts and playing a strategic role in helping countries comply with the requirements of the EU’s Forestry Law Enforcement, Government and Trade (FLEGT) process,” commented Ed Lascelles, Partner at Albion Ventures. “As the only commercially deployed, electronic traceability system in the timber sector Helveta is uniquely placed to become the industry standard.”
“As a company that is enjoying global success, we are proud to continue supporting Helveta as it builds on five years of solid achievements to become a global leader in the timber tracking sector,” said David Mott, Investment Director at Oxford Capital Partners. “The tougher legislative environment, coupled with the growing ambition of timber producing countries for recovering lost revenues and for enhancing social responsibility, makes us confident that Helveta is well placed to become a prominent ambassador for the sustainable management of forests. Think of it as the ‘FAIRTRADE’ Mark for the global timber industry.”
Helveta was advised in this funding round by FirstCapital. Legal advisers were Justin Starling of Manches; Miranda Morad of Berwin Leighton Paisner acting for Succés Europe and Albion Ventures LLP; and Barry Maytum of Nabarros advised Oxford Capital Partners.
For further information, please contact:
Louise Richardson, Ranieri Communications.
Tel: +44 (0)1296 394 614; email Louise
About Helveta
Helveta was incorporated in 2004 and is the developer of the CI World™ software platform. CI World is a unique technology providing fully auditable traceability and chain of custody control for extended supply chains in the Timber and Food production sectors. CI World and its components – TracElite™ and CI Earth™ – have won a number of awards as innovative technologies for the timber sector. Helveta is privately held.
About Succés Europe
About Succès Europe: Succès Europe is a Sophia Antipolis based European investment holding focusing on early-stage investments in the CleanTech, MedTech, ICT and B2B sectors. The founding shareholders and Investment Committee are all serial entrepreneurs or international managers and have founded or been heavily associated with such success stories as SES, GemPlus, Kaerys, COMEX, Adobe, MicroSoft, Nokia, LavaLife, etc. Succès Europe has an active investment philosophy which foresees using the experience, expertise, and network of their founding shareholders and Investment Committee to help their investee companies to global success.
About Albion Ventures
Albion Ventures LLP is a venture capitalist established to generate long-term investment returns by investing in small companies. The investment management team has created market leading investment performance for shareholders in seven Venture Capital Trusts, which they manage. In the thirteen years since the first fund was launched a dividend has been paid on every fund every year, totalling over £80 million; more than any other VCT manager.
Albion Ventures LLP was created in January 2009 when it acquired the business of Close Ventures from Close Brothers Group plc and is structured as a partnership formed by the Close Ventures management team. The team believes it’s appropriate that a business investing in owner-managed companies is itself owner-managed. Close Ventures itself was started by the current management in 1996.
Albion Ventures looks to invest £1-10m in a wide range of growing businesses, from technology-oriented companies to service and asset-based businesses.
Albion Ventures is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
About Oxford Capital Partners
Oxford Capital Partners is a science and technology venture capital firm with extensive experience in investing in and supporting businesses with high growth potential. We bring to portfolio companies deep experience of managing and building technology businesses together with a world-class network of technology investors, scientific advisors, business leaders and strategic partners.
Oxford Capital Partners is the manager of five Oxford Gateway Funds and oversees a portfolio of over 25 companies in a range of technology sectors, including ICT, clean technologies, life and physical sciences.
Oxford Capital Partners was voted Venture Capital House of the Year 2005 at the Unquote Awards and Best EIS Fund Manager 2006 by the EIS Association.
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:06 pm
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