Helveta secures £5m investment in funding to support its rapid expansion in global forest and food sectors
17 May 2010
London, United Kingdom, May 17 2010: Helveta Ltd, the provider of supply chain intelligence software, CI World™, announced today completion of a £5m equity financing. The round was led by BeCapital, with Carbon Trust joining as a new investor and continued support coming from existing investors Albion Ventures, Oxford Capital Partners and Succès Europe.
The investment underpins Helveta’s rapid expansion in its key geographic markets worldwide. Helveta’s CI World supply chain intelligence functionality enables public and private sector users in the forest and food products industries to provide full traceability and compliance verification capability for assets moving along global supply chains. In the forestry sector CI World is the only proven technology to provide automated Chain of Custody (CoC) management, Legality Assurance System (LAS) functionality and pro-active compliance with new US Lacey Act and European Union Due Diligence Regulation timber import legislation.
CI World is being used to monitor in excess of 2.7m hectares of forest across the Congo and Amazon basins and in South East Asia. Recent major contract wins include national timber traceability and compliance validation systems in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon. Once deployed, these systems will increase significantly the total forest area monitored using Helveta technology. CI World is rapidly becoming the supply chain governance software platform of choice with countries becoming involved in the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) process. Recently, Ghana became the first country to sign up to treaty commitments under FLEGT. As a result the Ghanaian government has selected Helveta to implement a Legality Assurance System for its timber sector.
Patrick Newton, CEO of Helveta added: “The funding increases Helveta’s working capital reserves to drive expansion of our supply chain governance solutions in the key markets of forest and food products.”
“Helveta is uniquely placed to provide technology solutions for chain-of-custody tracking and certification of natural resources, in particular in the timber and food sectors, a space that is destined to experience significant growth as a result of powerful regulatory and economic drivers. Led by an experienced management team, it is building an invaluable platform in emerging economies across Asia, Africa and South America.” explained Laurent Vermer, Investment Director at BeCapital.
“The regulatory and consumer drivers for establishing the legality and sustainability of timber have accelerated the market for Helveta’s technology,” explained Rachael Nutter, Investment Manager at The Carbon Trust. “Helveta provides a uniquely robust means of delivering the necessary information to implement increasingly demanding regulations, and we are very excited about the opportunity this presents.”
Justin Starling of Manches acted for the Company, Thierry Bosly of White and Case for BeCapital, Simon Walker of Taylor Wessing for Carbon Trust and Miranda Morad of Berwin, Leighton & Paisner for Albion Ventures, Oxford Capital Partners and Succès Europe. Corporate Finance Advisory to the Company was provided by FirstCapital.
About BeCapital
BeCapital is a Luxembourg-based private equity investment company dedicated to capital expansion investments in companies that have developed proprietary, proven and disruptive clean technologies addressing the challenges of the Positive EconomyTM, i.e. the need to preserve and restore environmental capital as per BeCitizen (www.becitizen.com), one of BeCapital’s initiators alongside Cobepa (www.cobepa.be) and Compagnie Benjamin de Rothschild (http://cbr.groupedr.ch).
About The Carbon Trust
The Carbon Trust is a not-for-profit company with the mission to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy, providing specialist support to business and the public sector to help cut carbon emissions, save energy and commercialise low carbon technologies. By stimulating low carbon action we contribute to key UK goals of lower carbon emissions, the development of low carbon businesses, increased energy security and associated jobs.
About Carbon Trust Investments
Carbon Trust Investments Limited is the venture capital investment subsidiary of the Carbon Trust. Carbon Trust Investments has invested in 18 businesses over the last seven years. Two of these companies, Ceres Power PLC and CMR Fuel Cells PLC listed on AIM. A further portfolio company, Heliswirl Technology Ltd, has achieved a partial exit.
This press release is not to be construed as an invitation or inducement to engage in any investment activity. This document does therefore not constitute a financial promotion in the United Kingdom for the purposes of section 21(1) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The information contained in this press release is being made available solely as part of the Carbon Trust Group's general activity of promoting deployment of, and investment in, clean energy businesses and low carbon technologies.
About CT Investment Partners LLP
CT Investment Partners LLP is the FSA authorised and regulated venture capital advisory firm, jointly owned by Carbon Trust and its executives, which advises Carbon Trust Investments.