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Imprimatur Capital Technology Venture Fund signs investment in Naco Technologies nano-coating business

Home / News / Imprimatur Capital Technology Venture Fund signs investment in Naco Technologies nano-coating business

The following is a press release from Imprimatur Capital Fund Management:

Riga, May 20, 2011. Imprimatur Capital Technology Venture Fund and ZGI Nano have signed an investment in SIA “Naco Technologies” a young high-tech company based in Riga, Latvia, commercialising for a global market patented nano-coating technology developed at a leading research institute in Moscow, Russia. The Imprimatur Capital Technology Venture Fund, which originated the deal, has the European Investment Fund’s JEREMIE programme (co-financed by EU Structural Funds in Latvia) as its anchor investor, together with a number of pension funds and private individuals. ZGI Nano is managed by Latvian venture capital firm Zaļās Gaismas Investīcijas.
Toby Moore, Managing Partner of Imprimatur Capital Fund Management stated “We have been working with the team at Naco Technologies for some time and have been impressed with their positioning in a large global market, with the strength of their technology and with the growth potential of the business. Naco Technologies will benefit from the growing high-tech engineering base in Latvia as the company addresses the European, US and Asian markets.”
Normunds Igolnieks, chairman of Zaļās Gaismas Investīcijas stated “We appreciate the technology of Naco Technologies and professionalism of the team, hence we gladly take part in this project which represents high growth potential in international markets. Naco Technologies’ solution will provide an opportunity to Latvian, Baltic and Nordic engineering and metal-working industries to operate with increased added value. I want to thank Imprimatur Capital Fund Management and Naco Technologies for selecting us as co-investor in this project.”
Alexander Parfinovics, CEO and co-founder of Naco Technologies stated that “Naco Technologies has an ambition to become a significant player in the global coating industry and we have the core elements to achieve that goal: leading technology, talented scientists, and an internationally focused team. The support from our investors will enable the company to provide coating production, equipment and service support, initially from Latvia and then from other centres as we expand.”
Graham Cope, Head of Region, European Investment Fund, stated “This investment into Naco Technologies is Imprimatur’s first transaction from the Start-up Fund established with our cornerstone investment. It is a key milestone not only for Naco Technologies and Imprimatur, but for EIF as well, as it shows that high-growth innovative enterprises in Latvia can now benefit from equity financing in all stages of their development, starting from seed and start-up and later, expansion stage, supported by EU funds."
Naco Technologies’ patented innovation enables nano-coatings onto a wide variety of substrate materials, with value-added coatings that are harder and more wear resistant than existing technologies and with a much quicker coating process. This results in shorter production cycles for Naco’s customers and reduced friction fatigue in various equipment used in global industry sectors such as machinery and tooling, aerospace, oil and gas and others. Invested funds will be used to create a first coating service centre in Riga to be launched in 2012 to serve the industrial tooling market in northern Europe. In the future the company plans to expand further in other European markets and then to the US and Asia.

The establishment of Naco Technologies in 2010 was a result of the technology commercialisation programme of the International Science and Technology Centre (www.istc.ru), enabled by the Commercialisation Reactor and in partnership with the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) (www.liaa.gov.lv) and Virtual CEO (www.virtualceo.eu).

About JEREMIE
JEREMIE (Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises) is a joint initiative launched by the European Commission (DG Regional Policy) and the European Investment Bank group to improve access to finance for SMEs in the EU within the Structural Funds framework for the period 2007 - 2013. JEREMIE enables the EU Member States and Regions to put money from the structural funds and also national resources into holding funds that can finance SMEs in a flexible and innovative way. Since the products will be provided on a repayment basis, funding will be reinvested and hence more SMEs will benefit from the EU resources.
The new initiative aims at developing and fostering the role of entrepreneurship within the EU in order to meet the objectives of the Lisbon agenda and help structural funds to deliver greater benefits to the market.

About EIF
EIF's central mission is to support Europe's small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops venture capital and guarantees instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment. The EIF total net commitments to private equity funds amounted to over EUR 4.6bn at September 2010. With investments in over 300 funds, the EIF is a leading player in European venture due to the scale and the scope of its investments, especially in high-tech and early-stage segments. The EIF commitment in guarantees totaled over EUR 13.6bn in over 160 operations, positioning it as a major European SME guarantees actor and a leading micro-finance guarantor.

About Imprimatur Capital
Imprimatur Capital is an international seed investor in high-growth technology businesses with global market potential. To date Imprimatur Capital headquartered in London has invested in more than 20 start-ups in Europe, Russia and the Asia Pacific region, in sectors including Web businesses, enterprise software, electronics, life science and homeland security.

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More information about the Commercialization Reactor 2011: http://ow.ly/55QXo
© LIAA , SIA Interaktīvo Tehnoloģiju Grupa 2006 Last updates: 16.05.2012