Amadeus Capital Partners Ltd is a specialist venture capital firm backing new technologies. Founded in 1997, Amadeus manages £285 million and has backed 36 companies in the UK and continental Europe, covering computer hardware and software, mobile and fixed communications technologies and new media.
The firm has established a reputation among entrepreneurs for Silicon Valley-style, hands on assistance and 'door opening', and among investors for proving that early stage technology investing can be profitable in the long term. Andrea Traversone, Investment Manager at Amadeus, is a member of Smartner Board of Directors.
Eqvitec Partners Ltd. is a venture capital company operating on a partnership basis. Eqvitec supports primarily Finnish technology-intensive companies enhancing their possibilities to enter the global marketplace. It concentrates on the infocom and applied technologies markets.
Smartner is funded by Eqvitec Technology Fund which makes equity investments in early-stage companies that show entrepreneurship and potential to grow in the global marketplace. Jari Mieskonen, partner of Eqvitec, is a member of the Board of Directors at Smartner.
IT Provider Adviser 1 AB is a leading Swedish venture capital advisory firm advising three different investment funds focusing on technology investments. IT Provider-related funds have made investments in over 70 technology companies over the past ten years, and has made more than 25 exits through IPOs and trade sale.
The company has about 20 partners and senior advisors with experience
from the IT industry and an extensive international network. Current ventures are
primarily in the wireless and broadband communications, software and new media
areas focusing on Nordic companies. Åsa Sundqvist, partner of IT Provider, is a member of the Board of Directors at Smartner.
Sitra, Finnish National Fund for Research and Development, is an independent public foundation under the supervision of the Finnish Parliament. The Fund aims to promote Finland's economic prosperity by encouraging research, backing innovative projects, organizing training programmes and providing venture capital.
Sitra's corporate funding activities offer financial assistance to technology companies in their early stages of existence, and to other kinds of entrepreneurial organisations with a promising economic future. Sitra provides venture capital for companies that exhibit the opportunity, ability and desire to grow on the international markets. Sitra is a shareholder in about one hundred different technology companies operating in the fields of information technology, electronics and life sciences. The Fund has been a shareholder of Smartner since spring 2000.
Tekes, the National Technology Agency of Finland, is the primary financing organization for applied and industrial R&D in Finland. The funds for financing are awarded from the state budget. Tekes' primary objective is to promote the competitiveness of Finnish industry and the service sector by technological means.
Tekes is also preparing, financing and coordinating Finnish national technology programmes. SPIN, Software Product Industry, was a three-year (2000 - 2003) technology programme aimed to boost the software product business in Finland. The programme's primary objective was to assist in the generation of new, international, product-based business. Tekes has funded Smartner's product development three times through this programme.
