The investment came as a capital increase. The deal is said to be worth about EUR1 million. This is the second local investment for the fund, which has EUR15 million available for investments in Romanian small and medium-sized enterprises.
“However well trained our team is and however much software development know-how we might have, we need a financial partner to help us develop our sales team, find and access international markets in order for us to expand abroad,” said Alexandru Voiculescu, founder and vice-president of the company.
He had previously told ZF that he was in talks with potential investors for the future development of the company.
Simartis Telecom was founded by three young entrepreneurs in 2003, two of whom, Alexandru Voiculescu and Razvan Ionescu, had worked for mobile phone operator Orange. The company has reached revenue of EUR1.4 million generated by 25 employees from mobile marketing solutions supplied to telecom operators on three continents. The solutions Simartis developed include Bubble (mobile marketing), which branches of the Latin America’s Tigo group bought, as well as several subsidiaries of Orange including Romania.
The company expects EUR2 million revenue in 2014.
Simartis is Catalyst’s second investment in Romania, after buying into the company operating the www.avocatnet.ro (a legal advice website) in June 2013. The deal was conducted in form of a capital increase, with the fund taking over 30%. The value of the deal was not revealed, but ZF estimated it at several hundred thousand euros.
The Catalyst fund was established in 2012 and is managed by private equity firm 3TS Capital Partners. The biggest investor in Catalyst is the European Investment Fund (EIF), which contributed EUR10 million to its capital. The funds are to be used for investments in SMEs in the telecommunications, media and technology sectors. Another EUR5 million came from local institutional investors and individuals with IT&C industry experience.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)