Deal Round-up 30/08/01

Lloyds TSB, Crescent Capital back Andor

Lloyds TSB Development Capital has contributed to £1.5m to a funding round for Andor Technology, a Belfast-based manufacturer of scientific imaging equipment.

Local venture capital firm Crescent Capital participated in the round, as did Andor’s management. In total, Andor received £2.6m.

The company, a spinout from Queen’s University in Belfast, was set up in 1989 and first backed by Crescent in 1997. The new money will be used to increase production capacity and take the number of workers to 150.

u-blox secures SFr20m in 3i-led round

u-blox, a Swiss global positioning systems (GPS) maker, has completed a third financing round. SFr20 were raised from a group of investors led by 3i, the European venture capitalists.

Participants in the round were Partners Group, Zurich Cantonal Bank and Innoventure Capital AG, a subsidiary of Credit Suisse.

u-blox was spun out of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in 1997. In 2000 the company had sales of SFr17m. Edzard Reuter, former CEO of Daimler-Benz, is president of the u-blox board.

Accenture, Viventures in E9m Terraplay

Terraplay Systems, a Swedish wireless gaming company, has completed its second financing round at €9m. Previous investors Ericsson Business Innovation and IT Provider are joined by Accenture Technology Ventures and Viventures.

Terraplay scalable telecommunications platform for online gaming and other real-time IP-based applications such as streaming media and financial applications. The new money is meant to support the company's continued technical development and commercial expansion.