Innova Card secures a €3.5 million Chilli R2 round

Innova Card, a fabless semiconductor company that was featured in our Due Diligence series in November 2004, has secured a €3.5 million Chilli R2 round. The round was shared by both existing investors (see Due Diligence), new investors, Innovacom, LC Capital and Siparex Ventures.

Since its creation, the company has been financed and supported by business angels and French public institutions (ANVAR, Impulse Incubator, Région PACA, Conseil Général 13, etc).

The R2 fund, as recommended in The Chilli’s perspective in November 2004, will be used to aggressively expand its sales and marketing activities as well as help in going for volume manufacture and production of its first series of products.

“This financial round realised with prestigious and strong value-added investors will accelerate our move ahead and give us the means to reach our goal: becoming the worldwide leader in the secure components activity dedicated to smart card terminals,” said Bruno Bernard, Innova Card’s CEO.

Innova Card is designs and supplies secure solutions for trusted smart card terminals. It provides hardware and software solutions, EMV and FINREAD compatible, based on USIP® Professional IC (Universal Secure Integrated Platform), a secure and an integrated platform for smart card terminals.

Siparex Ventures is the venture capital arm of Sigefi Private Equity, the management company of the Siparex Group (€827 million). Siparex Ventures manages 11 innovation funds for Crédit Agricole Asset Management, Banque SanPaolo, Financière Meeschaert, ING Ferri, and Oddo Asset Management. Its management team is located in Paris, Lyon, and San Mateo (CA), and comprises 11 investment professionals, some of whom have more than 15 years experience in venture capital and a Franco-American business culture and practice.

LC Capital was founded in 2003 by Messrs Lévêque and Chauvet, who were previously Partners at Dassault Dévelopement; LC Capital advises and manages the IT private equity investments arm of the Dassault family group and currently manages a new fund, LC Capital Fund II, sponsored by the Dassault family group. LC Capital’s focus is mostly in France and on early stage innovative companies.

Innovacom is an early-stage venture capital investor specialising in telecommunications and information technologies. Since its creation by France Telecom in 1988, Innovacom has helped launch many innovative IT companies such as Business Objects, Cobalt Networks, Gemplus, Infovista, Intershop, Kelkoo, LastMinute.com, Soitec, and Tumbleweed. With over 400 million Euros under management and offices in Paris, Stockholm, and San Francisco, Innovacom invests actively in Europe and North America.

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© Chilli Publishing Ltd 2004

17JAN2005