Webmedia Group fuels growth through €7 million investment from Enterprise Investors
Tallinn, 20 July 2010 — Webmedia Group, the leading software development company in the Baltics, will partner with Enterprise Investors (EI), the leading private equity and venture capital management firm in Central and Eastern Europe. Webmedia Group and Enterprise Venture Fund I (EVF), the venture fund managed by Enterprise Investors, have agreed that EVF will invest €7 million for a 36% stake in the company.
“To fuel our international growth, we decided to raise additional capital, which will enable us to be even more aggressive in our expansion and to take on larger projects. In Enterprise Investors we have found a partner that has an excellent reputation, strong regional presence and an expertise in the IT sector. We believe that this partnership could potentially produce the first software company from the Baltics to go public”, said Priit Alamäe, co-founder and CEO of Webmedia.
”We are happy to make our first direct investment in Estonia. We are impressed by the success achieved by Webmedia in this country as well as abroad and we want to support its further expansion internationally”, said Rafał Bator, Enterprise Investors partner who manages the venture team at the firm. “We are very pleased to have the opportunity to cooperate with the company’s ambitious management team to reach our joint goal within the next few years”, he added.
Webmedia Group is the indisputable leader on the Estonian software development market with a growing international customer base in Europe, Asia and Africa (currently with clients in 60 countries). The company’s international focus areas are in public finance management, e-health and e-government solutions (Webmedia is behind many of those solutions that have made Estonia the most advanced e-government in the world); the company also has interests in a number of other start-ups and technology initiatives. Since its establishment in 2000 Webmedia Group has shown growth every year and delivered strong sales performance (CAGR of 57% between 2004-2008). The Group’s total sales reached €15 million in 2009 and the company continues its dynamic growth and expansion abroad.