VCT News
Beringea Invest In Fjord - Leading Cross Platform Digital Design Consultancy
2 March 2009 - London - Beringea Limited, international private equity firm, has announced a £2.4 million growth capital investment in Fjord - Europe's leading cross platform digital design consultancy. Additional funding of £250k was provided by GP Bullhound - leading technology investment bank - who advised Fjord on the financing round.
The capital funding will be used to help Fjord accelerate growth and expand into new regions, as well as explore new service opportunities. In addition to the funding, Beringea will leverage its media experience and extensive network of industry executives, entrepreneurs and thought leaders to further support Fjord.
Fjord is an established agency with long standing experience in the telecommunications and media sectors - the agency has consistently experienced over 50% profit growth year-on-year for the past four years. Fjord currently has offices in London, Berlin and Helsinki, with a New York office opening shortly.
As an expert in cross platform digital services, Fjord is committed to achieving 'elegant simplicity' in the solutions it delivers for clients. Fjord's services allow companies to improve brand awareness and develop interactive relationships with users, who are increasingly moving away from traditional media and are accessing content through the internet and mobile.
Fjord has worked on flagship projects providing strategic direction and design for major brands, including the BBC, Nokia, Orange, Swisscom and Yahoo! Most recently, Fjord was instrumental in bringing the hugely successful award winning BBC iPlayer to mobile.
Beringea, award-winning manager of ProVen VCT and ProVen Growth & Income VCT, has been an active and successful media investor for over 20 years. Beringea specialises in media agencies, notably supporting leading full-service digital agency iLG through a period of stellar growth, before generating a 3.3x return on investment on exit in 2008.
Beringea's chief investment officer Trevor Hope, who led the investment, will be joining Fjord's board as a non-executive director. He says: "Media and communication companies are increasingly seeking to engage consumers across the mobile and online platforms. Fjord is an established agency, which has already experienced some fantastic growth. Its outstanding management team and expertise means the agency is well placed to capitalise on this specialist market. •Beringea is pleased to help Fjord achieve the next level of development and expand internationally."
Fjord CEO Olof Schybergson comments, "Our mission is to provide our customers with outstanding innovation. This is best achieved by being close to both customers and great talent. In order to increase our global presence we turned to Beringea for assistance."
About Beringea
Beringea is an international venture capital firm with offices in London and Detroit. In the UK Beringea manages ProVen VCT, ProVen Health VCT, ProVen Growth & Income VCT and Global Rights Fund II. Beringea launched its first VCT in 1996, making it one of the most experienced VCT managers in the UK. ProVen Growth & Income and ProVen VCT are highest performing VCTs of their launch years, respectively, according to www.taxefficientreview.com. For more information please visit www.provenvcts.co.uk.