LONDON and BERGEN, Norway, Jan. 23, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northzone Ventures:
NextGenTel Ltd., NextGenTel, a DSL Service Provider operating in the Norwegian market, today announced that it has finalized a $6 Million round of venture capital financing. This fourth round of funding, led by Vital Forsikring (www.vital.no)(new) and Geocapital Partners (www.geocapital.com) together with Northzone Ventures (www.northzone.com), Vikerud Venture, Atlantis Vest, Vesta Forsikring, Vesta Liv and Skandia Fondsforvaltning, will enable NextGenTel to further secure its successful operations in Norway.
"This investment is another major milestone for NextGenTel," said Olav Stokke, Managing Director of NextGenTel. "Since we founded the company in March 2000, we have positioned ourselves strongly in the Norwegian market offering broadband DSL services to residential users and small and medium size businesses. At early January 2002 NextGenTel has around 11,000 customers installed and in operation. This additional funding in combination with extensive vendor and bank financing, enables NextGenTel to further expand its activities to secure its challenger position in the Norwegian broadband market and become the no. 2 overall broadband player in this market. Our ability to attract renowned investors, at higher valuation than previous financing rounds, in a difficult financial market, providing us with a strengthened and strong financial base, indicates the potential of NextGenTel and the position we currently enjoy."
"We have been following NextGenTel closely for quite some time, and are impressed with their achievements to date. As such, it became natural for us to become involved in the company and we are excited to invest in a company with NextGenTel's potential. The company has a strong telecommunications oriented management team, and will in my view definitely have the ability to expand the company into a sustainable and profitable business," said Robert Naess, Chief Investment Officer in DnB Asset Management who is running the Vital Portfolio. "Their current market share and latest contracts in the Norwegian market are promising, and should allow the company to take a leading role in this emerging and growing broadband market which in overall most likely will be dominated by xDSL."
"As a close follower of the CLEC/DLEC market both in the U.S. and in Europe, it has been refreshing for us to actively participate in the development and growth of NextGenTel. The company has assembled a team of top communications experts to build a next generation network and services in partnership with Cisco and other leading technology vendors," said Lawrence W. Lepard, Managing General Partner, GeoCapital Partners. "The strong Internet penetration in Norway and the strong growth in broadband demand experienced second half of 2001, allow us view the near future very optimistically."
"I'm intrigued by the fact that NextGenTel are succeeding in an attractive, fast growing market where we strongly believe players who can execute well are in position to reap substantial financial gain," said Bjoern Stray, Partner, Northzone Ventures, one of the main seed investors in NextGenTel.
"With the combined efforts of all involved and the resources available to us we aim to continue to be a leading challenger within this exciting growing broadband industry, and reach EBITDA break-even in 1st quarter 2002," summarized Olav Stokke.
About NextGenTel Ltd.
NextGenTel Ltd., Headquartered in London, is the parent holding company of NextGenTel Norway AS and its subsidiary NextGenTel AS.
In addition, NextGenTel Ltd. has registered companies/offices in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Holland.
NextGenTel is a DSL Provider offering DSL based services, access to contents via its broadband portal BroadPark, full Internet services (ISP), IP based services (VPN) and IP based telephony. NextGenTel focuses on residential users, small and medium businesses and home office concepts for large enterprises. Its IP and Web based home office concept is unique, cost efficient and adds to the total profile of NextGenTel of providing the best value for money solutions to sophisticated users.
The company bases its operations and deployment on a concept of outsourced activities enabling sales- and market driven operations with a fast, cost efficient and massive rollout allowing the company to offer new services in new areas at a remarkable pace. Further, strong process control and focus on capital employed has successfully established the company as a strong market player in Norway with a minimum of investments per active customer.
About Northzone Ventures:
Northzone Ventures is a leading investor in Nordic growth companies within the converging technology space of Telecommunication, Software and Services. Northzone Ventures is dedicated to help Nordic converging technology companies faster achieve their international goals with the fuel of fresh capital and active involvement. Northzone Ventures will also selectively invest outside the Nordic Region in businesses related to existing Portfolio Companies in close co-operation with other venture funds, or within niches where Northzone Ventures can demonstrate particular skills or market knowledge.