Varma invests two million Euros in SoftBattery developer Enfucell Oy

The largest private sector pension insurance company in Finland, Varma, invests Two Million Euros in Enfucell Oy by subscribing new shares of the company.

 

The Director, Private Equity of Varma, Mr. Risto Autio, said of the recent equity purchase, "It is always a major challenge to commercialize environmentally friendly technology, but we believe that Enfucell has exceptional chances to succeed in this arena."

 

Dr. Jussi Suomela, Chairman of the Enfucell Board of Directors and a founding member of the company explained, "The Varma investment will accelerate the global presence and viability of Enfucell in the growing international market of flexible and thin batteries. Investment proceeds will be focused to strengthen Enfucell's active participation and presence in expanding European, American and Chinese markets."

Enfucell Oy is an Espoo, Finland based technology company with its roots in the Helsinki University of Technology. The company has developed SoftBattery™ a thin, flexible 1.5 volt environmentally friendly power source optimally utilized in disposable and short use products. The SoftBattery™ applications include RFID (radio frequency identification tags and sensors), intelligent packaging, cosmetic and pharmaceutical products.

 

Enfucell has received numerous international awards for the development of the SoftBattery. In January 2007, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland named Enfucell one of the world's forty-seven leading technology pioneers. The American high technology publication, Red Herring, named Enfucell one of the promising European technology companies. In March 2007, the developer of the SoftBattery™ Dr. Xia-Chang Zhang, was selected in Beijing as one of the ten most influential foreign Chinese by China's largest media companies.

 

Enfucell was founded in 2002 and employs twenty people, including a presence in the United States. In addition to Varma's recent equity purchase, the company is owned by its founders, private investors and Veraventure Oy, a Finnish government venture fund.