Frontiers Capital acquires Vesta portfolio

Frontiers Capital has closed a new fund, Frontiers Capital III LP, to acquire the entire portfolio of Vesta Capital for an undisclosed sum. The portfolio comprises a number of assets in the technology and related sectors, including stakes in Eleksen, a designer of electro-conductive materials used notably in fabric controls for the Ipod; E-Government solutions, an exchange for suppliers to the local authority market and INK Publishing, a publisher of in-flight magazines for the airline industry. The funding for the acquisition has been provided by a group of investors, including an established European secondary fund.

Vesta Capital is the venture capital arm of Vesta Group, a European technology investment and business building organisation based in London. Vesta sources and invests in early stage Internet, wireless and new technology companies, seeking to facilitate their roll-out in a rapid, differentiated and controlled manner.

Since its foundation in April 2001, Frontiers Capital has demonstrated a strong track record of acquiring third party funds. Prior to taking over the management of Vesta Capital, it acquired the Wireless Internet Portfolio of the Carphone Warehouse in April 2001 and in September 2003 merged with nCoTec Ventures, another early stage technology investor. The merger saw Tim Horlick, founder of nCoTec and Nigel Spray, founder of Frontiers Capital, leading the merged entity as joint managing partners. Spray and Horlick worked together at Kleinwort Benson in the 1980s through to mid 1990s.

Frontiers Capital now boasts a portfolio of high quality assets, most of which are in the IT and communications sectors and has established an impressive network of corporate investors and partners including Carphone Warehouse, Boeing, IBM, Symbian, NEC and Misys, each of which is represented on the Frontiers Advisory Board. Frontiers’ networked venture capital approach entails working with its corporate partners to assist portfolio companies achieve channels to market.