GE equity commits to blaxxun

GE Equity, the private equity arm of General Electric Co, has acquired a stake in blaxxun interactive, a leading technology company for community and virtual worlds software. GE Equity joins existing investors King Jelko Wertpapierhandelsbank, Konsortium AG and Venture Select in the round. The deal is for a value of $5 million, of which GE Equity has committed GBP2 million.

It is hoped this investor consortium will provide the blaxxun management team with strong support in achieving its corporate goals swiftly and will also make a major contribution to strengthening its customer base.

Founded in August 1995 and headquartered in Munich, blaxxun customers include BMW, Canal+, IBM, Intel, Lycos Bertelsmann, Siemens and Suny Telekom. Research and development partnerships include British Telecom, Computer Associates, IBM, Intershop, Oracle, Sun and Wapme-systems AG.

The investment is GE Capital’s first significant new economy commitment in Germany. The involvement of GE Capital will also help the implementation of blaxuun’s strategic focus and new positioning. Moni Malek and Peter Kastil will sit on the board of directors of blaxxun with Sunil Sabharwal of GE Capital. Rainer Stecher of Kling Jelko Wertpapierhandelsbank and Sabharwal will assume positions on the supervisory board of blaxuun.

With revenues in excess of $2.7 million in the second quarter of its current business year, for the first time blaxxun has achieved a positive EBITDA. Blaxxun has already raised around GBP25 million from previous funding rounds and the new capital raised will serve mainly as a growth reserve.