ACT Venture Capital has brought its investment in Irish companies to £25 million, following a £2.2 million investment for a 25 per cent stake in the Cork based manufacturer of computer fault controllers, Raidtec Corporation.
The exact structure of the ACT investment has not been disclosed, but it is understood that the £2.2 million investment puts a value of about £6.8 million on Raidtec. Another institutional investor, the Smurfit Job Creation Enterprise Fund, has increased its stake in Raidtec from 12.5 per cent to 18 per cent in this round of investment, leaving management - headed by Raidtec founder Mr Noel May - with the remaining equity.
Raidtec, which designs, manufactures and markets a range of fault tolerant RAID controllers for personal computers, mini computers and workstations, was founded by Mr May in 1991. RAID enables information lost through system failure to be recreated quickly and is based on a methodology first identified at Berkeley University in California in the late 1980s.
Raidtec currently has sales of $15 million (£9 million) and is thought to operate on net margins of around 20 per cent. The company is targeting a turnover of $50 million in three years time and expects to double its current 33 strong workforce over the next two years.
The investment by ACT and the Smurfit enterprise fund will be used to expand the business in the US and Europe, including the construction of new premises at Little Island in Cork and at Atlanta in Georgia.
Raidtec is ACT's thirteenth investment since the company was founded with £50 million backing from institutional investors in July 1994. Investments since then have included America, Belfast International Airport, BCO Technologies, Clashfern Holdings, First Ireland Spirits Company, Fitzpatrick Hotels, Heiton, Imari, MDS Telephone Systems, Reflex, Season Control and Ash Technologies.
ACT sold its stake in Belfast International Airport when the airport was taken over for £107 million sterling and received £2.6 million in return for its original £600,000 investment.
