Webmedia Group fuels growth through €7 million investment from Enterprise Investors

Tallinn, 20 July 2010 — Webmedia Group, the leading software development company in the Baltics, will partner with Enterprise Investors (EI), the leading private equity and venture capital management firm in Central and Eastern Europe.

Webmedia Group and Enterprise Venture Fund I (EVF), the venture fund managed by Enterprise Investors, have agreed that EVF I will invest €7 million for a 36% stake in the company.

“To fuel our international growth, we have decided to raise additional capital into the company. This will enable us to be even more aggressive in our expansion and to take on larger projects. In Enterprise Investors we have found a partner that has an excellent reputation, strong regional presence and excellent expertise in the IT sector. We believe that this partnership could potentially produce the first software company from the Baltics to become public”, said Priit Alamäe, co-founder and CEO of Webmedia.

”We are happy to make our first investment in Estonia. We are impressed by the success achieved by Webmedia in Estonia as well as internationally and we want to support its further expansion abroad, said Rafał Bator, Enterprise Investors partner who manages the venture team at the firm. We are very pleased to have an opportunity to cooperate with the company’s ambitious management team to reach our joint goal during the next few years”, he added.

Webmedia Group is the indisputable leader on the Estonian software development market with a growing international customer base in Europe, Asia and Africa, with clients in 60 countries. The company’s international focus areas are public finance management, e-health and e-government solutions (Webmedia is behind many of those solutions that have made Estonia the most advanced e-government in the world) and the company has interests in a number of other start-ups and technology initiatives. Since its establishment in 2000 the company has shown growth every year and delivered strong financial performance (CAGR of 57% between 2004-2008). Webmedia Group’s total sales reached €15 million in 2009 and the company continues its dynamic growth and expansion abroad.
Enterprise Investors, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, is one of the largest private equity and venture capital management firms in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe. The total resources of the six buyout funds and one venture fund established by Enterprise Investors amount to €1.7 billion. To date, these funds have invested a total of €1.3 billion in 120 companies in various sectors, including 20 IT companies, e.g. AVG Technologies, Asseco Poland and Siveco Romania. EI funds have fully exited 91 companies, generating total proceeds of €1.4 billion. Today, the EI-managed funds are investors in 29 companies.

Enterprise Venture Fund I with capital of €100 million is the first venture capital fund managed by Enterprise Investors. This is the biggest fund of its kind in the CEE region. The fund’s investments range from PLN 3 to 20 million for funding SME companies in various sectors. Webmedia is EVF’s first investment in Estonia and its eight portfolio company at the same time.
For more information please contact:

Webmedia Group
Priit Alamäe, CEO, tel. +372 527 0330
Merlis Nõgene, PR Manager, tel. +372 508 1986

Enterprise Investors
Rafał Bator, Partner, tel. (+48 22) 458 85 00
Iwona Drabot, PR Director, tel. (+48 22) 458 85 00
www.ei.com.pl (venture capital section)