Press release - 10 January 2005
Hantro strengthens market leading position with EUR 4 million additional investment
Hantro Oy, the leading provider of mobile multimedia technology, announced today a further EUR 4 million investment from a syndicate, led by CapMan, comprising of Hantro’s existing investors: funds managed/advised by CapMan, Nexit Ventures and Menire. The additional investment will be used to strengthen Hantro’s leading position within the global market place.
”2004 proved to be a breakthrough year for video in mobile devices. Market growth was many times that of 2003 with a huge increase in demand for video applications such as video messaging, clip download, video ringtones, mobile TV and video telephony,” said Eero Kaikkonen, founder and CEO of Hantro ”Throughout the last year it has been increasingly obvious that video services are forming a central part of the network operators’ strategies for increasing average revenue per user (ARPU) and, whilst we have heard some mention of proprietary formats for video compression, it is clear that the preference is for standards based technology, such as, MPEG4 Simple Profile, H.263 and MPEG4 AVC / H.264.”
”Hantro’s growth in 2004 was significant by threefolding its sales the company also achieved profitability ahead of expectations. We are confident that, with this additional funding, Hantro will be able continue to grow faster than market forecasts and provide an exceptional return on investment for us,” states Pekka Salonoja, Nexit Ventures, Chairman of the Hantro’s Board on behalf of the syndicate.
Hantro remains unique in its capability to provide both software and hardware video technologies. This enables the company to provide a complete product roadmap, with a migration path facilitating early adoption and market testing, through to mass-market penetration. Hantro's strategy to provide the necessary middleware, enabling fast application development on top of its software and hardware codecs, has proven successful with their key partners choosing to licence complete engine solutions. Hantro’s customers include Nokia, Agere, Freescale, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Alcatel, Quanta and Mtekvision.
Since focusing on developing the technology that enables video in mobile handsets Hantro has claimed a number of firsts; the first company to deliver a camcorder application for smart phones, with T-mobile, Hantro's technology launched the first video service in Europe, and in October 2004, Hantro announced the first commercially available H.264 player for off-the-shelf mobile handsets.
In 2005 Hantro will continue to push the boundaries with solutions that enable mobile handsets to capture and play video at resolutions similar to those found in high end DV cameras (D1 - 720x576). By providing multiple format capability (MPEG4 Simple Profile, H.263 and MPEG4 AVC / H.264 as well as JPEG still image), along with all the necessary application software to facilitate handset integration, these solutions will enable a complete suite of video applications from mobile TV through to video telephony.
The CapMan funds made their initial investment in Hantro in 2002. The funds’ ownership in Hantro is approx. 25% of the shares in the company.
For further information please contact:
Vesa Walldén, Investment Director, CapMan, tel. +358 9 6155 8361
Tony Hope, Marketing Manager, Hantro Products Oy, tel: +358 8 8156 300
‹ Back to previous page