Photo: Emmi Syrjäniemi / Office of the President of the Republic
CapMan Growth news
22 November 2024 at 15:00 p.m.
CapMan Growth’s portfolio company Unikie has been awarded with the prestigious Internationalisation Award of the President of the Republic. This is already the second CapMan Growth portfolio company receiving the award, last year the award went to digital audio processing software and equipment company Neural DSP Technologies. The companies’ repeated success in the respected competition is a strong testament to the Growth team’s capability to identify winning companies, develop attractive financing solutions for them and support the companies in building international growth.
The President of Finland Alexander Stubb has awarded Finnish technology company Unikie with the Internationalisation Award. The company, awarded as newcomer company of the year, has in ten years grown into a company employing 600 expert professionals operating a 65-million-euro turnover. Already over half of the company’s turnover comes from exports and it has managed to win over some of the world’s largest Fortune 500 companies as its clients. The company’s business is growing strongly in Europe, North America, and the United Arab Emirates.
Unikie’s solutions cover diverse applications, such as intelligent machines, automotive, industrial production solutions, and telecommunications solutions. In recent years, Unikie has been developing applications related to machine learning models, AI and data analytics for its product development clients. With the rapid proliferation of large language models, awareness of AI’s opportunities has spread, and demand is growing.
“Since the beginning, our founders aimed for the top of the league in the international software industry. Our main competitive advantage is world-class software engineering expertise, which is now in high demand due to the globally growing need for customized technology solutions,” comments Unikie’s CEO, Juha Ala-Laurila.
“We warmly congratulate the Unikie team for their success and well-deserved recognition with the Internationalization Award of the President of the Republic. It has been a pleasure to follow how Unikie has managed time after time to win over world leading technology and industrial companies and help them solve their most demanding challenges. We are naturally also very glad and proud of the fact that this is the second year in row that our portfolio company receives such an award”, says Tomi Alén, Partner at CapMan Growth.
Unikie, and Neural DSP Technologies which received the same award last year, are excellent examples of the international growth stories which are central to CapMan Growth’s investment strategy. Although the selections have so far been directed towards these two companies the team has been involved in building multiple category-leading companies. One model example is Picosun, a company developing ALD-technology critical to the semiconductor industry, which was sold with a record valuation to the American tech giant Applied Materials in 2022.
The Internationalization Awards are granted annually to Finnish companies or organizations that have significantly contributed to Finland’s economic growth and expertise through successful international operations. This year the award was granted to four companies.
CapMan Growth is a leading Finnish growth investor that acts as an active owner in entrepreneur-driven growth companies with revenues between €10–200 million. We typically offer entrepreneurs a partial exit and are involved in supporting their growth and internationalisation. We have been part of building companies such as Coronaria, Cloud2, Digital Workforce, Fennoa, Fluido, Neural DSP, Picosun, Sofigate, Silmäasema and Unikie.
In the above photo: Award recipients in a group photo with the President
For more information, please contact:
Tomi Alén, Partner, CapMan Growth, +358 50 412 1947
Antti Kummu, Managing Partner, CapMan Growth, +358 50 432 4486
About CapMan
CapMan is a leading Nordic private asset expert with an active approach to value creation and €6 billion in assets under management. As one of the private equity pioneers in the Nordics we have developed hundreds of companies and assets creating significant value for over three decades. Our objective is to provide attractive returns and innovative solutions to investors by enabling change across our portfolio companies. An example of this is greenhouse gas reduction targets that we have set under the Science Based Targets initiative in line with the 1.5°C scenario and our commitment to net-zero GHG emissions by 2040. We have a broad presence in the unlisted market through our local and specialised teams. Our investment strategies cover real estate and infrastructure assets, natural capital and minority and majority investments in portfolio companies. We also provide wealth management solutions. Our service business includes procurement services. Altogether, CapMan employs around 200 professionals in Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, London and Luxembourg. We are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki since 2001. www.capman.com
