Yogitech Raises 1 Million Euros from Atlante Ventures

YOGITECH RAISES 1 MILLION EUROS FROM ATLANTE VENTURES

October 5, 2011 -- Atlante Ventures (A Venture Capital fund of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group) has finalized an investment of € 1 million in YOGITECH, part of a capital increase round of total € 1,5 millions. The remaining € 500 thousands was subscribed by the current financial shareholder Fondo Toscana Ventures, part of SICI Sgr spa.

“We are extremely happy and proud to announce the completion of this financing round and we welcome Atlante Ventures” declared Silvano Motto, CEO of YOGITECH. “This investment further outlines the credibility of our growth strategy within the market of fault robust embedded systems for safety critical applications. The capital increase will support the investment capability of YOGITECH and this will allow us to further value the unique aspects of our technology.”

“The innovation in the technology developed by the company and the worldwide reputation and credibility that the management team was able to gain in a complex market such the safety critical electronics one, are the key elements that led us to invest in YOGITECH.” said Davide Turco, head of Atlante Ventures.

“We are delighted by the worldwide recognition of the technologies developed by YOGITECH, a company that has continued to invest in the innovation of its products even in troubled times for the market” declared Massimo Abbagnale, President of SICI. “We believe that, thanks also to this new investment round, the company will be able to reach important results in the mid future.”

ABOUT YOGITECH

YOGITECH is a Pisa (Italy) based company, founded in 2000 and specialized in the development of hardware and software solutions to guarantee functional safety of electronic systems for safety critical applications, such as Electric Power Steering, advanced braking systems, airbag and many other safety-related systems for automotive, industrial automation, railways and medical devices.

YOGITECH has several years of experience in the application of functional safety standards for electronic systems and, as member of the major standardization bodies, has a key role in the definition of the requirements for integrated circuits such as system-on-chips, microcontrollers, analog/digital ASICs and FPGA. YOGITECH developed a methodology (fRMethodology) and a set of products (fRIPs) that allow the development of electronic systems fully compliant to functional safety standards, with a strong competitive advantage in terms of cost, performance, power consumption and availability with respect to alternative technologies.

Among YOGITECH customers there are major international players in the field of semiconductor technologies such as Toshiba, Renesas Electronics and Texas Instruments. Specifically, Toshiba has recently announced the introduction of YOGITECH products in their own product roadmap for automotive.

The round of financing will contribute to strengthen the engineering part, power up the sales and marketing structure to foster growth in these markets.

ABOUT ATLANTE VENTURES

Atlante Ventures is one of Intesa Sanpaolo’s two venture-capital funds. It invests in the technological innovation and development of Italian companies. The project was created on the initiative and based on the experience of the bank’s Corporate and Investment Banking Division and Intesa Sanpaolo Eurodesk, a group team specialised in institutional and technical support for companies engaged in research projects.

The Atlante Ventures fund, which began to operate in late 2008, was created with initial assets of 25 million euro (all of which was provided by the Intesa Sanpaolo Group). With an expected life of 12 years, the fund is placed to act as an ideal partner for Italian SMEs and start-ups that are developing cutting edge products and technologies.

In particular, all this is possible thanks to its extensive global network of companies and its relationships with Italy’s main players in research and university fields. Atlante Ventures acts as an open platform aimed at allowing the best exploitation of opportunities for collaborative projects, including between the public and private sectors.

ABOUT SICI – SVILUPPO IMPRESE ITALIA SGR spa

SICI – Sviluppo Imprese Centro Italia SGR spa is an independent management company whose shareholders are Fidi Toscana (the financial company of Tuscany), da MPS Capital Services, Casse di Risparmio di Firenze, Prato e San Miniato and Banca Etruria.

It operates in the private equity and venture capital markets and it has the main goal to foster development of portfolio companies. SICI currently manages 3 investment funds for a total commitment of € 135 million and there are currently 20 companies in its portfolio.

Fondo Toscana Venture, started its operations in 2004 with a total capital commitment of € 50 millions and so far completed 16 investments and 5 exits.