Hantro strengthens market leading position with growth funding

Leading provider of video enabling technology for mobile handsets secures €4 Million additional investment.

Oulu, Finland – 10th January 2005 - Hantro Oy, the leading provider of mobile multimedia technology, announced today a further €4 Million investment from a syndicate, led by CapMan, comprising of Hantro’s existing investors: 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."

Pekka Salonoja, Nexit Venture and Chairman of the Hantro’s board said "Hantro’s growth through 2004 was significant, represented by a threefold increase in 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.”

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.

About Hantro
Focused on mobile, Hantro is committed to continually advancing video enabling technology to deliver capabilities that exceed the expectations of the marketplace. As the leading provider of hardware and software based MPEG4, H.263 and H.264 video solutions specifically tailored for handheld devices, Hantro is uniquely positioned to provide technology solutions for silicon providers, device manufacturers and network operators.

About CapMan Group
CapMan is one of the leading private equity investors in the Nordic countries and specialises in middle market buyouts in various industry sectors, technology investments in the IT and telecommunications sectors and investments in life science companies. The CapMan team comprises around 80 people in Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo. CapMan manages/advises Nordic funds with approx. EUR 1.2 billion in total capital. To date, the funds managed by CapMan have invested in 147 companies in the Nordic countries and exited from 70 companies. The latest investments are made in Swedish Animex AB, Finnish Tokmanni Oy, Norwegian Locus AS and Danish Anhydro Group. CapMan Plc is listed on the Main List of the Helsinki Stock Exchange. For further information please visit www.capman.com

About Nexit
Nexit Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on wireless innovation. Based in Helsinki (Finland) and Saratoga (Ca., USA), Nexit invests primarily in Scandinavian and US-based early stage technology companies. With expertise and contacts across the wireless ecosystem, the Nexit team opens up and creates opportunities for its portfolio. For Scandinavian companies, Nexit's business contacts in Silicon Valley provide a bridge to markets, partners, experienced management and investors. US-based ventures get an opportunity to profit from Scandinavia's market-leading wireless network infrastructure, technology, insight and advanced user base. For further information, please visit www.nexitventures.com

About Menire
Menire Oyj is publicly quoted on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. Menire has three business units: security services, web services and mobile technology investments. For further information visit www.menire.com