Sigma backs technology firms to tune of $1.8 million

SIGMA Technology, the Edinburgh-based venture capital firm, has made fresh investments totalling nearly $2 million in a few technology companies.

Sigma was founded in 1997 by Graham Barnet and Neil Crabb. It manages third-party funds as well as investing as principal alongside third-party investors through its technology venture capital funds.

Sigma leads second round investment into i-design multimedia Limited.

Sigma Technology Venture Fund, a fund managed by Sigma Technology Management Limited, is pleased to announce that it has led a total investment round in i-design multimedia limited (“i-design”) of 1,000,000. STVF invested 443,000 as lead investor alongside the Scottish Co-investment Fund, which invested 443,000, the non-executive Chairman, Jim Faulds, who invested 79,000 and management, who invested 35,000.

i-design provides ATM advertising solutions and user-interface design to the financial self-service market. i-design’s flagship product is ATM:ad which is an end-to-end, integrated business and technical solution that enables ATM network owners to generate significant new revenue from third party advertising. In addition, the company established the first specialist ATM media sales agency in the UK and has been delivering revenue to clients since June 2004.

This round of funding will be used to support further expansion of the company’s ATM media sales agency and software sales business in both the UK and Europe.

This investment in i-design follows a previous investment led by Sigma in November 2004 and takes the total funding arranged by Sigma to 1.25m. Mark Hogarth, Business Development Director of Sigma, joined the Board as a non-executive director at the time of Sigma’s first investment and will continue in this role.

Investment in Visual Sciences Limited

Sigma Innovation Fund, a fund managed by Sigma Technology Management Limited also announced that it has completed an investment of 300,000 in Visual Sciences Limited.

Established in 1993, Visual Sciences is Scotland’s largest independent game developer. Specialising in the creation of Triple A video games based on original or licensed properties, Visual Sciences offers a full in-house development solution on PC, Playstation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360 and Sony PSP. Projects worked on by the company include Medal of Honour, Formula 1 and Harry Potter World of Quidditch. For the year ended 31 December 2004, the company generated turnover of over 3.6 million.

Investment in Plenoptics Limited

The Sigma Innovation Fund (East of Scotland) (“SIF”) has completed an investment of 300,000 in Plenoptics Limited.

Plenoptics has developed a software tool called PhotoGenesis that allows for the rapid creation of accurate 3D models of buildings (interior and exterior) from photographs. The product has two key competitive advantages: the speed of model development and the realism of the end result. The company achieved its first sales this year and the majority of customers to date have come from the defence sector, but other application areas include security, urban planning and the creative industries.

This round of funding will be used to support further expansion of the company’s commercial activities in the US and Europe.