Catalyst Romania investment fund takes over almost a quarter of Simartis Telecom

Local private equity and venture capital fund Catalyst Romania, which supports small and medium enterprises in the technology and media-telecom (TMT) sectors, has taken over a 23 percent stake in Simartis Telecom, through capital growth. “The partnership with Catalyst will help us become a global competitor. In the following period, we have ambitious plans on the development of the sales force and international support and on promoting our solutions. We want to increase our ability to deliver simultaneously to multiple customers and to help them benefit rapidly from our solutions,” said the CEO of Simartis Telecom, Razvan Ionescu. Simartis Telecom creates and develops products for GSM operators. The company’s products are sold internationally, the most important being Bubble - a mobile marketing solution, and X-menu - a platform to promote services of GSM operators. In 2013, the company had revenues of EUR 1.4 million. Catalyst Romania is the first private equity fund dedicated to Romania, mainly financed by the European Investment Fund (FEI) via the JEREMIE initiative, as part of the Sectoral Operational Programme ‘Increase of Economic Competitiveness’, co-financed through the European Fund for Regional Development. Catalyst Romania finances, through investments between EUR 200,000 and EUR two million, local SMEs mainly active in the TMT area. Besides FEI, which by JEREMIE is the largest contributor to Catalyst’s capital, the other investors in the fund are BT Asset Management (BTAM), member of Banca Transilvania Financial Group, 3TS Capital Partners, as well as other private investors. The fund is managed by 3TS Capital Partners, one of the most important companies of private equity and venture capital in Central and Eastern Europe. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com