Romanian social games developer gets private equity financing

Catalyst Romania, a local private equity fund dedicated to Romania recently invested in local social games developer Green Horse Games. The fund, which mainly invests in local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the tech, media and telecom sectors, will hold a minority stake in the company. The firm said it would use all the proceeds from this transaction for growing its projects. It did not disclose the value of the deal. “This financing will fuel Green Horse Games’ expansion into new markets, mainly through increased marketing activities and a larger team,” the company’s representatives said in a press release. The company’s founders are Romanian entrepreneurs George Lemnaru and Alex Stroe. Local angel investor Malin-Iulian Stefanescu made an investment in the company in 2013. He also participated in the new capital increase, alongside Catalyst. Green Horse Games’ main project is LigaUltras.com, an online social game which aims to gather football fans all around the world in a space where they can meet and get involved in virtually running their favourite football clubs as players or managers. The game, which launched in November 2013, is currently available in more than ten countries. Catalyst is the first private equity fund dedicated to Romania and is primarily financed by the European Investment Fund (EIF) via the JEREMIE initiative. The fund’s other investors are BT Asset Management, part of Banca Transilvania group, and private equity company 3TS Capital Partners, which also manages the fund. Catalyst invests EUR 200,000 to EUR 2 million in private projects. Its other investments so far have been in the avocatnet.ro law portal, in the elefant.ro online shop and in Simartis Telecom, a telecom solutions company. Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com