Five Million Euros Invested into Confidex

A state-owned equity firm, Suomen Teollisuussijoitus Oy (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd.), Aura Capital Oy and previous owners have invested a total of €2.7 million into Confidex Oy, which develops contactless RFID technologies. An additional €2.3 million loan was granted by Finnvera and the Sampo Bank Plc.

The main business areas of Confidex include contactless ticketing for mass transportation applications and durable high-performance RFID tag solutions for logistics’ returnable transit item tracking as well as in asset management applications in industry and information technology.

Confidex has customers in retail, logistics, industry, aviation, defense and mass transportation, all areas that require monitoring and securing goods, transactions or people. Customers in Europe, North America and Asia benefit from increased efficiency in business processes, a decrease in manual labor and decreased technology prices. Demand has also grown due to new legislation and the increased need for business analysis.

“Our revenue tripled in 2009. The new funding will be put towards increasing our production capacity, enhancing our brand and developing new business areas. At the moment we are developing, for example, wireless sensor solutions based on DASH7 standard,” says CEO Timo Lindström. “We are opening a new, bigger production facility in Guangzhou, China on the 5th of February, as the old facilities are no longer big enough. Confidex was the first western RFID tag producer to start operations in China in 2006. Our own production guarantees the delivery, speed and flexibility in the highest quality.”

“The entire RFID market, especially in China, is expected to grow. Confidex’s progressive technologies, strong brand and large existing customer base gives them a competitive advantage”, says Ari Siponmaa, partner and CEO of Aura Capital.

“Confidex is in an interesting phase of growth, and we like to invest in Finnish companies that are capable of major international success” comments Jussi Hattula, investment director of Teollisuussijoitus (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd.).

Confidex products are designed at technology competence center in Tampere, Finland. Production and deliveries take place from the facilities in Guangzhou, China. Confidex, which was founded in 2005, has 90 employees and a turnover exceeding €10 million in 2009.