Danske Asetek indgår samarbejde med KT Venture Group - KT Venture Group joins $6 mill investment in asetek A/S 
Læs den fulde UK pressemeddelse herunder: Broenderslev, Denmark - March 22, 2006 - asetek today announced that the KT Venture Group of San Jose, CA has joined the $6 million funding round in the company which also has participation by Northzone Ventures, Vaekstfonden and a group of existing investors. The investment completes the round that had its first closing in December 2005. asetek is the leader in high performance and next generation mainstream personal computer and graphics chips cooling sporting international brands such as VapoChill. and WaterChill(TM). KT Venture Group is the limited investment partner of semiconductor equipment leader KLA-Tencor, an S&P 500 company.
'Our industry knowledge strongly indicate the need for a paradigm shift with regard to cooling of CPUs and graphics chips in mainstream markets, and asetek's has the cost-effective solution to this need', says Stefano Concina, general partner of KT Venture Group, 'We believe our investment in asetek will prove financially well justified'.
Despite the arrival of multi-core CPUs with lower overall power consumption, thermal management has not become any easier, as shrinking die sizes imply increased heat flux and demands for lower noise and radically smaller PC form factors eat up much of the savings, thus stretching traditional fan-sink based cooling solutions beyond their capacity.
'I am very pleased with the investment as the KT Venture Group will be of great value to the company as we move forward by sharing their technology insight and industry network', says Andri Sloth Eriksen, founder and CEO of asetek, 'And further we will have a key investor strategically located in the Valley close to many of our customers and partners'.
The PC market and the CPU and VGA roadmaps become more segmented than ever before - especially with the arrival of Small Form Factor (SFF) PCs, Home Theater PCs (HTPC) and high performance gaming PCs. Noise has become a serious design issue both in the business, educational and home office environments and obviously in the living room environment where the HTPCs are poised for a bright future. In consequence there is an urgent need for novel cooling solutions fitting diverse application needs of future computers.
'asetek has built and patented an impressive product portfolio that addresses mainstream and specialized cooling demands in terms of performance, noise, form factor and assembly convenience, and due to significant innovations asetek can provide these cooling solutions at competitive prices', says Gregers Kronborg, general partner in Northzone Ventures, 'We see several technology and market trends that asetek can leverage to achieve significant market penetration in next generation personal computer systems'.
The round was led by Northzone Ventures, a leading Nordic early stage ICT hands-on investor with almost 10 year tenure developing companies such as Enigma Semiconductor, Napatech and Fox Technologies. The round was shared with Vaekstfonden, the largest early stage investor in Denmark that takes a global approach in developing emerging high-growth companies.
About asetek Founded by Andre Sloth Eriksen in 2000 asetek is a world leading manufacturer of vapor phase, vapor chamber and liquid-cooling solutions. VapoChill. / VapoChill Micro(TM) / WaterChill(TM) are designed for OEM integration, PC enthusiasts, gamers and professionals who demand exceptional performance, maximum reliability and low noise. The products are sold through a global network of authorized distributors and resellers. asetek is headquartered near Aalborg in the Northern part of Denmark. For more information, visit www.asetek.com.
Contact: Andre Sloth Eriksen at +45 96 45 00 47 or ase@asetek.com.
About KT Venture Group
KT Venture Group is the investment partner of KLA-Tencor, a leader of process control and yield management solutions. Headquartered in San Jose, the venture capital group focuses on companies with disruptive technology in semiconductors, life sciences, and other related information technology The group combines the private VC-like structure and execution with unique corporate VC
benefits. Please visit www.ktventuregroup.com.
Contact: Stefano Concina at +1 408 875 5003 or concina@ktventuregroup.com.
About Northzone
Northzone Ventures is a leading Nordic venture capital firm specialized in early stage investments within software, information technology and communications. The firm has 8 investment professionals located in offices in Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm, and has invested in more than 30 companies across Scandinavia since it was founded in 1996. Northzone manages 170 million in capital commitments from leading Nordic and international private equity investors. Please visit
www.northzone.com.
Contact: Gregers Kronborg at +45 70 222 475 or kronborg@northzone.com.
About Vaekstfonden
With a capital base exceeding 300 million and an active portfolio of 75 venture investments, 120 mezzanine loans, 10 venture fund investments, and 1,000 loan guarantees, Vaekstfonden is the largest early stage investor in Denmark. Vaekstfonden is backed by the Danish Government and operates independently in the capital market. Vaekstfonden is located in Copenhagen, Denmark. For
further information, Please visit. www.vf.dk
Contact: Sxren Christensen at +45 35 29 86 00 or sc@vf.dk.
