Innova Card, a fabless semiconductors company specialized in the design and development of secure solutions for smart card terminals, raises Euros 3.5 million with historical shareholders, Innovacom, LC Capital and Siparex Ventures

– Innova Card (www.innova-card.com), a fabless semiconductors company specialized in the design and development of secure solutions for smart card terminals, announces the achievement of a €3.5 million capital increase. Historical shareholders and three new financial investors, Innovacom, LC Capital and Siparex Ventures, have participated in this equity subscription.

Founded in 2002 by former ST and Gemplus executives, Innova Card offers hardware and software solutions, EMV and FINREAD compatible, based on USIP® Professional IC (Universal Secure Integrated Platform). These solutions allow terminals manufacturers to design new product ranges while reducing drastically their costs and increasing the security level.
USIP® Professional components can be embedded into many smart card terminals, such as payment terminals, PC readers, PDAs, mobile phones, LAN/ADSL modems, set top boxes, mouses, keyboards, USB tokens, etc.

Since its creation, the company has been financed by Business Angels and French public institutions (ANVAR, Impulse Incubator, Région PACA, Conseil Général 13, etc).
Innova Card presented its successful technology during the last tradeshow Cartes and IT Security held in November 2004 in Paris.

Major actors in the payment terminals industry are interested in Innova Card’s technology. This capital increase will allow Innova Card to launch the production of its first product USIP® and massively deploy its sales worldwide.

“This financial round realized with prestigious and strong value-added investors will accelerate our move ahead and give us the means to reach our goal: becoming the worldwide leader in the secure components activity dedicated to smart card terminals” said Bruno BERNARD, Innova Card’s CEO.

About Innova Card
Innova Card is a semiconductors fabless company that designs and supplies secure solutions for trusted smart card terminals. Innova Card provides hardware and software solutions, EMV and FINREAD compatible, based on USIP® Professional IC (Universal Secure Integrated Platform), the most secure and the most integrated platform for smart card terminals.

Innova Card is located in La Ciotat, the heart of the “Smart Valley”, and today employs 20 persons. The company is a member of BabySmart and CREMSI associations. Further information is available at www.innova-card.com.

About Siparex Ventures
Venture capital accounts for 30% of the assets under management by Sigefi Private Equity, the management company of the Siparex Group (€827 million). This business was first undertaken in the United States, 17 years ago, and then in France, where the Group manages investments made primarily in the fields of information technology, the life sciences, and security.

Siparex Ventures manages 11 "FCPI" innovation funds for such highly reputed establishments as Crédit Agricole Asset Management, Banque SanPaolo, Financière Meeschaert, ING Ferri, Oddo Asset Management.

The management team, located in Paris, Lyon, and San Mateo (CA), comprises 11 investment professionals, some of whom have more than 15 years' experience in venture capital and a Franco-American culture. Further information is available at www.siparex.com.

About LC Capital
Founded in 2003, LC Capital is a private equity firm, managing and advising venture capital funds in the information technology industries in Europe. A leading investor in France, LC Capital focuses on early stage, private equity investments in innovative companies.
Since inception, LC Capital advises and manages the IT private equity investments arm of the Dassault family group. LC Capital whose founders, Messrs Lévêque and Chauvet, were previously Partners at Dassault Développement, continues advising Dassault Développement and currently manages a new fund, LC Capital Fund II, sponsored by the Dassault family group.
Further information is available at www.lc-capital.com

About Innovacom
Innovacom is an early-stage venture capital investor specialized in telecommunications and information technologies. Since its creation by France Telecom in 1988, Innovacom has helped launch innovative companies such as Business Objects, Cobalt Networks, Gemplus, Infovista, Intershop, Kelkoo, LastMinute.com, Soitec, and Tumbleweed. With 400 million Euros under management and offices in Paris, Stockholm, and San Francisco, Innovacom invests actively in Europe and North America.
For more information, please visit: www.innovacom.com