Country for PR: United Kingdom
Contributor: PR Newswire Europe
Tuesday, July 31 2012 - 23:48
AsiaNet
4RF Receives Significant Investment to Accelerate Growth
WELLINGTON, New Zealand and TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 1, /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

    
    - Investment from Fortissimo Capital supports next phase of company's 
product development and sales expansion

    4RF Limited, the developer of high performance radio communications 
equipment for critical infrastructure applications, announces investment from 
leading private equity fund Fortissimo Capital. As a result 4RF will expand its 
workforce and accelerate the company's product development and sales globally.

    4RF, headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand, develops and manufactures 
highly robust radio communications equipment for utility, public safety and oil 
and gas applications. With this funding, the company's customers in more than 
130 countries around the world will benefit from a greatly accelerated company 
Growth Plan, with an expanded product range and faster time to market.

    Ian Troughton, CEO of 4RF Limited, comments: "We are seeing a huge demand 
for our products, and in the last year our sales have increased by nearly 60%. 
We are absolutely thrilled that a leading growth investor in the world's second 
largest venture capital market, and indeed the recognised home of wireless 
technology, has chosen to invest in 4RF. This investment by Fortissimo marks 
the end of a process that we started almost a year ago. Fortissimo is an ideal 
partner for 4RF as they share our vision for growth. This is great news for our 
customers - with Fortissimo we will be able to accelerate our delivery of new 
products to the market."

    4RF is accelerating its growth in three ways:
    
    - Speeding up the development and launch of next generation products through
      a doubling of its R&D team
    - Adding new variants to the existing product range to address new
      geographies
    - Growing sales, marketing and systems engineering to support new business

    4RF's radio communications products are renowned throughout the world for 
their robustness and reliability, RF (radio frequency) performance and ease of 
use through their built in, intuitive software management application. The 
company's product portfolio comprises a point-to-point wireless microwave link, 
the Aprisa XE, and a point-to-multipoint SCADA / telemetry radio for utility 
applications, the Aprisa SR.

    Yuval Cohen, Founding and Managing Partner of Fortissimo Capital, comments: 
"Our speciality is investing in companies that are at an inflection point: with 
a solid customer base, proven sales of world leading technology and a 
requirement for growth capital to further enhance operations. We invest in 
world-class companies and we are delighted to have found in 4RF a company that 
has developed a family of world-class wireless products that can address a 
large and growing global smart grid market. 4RF has a great management team, 
products of a supremely high standard and blue chip customers throughout the 
world. We have huge growth expectations for 4RF and we look forward to working 
closely with the team over the coming years."

    About Fortissimo Capital

    Fortissimo Capital, headquartered in Israel, is a group of private equity 
funds with nearly US$500m under management that invests in global technology 
companies that require capital to expand their business. Fortissimo is a long 
term investor and seeks to partner with management to facilitate growth and 
maximize value. Fortissimo is backed by leading financial institutions 
including insurance companies, banks and pension funds.

    Fortissimo has successfully exited several of its portfolio companies, 
including selling NUR Macroprinters (Nasdaq: NURM) to HP (NYSE: HPQ) for $123 
million, selling Cadent to Align Technologies (Nasdaq: ALGN) for $190 million, 
selling AOD Software to a USA private equity firm, and the IPO of SodaStream 
(Nasdaq: SODA) and selling its holdings at a valuation of $800 million. The 
partners in the fund are: Yuval Cohen (founding and managing partner), Eli 
Blatt, Shmoulik Barashi, Marc Lesnick, Yochai Hacohen and Yoav Hineman.

    Please visit http://www.ffcapital.com for more information about Fortissimo
Capital.

    About 4RF Limited

    Operating in more than 130 countries, 4RF provides radio communications 
equipment for critical infrastructure applications. Customers include 
utilities, oil and gas companies, transport companies, telecommunications 
operators, international aid organisations and public safety organisations.

    4RF has been active in the public safety and utility communications markets 
since the company was established, and the company has blue chip customers 
around the world in both these markets. With the current large global spending 
in these markets, 4RF is well placed to continue offering its world-leading 
radio solutions for these critical infrastructure applications. The smart grid 
market alone is a multi-billion dollar industry, with communications being a 
key area of investment and growth over the next five years and beyond.

    Key points:

<start_indent>
    
    - Established in 1998, with first product sales of Aprisa product family in
      2001
    - Owns all intellectual property, with in-house research and development
      team
    - Develops and manufactures market-leading radio communications products,
      with unbeatable RF performance, robustness and reliability
    - Blue chip customers in over 130 countries, including many of the world's
      largest utilities, oil and gas companies, telecommunications operators and
      public safety organisations
    - Profitable from 2006 until the financial crisis. Strong growth and rebound
      in profitability in year ended 31 March 2012 with highest annual sales 
      orders - a year on year increase of nearly 60%
    - Fortissimo's investment supports a greatly accelerated company Growth 
      Plan, with an expanded product range and faster time to market for large
      and growing critical infrastructure market

    Please visit http://www.4rf.com for more information about 4RF Limited.

    Photographs of key personnel and product are available: please contact
media@4rf.com
    
    For further information please contact:

    4RF Limited
    Ian Troughton, CEO,
    ian.troughton@4rf.com,
    +64-4-499-6000

    Fortissimo Capital
    info@ffcapital.com
    +972-3-915-7400

    Eisenberg - Eliash Investor relations & Public relations
    Amir Eisenberg
    amir@pr-ir.co.il
    +972-52-8260285

    Sara Selcer
    sara@pr-ir.co.il
    +972-52-4448262

    Source: Fortissimo Capital