LONDON -- esmertec, the leading provider ofJava(tm) solutions for mobile multimedia phones and embedded devices, announces today the successful closing of its third round of financing of 23 million Euros. This represents the largest amount of private equity funding secured by a software company in Europe for over 15 months, and marks a significant upturn of investor confidence in technology companies.

Earlybird Venture Capital, Partners Group and Sofinnova Partners led the investment round, which was oversubscribed. The lead investors are now joined by BV Group Private Equity Berne, Quilvest Group, Rothschild Gestion, Invision AG, and Credit Lyonnais Private Equity Paris.

"This is a key milestone for esmertec, said CEO Alain Blancquart." In times when equity investments in technology companies are done with a lot of consideration and judgment, such vote of confidence further validates our strategy to deliver a high performance Java platform tailored to mass market devices such as mobile phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and home entertainment systems. We will use the resources to further develop esmertec globally."

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