The first stage of selecting the worldâs Best Venture Capital companies has been completed. Red Herring, the weekly magazine devoted to technology, innovation and investment in new technologies, has announced the two hundred finalists of âRed Herring Global VCs.â Only one company of this kind from Central Eastern Europe has made the list, MCI Management SA.
âWe are proud we are the only ones from the region of Central-Eastern Europe among the finalists of one of the prestigious Red Herring listings. Undoubtedly, it is a good indicator of MCIâs potential and a display of appreciation for our performance in the field of investments. In spite of the crisis, we are doing fine, even during these trying times we execute successful investment exits. Also our portfolio companies are not wasting time, using the economic slowdown to, for example, pursue M&A activities (it is noteworthy that Invia.cz acquired NetTravel) or improving their performance or preparing their IPOs (the crisis-proof ABC Data). It is also worth mentioning that not all of the market is suffering a slowdown; there are areas that benefit from the crisis, like mobile satellite navigation (the noticeable results of NaviExpert). Considering all the above, we believe we are giving our shareholders reasons to rejoice.â â says Tomasz Czechowicz, President of MCI Management SA.
âRed Herring Global VCsâ listing is the first of its kind ranking created by Red Herring. The two hundred finalists have been carefully selected after evaluating the achievements of over a thousand investment funds operating around the globe. MCI Management SA joined this prestigious group thanks to, among others, the results it generated for the last ten years; in the period from 01/09/99 to 31/12/08 the company delivered net IRR of 17.2% placing it among the top European private equity funds.
Since 1993, Red Herring is a weekly magazine raising issues of new technologies, their development including investments. Each year the prestigious journal publishes the listing, showing the most promising technology companies. In 2009, the listing âRed Herring Europe 100â included MCI portfolio company, Geewa â the European leader in online games. While the listing announced this March includes as much as two companies from the MCI portfolio: Belysio.com â the mobile social networking community and NaviExpert â the creator and operator of the first Polish GPS navigation system working on most modern mobile phones.