ASK, the worldwide leader in the development, manufacture and marketing of
microprocessor-based contactless smart cards, today announced it has closed
a round of financing of $15.8 million. The additional funding enables ASK,
which will approximately double its sales to $20.9 million this year, to
accelerate its already strong growth. The investment comes at a time when
the worldwide market is developing rapidly, growing 46% in 2001 and
forecast to grow 58% in 2002. ASK will utilize the new capital to expand
its production capacity and to accelerate its international sales activity,
particularly in America and Asia.
Apax Partners, a worldwide leader in private equity financing and the lead
investor in this round, enters into the capitalization of ASK alongside
three existing investors that contributed $3.2 million to this round,
CDC-Ixis Innovation, Crédit Lyonnais Private Equity and the Banque de
Vizille. New investors AdAstra and iglobe partners invested $4.9 million
in this round. Other existing investors are Advent Venture Partners and
LongTerm Partners.
“In the current economic slowdown we have enjoyed rapid growth,” said
Georges Kayanakis, president of ASK. “As a result, we enjoy the continued
confidence of our early investors and we attracted new partners that are
well suited to helping us achieve our goals of international expansion, and
our primary objective of being a major player worldwide in the contactless
smart card industry. Apax Partners are recognized international players
and our other new investors, AdAstra in Germany and iglobe partners in
Singapore, bring a significant presence and experience in two regions that
are essential to our growth.”
“We are pleased to enter into the capitalization of ASK, a company with
strong growth potential. Our goal is to help them to become the global
leader in the contactless smart cards sector. In addition to its
technology, the major advantage of ASK is its management team who have a
unique international experience in this industry and technology,” added
Gilles Rigal, associate director of Apax Partners in Paris.
About ASK S.A.
Founded in 1997, ASK is today a world leader in microprocessor-based
contactless smart cards and tickets. More than seven million people
worldwide are today carrying contactless cards and paper contactless
tickets manufactured by ASK. They benefit from a technology that brings
speed, security and easy validation for public transit ticketing and access
control applications. The company achieved $11.3 million in revenue in
2001, and forecasts revenue of $20.9 million in 2002. ASK benefits from
solid references worldwide including RATP, SNCF, ASCOM, ERG, ThalÃ_s, IBM,
EDF and more than 35 cities in the world including Paris, Manchester, Lyon,
Toronto, Nice, Lisbon, Venice, Rome, Naples and Taipei. ASK has 90
employees, and its manufacturing and personalization operations are near
Nice in Sophia Antipolis, France with commercial offices in Paris and Hong
Kong. For more information please visit www.ask.fr.
