Cimteq Limited, a software company based in North Wales, has raised £2.5m from Foresight Group.
This marks the thirteenth investment by the £58m Foresight Regional Investment Fund, which targets North Wales and the North West of England.
Since December 2015, the fund, which is backed by local institutional investors including the Clwyd Pension Fund, claims to have supported the creation of 260 new jobs across the investment area.
Cimteq is the fund’s first investment into the North Wales SME community.
Located in Wrexham, Cimteq specialises in the development, supply and support of modular software solutions for the wire and cable manufacturing industry.
The business currently offers two main software products to wire and cable manufacturers; CableBuilder, a software solution aiding the design of cables, and CableMES, a full manufacturing execution system.
CableBuilder is a market-leading, modular system allowing clients cost-effectively to quote, design and produce cables of all types, whilst CableMES is a recently released software product utilising the latest industrial Internet of Things (IoT) technology to optimise large-scale cable manufacturing operations.
Cimteq was founded in 1998 and is managed by Ali and Amanda Shehab.
Commenting on the transaction, Colin Everett, chief executive of Flintshire County Council, who administer the Clwyd Pension Fund, said: “Through our commitment to Foresight’s Fund, Flintshire County Council is happy to be supporting the growth of local SMEs in North Wales and beyond. The Fund has already demonstrated its ability to drive significant job creation and we look forward to seeing Cimteq and other investments continue to grow and leverage Foresight’s expertise and network.”
Matthew Pomroy, Investment Manager at Foresight, added: “With Foresight’s support and the unique market leading software offering, coupled with the team’s exceptional expertise in the sector, we believe there is significant opportunity to grow Cimteq rapidly over the next three to five years. We are hugely excited to be able to support Cimteq in its next phase of growth.”
Ali Shehab, CEO of Cimteq, concluded: “We are delighted to be working alongside Foresight to further strengthen our position in the market. Foresight’s experience in supporting businesses and developing SMEs will be invaluable to the future growth of the business.”