Clean-technology lumber haulage company El-forest gains backing from Swedish state and car maker Volvo.
Volvo Technology Transfer (VTT), the corporate venturing division of car and truck maker Volvo, has converted a loan to lumber haulage company El-Forest into a minority equity stake.
VTT originally invested in El-Forest in 2007 and at the end of June converted a SKr5m ($682,000) loan to the company to shares. The conversion was part of a rights issue that also saw Fouriertransform, a Sweden state-owned venture capital company, invest SKr20m.
Following the issue, Fouriertransform is the single largest owner.
Volvo was acquired by China-based car maker Geely in March.
Gunnar Bäck, president of El-Forest, said: "Fouriertransform’s investment enables us to begin the serial production of a new generation of forestry machines. We will also gain access to a strong network in the automotive industry, which is important now that we start to manufacture and market our product."
