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…