Preseco closed around of €10m round including an equity investment by Pontos, a private equity investor and project financing arrangements with Atradius and Finnvera. In addition, Preseco and Pontos have begun strategic co-operation and are aiming to set up a fund for project finacing. This is a new and very innovative vehicle to resolve the issue of customer financing requirements of €10m-€20m per project – a typical sum for global environmental technology projects (press release). To close the transaction, Preseco announced the appointment of Risto J. Pönnö as their new CEO to speed up Preseco’s growth (press release).

Preseco, founded in 2002, is a turn-key solution provider for water and waste-to-energy management. In other words, the company provides a waste-to-energy solution to turn the previously high cost (bio waste) fractions into usable and marketable end products.

Preseco  has grown very rapidly in recent years and reached €10m in sales this year. In addition to organic growth, Preseco has also been very active in acquiring patented technologies and essential references, mainly in Finland. The company’s state-of-the-art technologies include biogas and biocarbon plants, biodiesel processors, composting plants and water and wastewater treatment plants, all of which are used in several market areas including Europe, China, Vietnam and Russia. Their new biocarbon technology is at the product development stage and the first commercial steps have been made.

The business model is to cover the whole value chain including planning, building, operating and now financing. The key customer groups include municipal and private waste managament companies as well as those in the food processing and energy production industry.

Pontos becomes the new minority shareholder for Preseco. The key people behind Pontos include the grand old man of the construction industry, the founder and key owner of the SRV Group, Ilpo Kokkila, as well as Rainer Häggblom, the ex-chairman of Pöyry Consulting and Olli Pohjanvirta who has a significant track record of mergers & acquisitions in the Russian markets. The key target for Pontos is to bring in significant know-how regarding the international project business, which is essential for both the construction industry and waste management value chain. In addition, Pontos brings expertise and support to enable penetration of the huge Russian market.