Developing countries private equity investor Finnfund commits €3m to SEAF South Balkan Fund

Finnfund will be the sixth shareholder in the fund, which currently has investments from the Dutch and Swiss development finance institutions FMO and SECO, as well as USAID, SEAF, and Vladimir Pesesvski, the fund's general director.

Finnfund's investment increases the total fund size to €13.15m.

To date, SBF has invested in four Serbian companies with investment sizes between €325,000 and €1.47m, and has 11 companies in its pipeline under consideration.

The fund has invested in parcel and document delivery company, A2B Express Delivery; reseller, supplier and provider of IT equipment in the local and regional markets, Logo; grocery store and supermarket chain, Gomex; and IT distributor, PC Centar.

These four investments constitute €3.695m of the total €13m SBF has pledged to the three countries.

SEAF specialises in the management of private equity funds in emerging markets. The firm has invested in nearly 280 small businesses in markets that it sees as underserved by traditional funding sources.

Finnfund is a Finnish development finance company that provides long-term risk capital for private projects in developing countries. Apart from co-investing with Finnish companies, Finnfund provides financing within the SME sector for projects that demonstrate major positive development and environmental effects.

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