Ledstiernan and Telenor Venture II ASA make joint investment in North Node AB, a leading supplier to intelligent homes

Ledstiernan and Telenor Venture II ASA make joint investment in North Node AB, a leading supplier to intelligent homes Ledstiernan and Telenor Venture II ASA are making a joint investment of MSEK 10 - MSEK 5 each - in a 38.8 % interest in North Node AB, one of Sweden's leading suppliers to the market for intelligent homes and real estate. Ledstiernan and Telenor Venture have an option to jointly invest a further MSEK 11 in another 28.2 % of the shares in the company. In a short space of time, North Node AB has established a position as Sweden's leading supplier to the intelligent home market. The company's products and services will open the door to more convenient living, more cost-effective real estate management, and more economic use of electricity and domestic heating, often by making use of wireless communication. The company's products and services have aroused great interest on the market and are already in operation with ÖrebroBostäder (municipal real estate owner in central Sweden) and other real estate owners. North Node develops both hardware and software for the intelligent home. The software - called brightHome-suite - is based in some respects on the globally leading OSGi standard (Open Services Gateway initiative). Another North Node product - Q2e - which is connected to fuseboxes, say, provides a facility for collecting data on energy consumption, monitoring of fire alarms, heating control, and alarm systems. The homeGuideD80 control panel can be connected to Q2e, making it capable of providing information about the apartment's current status, energy statistics, and messages from the owner, as well as controlling a variety of functions in the apartment. This function can also be operated remotely via the Internet. "This investment by Ledstiernan and Telenor Venture will put North Node in a strong position on the Nordic market by providing access to their networks in mobile communication. It will markedly facilitate our strategy of becoming the leading Nordic supplier of solutions for the intelligent home market," comments Anders Tollsten, President of North Node. "We believe our joint investment in North Node offers exciting potential, as there is already a growing need for intelligent services on the Nordic real estate market. This is a very exciting area with immense market potential; it is also one in which mobile communication and wireless technology will play a key role," comment Johan Wachtmeister, President of Ledstiernan, and Rune Rinnan, President of Telenor Venture II ASA. For further information, please contact: Johan Wachtmeister, President of Ledstiernan, telephone +46 8 545 035 10 Anders Tollsten, President of North Node, telephone +46 8 23 60 30 or +46 708 42 88 05 Rune Rinnan, President of Televenture Management AS, telephone +47 22 77 99 10 Ledstiernan AB is building the leading European seed and venture capital company focusing on mobile communicaiton. www.ledstiernan.com Televenture Management AS is a leading Norwegian seed and venture capital company managing the VC-funds Telenor Venture AS and Telenor Venture II ASA North Node www.northnode.se ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/05/29/20010529BIT00390/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/05/29/20010529BIT00390/bit0001.pdf