OREANDA-NEWS. The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed a EUR 7.5 million financing deal with Flexenclosure, a specialist designer and manufacturer of intelligent power management systems and prefabricated modular data centres for the ICT industry.

The EIB loan will support the expansion of Flexenclosure’s R&D activities, enabling it to maintain and extend its position in its key markets of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Central and South East Asia.

Flexenclosure has two product lines – eSite hybrid power systems for off-grid and bad-grid mobile cell sites and eCentre custom-designed prefabricated data centre buildings.  Both product markets are expanding very fast – both in size and scope – and the EIB backing will enable Flexenclosure to take full advantage of this growth opportunity and significantly scale its business.

“Access to reliable communication tools is of paramount importance for any economy and society these days,” said EIB Vice President Jan Vapaavuori.  “Flexenclosure provides environmentally-friendly and highly innovative solutions for the expansion of communication systems in emerging markets. By doing so it not only delivers technological alternatives to regions which would otherwise find it difficult to connect to the World Wide Web, it also strengthens the base of EU manufacturing and the competitiveness of the European ICT industry.”

The deal is supported by the ‘InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators Mid-Cap Growth Finance’ facility, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments. It is the first time a Swedish company has been supported by this programme.

“As a clean tech company continually seeking innovation we are delighted to agree on this facility with the EIB. It will enable Flexenclosure to accelerate a number of ideas addressing the demand for increased data and telecommunications in emerging markets”, said David King, CEO, Flexenclosure.

Flexenclosure is a Swedish cleantech company that designs and markets innovative products to some of the world's fastest growing markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The company has established leading positions in the market for hybrid power systems for base stations and in the market for prefabricated modular data centres – two large and rapidly growing market segments. Its customer base includes several blue chip companies such as IHS Towers, Millicom, MTN and Vodacom.

Flexenclosure has two product lines, eSite hybrid power systems for base stations and eCentre prefabricated modular data centre buildings. The products are designed to meet the specific requirements and challenges in emerging markets. With both product lines, Flexenclosure has demonstrated its ability to deliver large projects in difficult environments and challenging geographical areas such as Angola, Chad, Myanmar, Nigeria, Paraguay and Sierra Leone. Turnkey solutions enable Flexenclosure to deliver quickly, efficiently and at low cost.

InnovFin MidCap Growth Finance offers long-term senior, subordinated loans or mezzanine loans, in order to improve access to finance mainly for innovative larger midcaps (up to 3000 employees), but also SMEs and small midcaps. Loans from EUR 7.5m to EUR 25m will be delivered directly by the EIB.