The News

Sofinnova Partners announces a €5 million second investment round to support the development of 6WIND

09/02/2004

Paris, France, Monday 9 February, 2004 – Sofinnova Partners has today announced the completion of a second investment round in 6WIND, a leading supplier of integrated software solutions for IP network gateways.

6WIND received an initial capital infusion of €3.75 million in December 2001 raised by the same group of investors: Sofinnova Partners, ACE Management, CDC-IXIS Innovation, Cross Atlantic Ventures, Financière de Brienne, TechFund Capital Europe and TechFund US.

Founded as a spin-off of Thales, 6WIND is widely recognized for its technological innovation. Capitalizing on over 200 combined man-years of experience in designing secure network architectures and advanced real-time applications for industrial and defence markets, the company’s innovative efforts have been rewarded on several occasions. Its flagship technology 6WINDGateä was Europe’s first network access technology to be certified IPv6-ready by the IPv6 Forum. This technology also won the prestigious European IST Prize 2004 (Information Society Technology) for ground-breaking technologies, fending off competition from 400 international nominees.

6WINDGateä delivers value creation for customers through a rich array of fully integrated IPv4 and IPv6 functionalities, allowing the deployment of high value-added services (secure WiFi, Virtual Private Networks - VPN, converged voice, data and video services and peer-to-peer applications). What is more, customers benefit from completely transparent migration from IPv4 architectures to IPv6-ready platforms. 6WIND offers systems integration specialists and network equipment providers a proven, open solution that allows them to reduce both time to market as well as development and integration costs of new offerings.

Commenting on the transaction, Jean Schmitt, a partner at Sofinnova, said: “6WIND enables quick and easy development of leading-edge, value-added applications for both IPv4 and IPv6 networks, bringing customers significantly higher returns on investment. The appointment last May of Alain Dasté has been a valuable new asset to the company.”

6WIND CEO Alain Dasté added: “This further round of financing by Sofinnova Partners for 6WIND stands witness to our recognized leadership in IP technologies. This fresh infusion of capital will enable us to consolidate our technological leadership and accelerate our commercial development, especially in France and Asia.”


About Sofinnova Partners
Created in 1972 in Paris, where it is still headquartered, Sofinnova Partners is one of the leading independent venture capital firms in Europe. With key operations in the information technology and life science sectors, its investment strategy is based on two principles : “Invest in projects with a high potential in their early stages of development » and « Act as lead or co-lead investor ». Its investment team comprises 12 investment partners who are all experts in their field and can assist companies in which Sofinnova chooses to invest. Sofinnova Partners has more than 500 million euros under management, a loyal based of international investors, and plans to strongly reinforce its European development in the coming years.

About 6WIND
Considered a key reference in advanced IP technologies, 6WIND is a leader of integrated IPv4 and IPv6 gateway solutions.  6WIND solutions are deployed in small to large enterprises, complex defence networks, operator networks and research centres worldwide.  An award winner of Europe’s prestigious IST (Information Society Technology) prize for ground-breaking technologies, 6WIND develops easy-to-integrate, cost-effective and flexible gateway software packages.  These highly integrated solutions enable customers to deploy value-added IP services for secure broadband access, WLAN, mobility and multimedia applications.  At the same time, they ensure the seamless transition of existing IPv4 infrastructures towards the new generation Internet being built on the IPv6 protocol.

A spin-off of European professional electronics and defence industry giant, Thales, 6WIND is headquartered near Paris, France, and is present in Asia.  For more information on 6WIND, visit http://www.6wind.com