Founded in 1986 as an initiative within the scope of State banking for the purpose of boosting venture capital activity in Spain, Axis Participaciones Empresariales, Sociedad Gestora de Entidades de Capital Riesgo S.A.U. (Axis) is one of the oldest operators in the sector. Since1993, it has been a 100% investee company of Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO).

In the course of its 20-year existence, through investments of over €200m, Axis has made a decisive contribution to the launching or development of more than 100 corporate projects geared in the main towards innovation. At year-end 2009, Axis’ investments amounted to €83.19m in the form of capital holdings and participating loans in 28 companies.

In December 2009, ICO was instructed to set up the Sustainable Economy Fund for an amount of up to €20,000m (€10,000m to be financed by ICO). The fund was to provide four products, one of which was a venture capital scheme totalling €300m.

These new resources (€300m) will come to form part of the equity of Fond-Ico, FCR, a fund which has been managed by Axis since 1993. After the appropriate increase, the fund’s resources will rise to €422m. At the same time, its maturity will be put back from 2018 to 2022.

With this increase, Fond-Ico becomes one of the leading venture capital funds on the Spanish market, enabling its manager, Axis, to reach a broad spectrum of companies, ranging from recently-constituted to established medium-sized enterprises. Axis will provide not only financing and a long-term view from its position as a State-owned company but also a stable, expert team of professionals who play a part in the definition and development of the enterprise’s strategy, without getting involved in its day-to-day management.

Although no innovative project from any sector falls outside Axis’ scope of performance, in this new period, the main aim of Fond-Ico’s investments will be enterprises engaged in sustainable economy projects.

Axis has been entered under Number 1 in the Official Register of Venture Capital Entities of the CNMV (the Spanish Securities and Exchange Commission) and is a member of ASCRI y EVCA.