Jun, 29 2012 | Maine's Small Enterprise Growth Fund Invests $275K in Newfield Design
The Small Enterprise Growth Fund (SEGF), Maine`s venture capital fund, has announced a $275K investment in Newfield Design, a Land Mobile Radio company in West Newfield Maine.
ŇSEGF looks for companies in Maine that demonstrate both high growth potential and public benefit. We are pleased to announce this new investment. Newfield`s product is scalable and addresses a real need in the substantial $4.8B market for emergency communications technologies, said John Burns, SEGF`s Fund Manager. ŇThe ongoing growth of Newfield Design promises an increase in Maine`s manufacturing base, new jobs that pay above-average wages and the added value of a reduced Ňat-home price for Maine municipalities to upgrade their own LMR systems.
Newfield Design has developed a modernization platform that allows Land Mobile Radio (LMR) networks to achieve true interoperability among communications systems without replacing expensive infrastructure. Currently, emergency response officials often cannot communicate with each other due to disparate wireless networks and the challenge of the FCC Narrowbanding requirement for LMR operators to cut transmission bandwidths in half. To date, Newfield has raised $1M and has its first products on the market this summer.
On the announced investment, James Colony, President of Newfield, said, ŇWe are very pleased to become part of SEGF`s portfolio of Maine investments. We look forward to working together with SEGF as we continue to solve these important communications challenges, grow Newfield, and help grow the Maine economy.
The SEGF is a professionally-managed venture capital fund that invests exclusively in Maine companies who demonstrate a potential for high growth and public benefit. The Fund has been actively investing in Maine companies since 1997, after its creation by an act of the Maine Legislature in 1995 to provide Maine companies and entrepreneurs access to patient sources of venture capital. The fund has received $13 million in capital contributions from the State of Maine and operates as a revolving, Ňevergreen fund. FMI, go to www.segfmaine.com. For more information on Newfield Design, go to www.ercsystem.com.