The venture capital group has injected £430,000 in a £2 million funding round, which includes new investor Close Ventures and a number of private investors.

This new finance will, according to Oxford Capital Partners, be used to take on additional staff as well as to fund the working capital requirements of the company during the next phase of growth.

Dr Victor Christou, investment manager at Oxford Capital Partners, is confident that the company, after this latest funding round, can ramp up its operations and ‘build a winning business globally’.

Helveta CEO Patrick Newton comments: ‘This investment allows us to extend our customer support in the field and push on with our expansion in international markets. Our product is well tested across the supply chain and brings numerous benefits both economic and ecological.’

The company specialises in technology that enables businesses to trace lumber throughout the supply chain order to combat industry-related problems, such as illegal logging. Ed Lascelles, investment manager at Close Ventures, claims the tracking system devised by Helveta has the ‘potential to become the de facto global standard in this sector’.

Helveta was advised by Martin Fiennes of Clarity Capital Partners.