Current Projects
A selection of current projects where we have client-partner consent to give a brief description, and links to websites of the investees:
Smartvisit Group, Sydney, Australia (2002>)
We backed Australian-Canadian Ryan Rieveley and his team with debt and equity funding in 2002 and through the challenges of corporate restructuring the Smartvisit Group emerged as a profitable major player in tourism-related smartcard technology (iVenturecard), loyalty and biometric signature (MiSign). The business started in Asia Pacific but is now global with activity in Africa, Europe and North America growing fast. Mr Fox serves as a director.
IX Group, Atlanta, USA (2003>)
www.theinsurenet.com www.thenpsc.com
Jonathan Miller championed automatic verification of vehicle insurance for over a decade, founding IX Group (formerly ‘Insurenet’) to this end, and IXG has for five years been the sole insurance partner of NLETS - the communications system for all US law enforcement agencies. We have been major supporters with advice, debt and equity funding and Mr Fox sits on the board of IXG and subsidiaries. We were instrumental in designing funding and corporate restructuring including the spinoff of all non-North American activity and State-specific SPVs.
Insurenet International, Cyprus (2011>)
www.insurenetinternational.com
Insurenet International is the SPV spinoff for Insurenet activity outside the continental USA. Solutions offered by II are tailored to needs and circumstances of host governments and therefore wider than solutions offered by IXG. The current focus is on Puerto Rico and Tanzania, handled by Chairman Mr Fox and Chief Mwakalinga. The Company is administered by Offitex in Cyprus, Anita Kaushik, Jonathan Miller and Mike McGrey also serving as directors.
PXP Vietnam Asset Management, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2003>)
Seeking emerging market equity opportunity in Vietnam in 2003, we agreed to underwrite the launch of PXP Vietnam Fund the first fund managed by PXP Vietnam Asset Management (PXP) and took a stake in the management company. By the end of 2007 PXP had assets under management in excess of $500m. Today, PXP under leadership of founder Kevin Snowball, is consistently the best performing fund manager in that market. Mr Fox serves as non-executive director on the PXP board.
Sphereinvest Global High Yield Fund, Bermuda (2009>)
Sphereinvest (formerly Millennium) is a fund devoted to the pursuit of high yield opportunities worldwide. We were contracted to learn the real status of the fund’s assets in Russia at a time when they were being restructured through debt-equity swaps following the GFC. Familar with the investees and their executives, we then made recommendations, brought in overseas technical experts, monitored and reported, and advised on various legal disputes that developed thereafter.
Lifecycle Renewables Inc, Marblehead, Boston, USA (2011>)
We were approached by an entrepreneur to whom we had previously offered funding, suggesting we fund LRI in Massachusetts. They collect waste vegetable oil, and recycle it into a onroad RIN-compliant diesel / heating oil equivalent ‘LR100’, partnering with Wholefoods. We analysed their business, structured a debt/equity funding offer, and made a debt/equity investment. Trifin’s role since has been to meet LRI quarterly, monitoring and reporting monthly to the investor.
ECOMO / IMC Ltd, London (2012>)
Mark Stewart (former CEO of a company that VIP bought) went on to establish IMC Ltd which developed the ECOMO app so smartphones can make extremely cheap local, premium and international phone calls by seamlessly accessed through wifi or (usually free) local calls. We assisted IMC with corporate advice and equity/secured debt funding, then implemented monitoring/reporting and closed second-round EIS funding. Mr Fox is on the board.
TheSunNeverSets
This entertaining website (and its back-end user interface) was designed by Trifin in support of current projects, in particular Friends of the British Overseas Territories, ECOMO and iVentures, and also to develop our knowledge of online marketing and outsourcing development work. It has been enjoyed by friends and clients in British Overseas Territories, making an excellent desktop clock with the chimes of Big Ben hourly.