AGR success attracts major investment from Frumtak

Aðgerðargreining ehf. AGR was founded in 1998 on the basis of research projects carried out in the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Iceland. In collaboration with Rannís (the Icelandic Centre for Research) and Reykjavík University, the company has, in the interim, developed methodology and software solutions for the international market. Its main product to date, the AGR Inventory Optimiser, has been adopted by more than 55 companies in 12 countries. All AGR’s fundamental development work has been carried out in Iceland in collaboration with companies active in goods distribution, production and trade. The Inventory Optimiser system generates sales forecasts for each and every product, selecting the best forecast method, and then calculates the required safety stock levels, seeking always to reduce the level of investment that is bound in inventory, while at the same time guaranteeing that products will be available when they are required by the customers.  

AGR’s main market area is Europe, with the focus on Scandinavia, the UK and the Netherlands. It operates two offices under its own name, in the UK and in Denmark, and also works with many well-established retailers on the Continent, including Microsoft and K3.

“AGR is an attractive investment for Frumtak,” says Eggert Claessen, Frumtak’s managing director. “AGR has achieved great success with the sale of its Inventory Optimser. We expect great things of this company, and we are particularly interested in seeing it capitalise on its special skill in selling inventory management systems on foreign markets. There are plenty of opportunities there for it to exploit with the funds it is receiving now.”

“Through working for several years now with many of Iceland’s main exporters, AGR has developed extensive knowledge in the field of inventory management,” says Haukur Hannesson, managing director of AGR. “We have also demonstrated that there is a great need for systems of this type overseas, where companies are grappling with exactly the same problems as their counterparts here in Iceland. And in the current economic crisis we find the demand for our system is growing because company managers are under pressure to cut investment in inventory. Collaboration with Frumtak will enable us at AGR to put more resources into marketing and selling the solutions we have developed.”

Frumtak is an investment fund owned by the New Business Venture Fund, six of Iceland’s largest pension funds and three banks. It invests in innovative and start-up companies that are considered likely to grow and have a development potential abroad. Frumtak’s aim is to support vigorous companies that may develop into leaders in their field and also produce good returns on the investment. It invests in companies that have passed the first stage of development, and to qualify for consideration they must produce detailed business plans.