Information Technology (IT), media and telecommunications focused investment company Convergence Partners and black-owned Altius Investment Holdings have acquired a 40% stake in Cape Town-based radio-frequency identification (RFID) company Bloodhound Technologies.

"This new capital injection comes at the perfect time in the company's growth and enables us to further expand our products to take full advantage of the increasing market opportunities in Southern Africa. We also believe that our new investors' focus on the technology sector will enable them to add value to our business at a strategic and operational level," said Bloodhound Technologies CEO Bernard Slabbert.

The capital raised through the transaction would be invested in further software and hardware development as well as to expand the marketing drive to a broader and larger customer base. Bloodhound has access to research and development in the RFID space and would continue to focus on this technology as a key component of its offering to customers.

"We became interested in RFID systems some years back with a focus on their potential to be deployed as a component of an overall solution rather than as a stand-alone technology. After assessing international markets for integrated solutions, we were encouraged to discover a globally competitive business right here in South Africa. This latest investment further reinforces our view that the country can lead global innovation in niche technology areas," Convergence Partners' chairperson Andile Ngcaba noted.

Bloodhound develops and markets a range of real-time personnel location solutions across a number of industries, which combines radio frequency identification, real-time communication and software technologies to deliver solutions that require no specific infrastructure installation and can be activated immediately.

The technology is being used at Cape Town's 2010 FIFA World Cup Green Point stadium, and was also selected as the preferred technology platform to track personnel on the Gautrain rapid rail link project.

Other custom applications currently being rolled out throughout southern Africa include a solution for a major private hospital group that will monitor and track the progress of patients undergoing surgical procedures to enable automated billing and ensure operational efficiency including compliance with service level and hospital policies.

In the Western Cape, Bloodhound provides a handheld payment solution for a large-scale parking vending business while internationally, the company's research and development team participated in the creation of a complex RFID solution to track tools and other equipment used in critical areas of NASA's Kennedy Space Centre.