Risk capital company Ambient Sound Investments (ASI), owned by the four co-founders of Internet company Skype, is financing expansion of the Estonian pet portal developer, United Dogs and Cats OU (UDC). Investment amounts haven't been disclosed, but ASI is expected to get a 15 percent holding in UDC. The new shareholder will also take part in the further development of UDC Web sites. UDC is expected to launch pet owner portals uniteddogs.com and unitedcats.com in German, French, Dutch and Latvian in addition to the already existing English and Estonian versions. ASI managing director Tauno Tats says that "The keeping of pets is becoming more and more popular around the world but at present only a small proportion of pet owners use Web sites such as the one UDC is developing. It is a tremendous potential for them." Since March 2006 ASI has invested 8.2 million euros into 13 telematics, biotechnology and software development companies.
Vilnius International Airport has opened its new 29 million euro passenger terminal. The new terminal will help the airport to separate passengers traveling within the Schengen area from non-Schengen passengers and to manage rising passenger numbers. The construction of the terminal started in May 2006 and was completed in September this year. The new 17,000 square-meter facility is expected to help increase the airport's annual passenger capacity to around 3 million. Airport volume is expected to reach 1.7 million passengers this year. All three Baltic countries plan to join the Schengen border-free area in December.
