The Czech company mavel, which manufactures turbines and other components for small hydro power plants, has now received investment totalling US$2.3M from Czech Tech Investments (CTI), a US investment partnership.

CTI is a Colorado-based company which was set up for the purpose of investing in hydro power in central Europe, and primarily the Czech Republic.

The investment in Mavel has been provided in three tranches over the past two years, on the condition that the Czech company continued to meet certain performance criteria. Mavel has met all the conditions and CTI now owns a substantial minority of the shares, serving on both the management and supervisory boards of the company.

Mavel is using the funds to upgrade its primary manufacturing facilities in the town of Bensov, and to install state of the art information and control systems. It also intends to acquire the Czech company CKD TurboTechnics.