Hamburg, 23rd November 2005 - NAVIGON, one of Europe's leading suppliers of mobile navigation systems, has strengthened its capital base and corporate power through share participation by General Atlantic. Navigon thereby increases its capital, and General Atlantic, the private equity firm which is globally active in the financing of rapid-growth companies, receives an approximate 25% share in NAVIGON. Peter Scheufen, Chairman of the NAVIGON AG Managing Board, will continue to be the company's principal shareholder.
Product development will be a decisive growth factor for the branch in general and NAVIGON in particular. Success will continue to depend on bringing the best innovations onto the market as rapidly as possible. Additional focus will be placed on international expansion and on developing partnerships with leading brand companies in the electronics sector who will integrate navigation software into their mass market products with increasing regularity.
'With General Atlantic, we have gained an experienced, long-term investor who has recognised our immense growth potential and will support us both in consolidating our position in the market and in realising our goals for international expansion,' Peter Scheufen, NAVIGON AG's CEO, commented.
The mobile navigation market has seen rapid technical developments with products remaining affordable for the majority of consumers. While 700,000 appliances were sold throughout Europe in 2003, 2.6 million navigation systems were sold in the region in 2004. By the end of the third quarter of the current financial year, sales of more than 4.4 million mobile navigation systems were registered; by the end of 2005, therefore, the number of appliances sold will have more than doubled by comparison with the previous year. NAVIGON anticipates that this above average growth in the booming navigation sector will continue and intends to capitalise on its leading position in Germany and Europe.

Dr. Klaus Esser, Managing Director of General Atlantic and future Chairman of the NAVIGON AG Supervisory Board, said: "Mobile navigation is useful for everyone and, thanks to the enormous technical progress driven by NAVIGON and other suppliers, is now also affordable for everyone. Therefore demand is growing very rapidly and NAVIGON's young, innovative team faces the challenge of capitalising on this enormous potential for growth. We look forward to supporting Peter Scheufen and his team in this task, in Europe and throughout the world..."