TIDMGROW
RNS Number : 5185U
Draper Esprit PLC
25 October 2017
Strictly embargoed until: 25 October 2017 at 7am
Draper Esprit plc
("Draper Esprit" or the "Company")
DRAPER ESPRIT FURTHERS ITS SECONDARY INVESTMENT STRATEGY
WITH
THE ACQUISITION OF SEEDCAMP FUNDS I AND II FOR GBP17.9 MILLION
(EUR20 MILLION)
Draper Esprit (AIM: GROW, ESM: GRW), a leading venture capital
firm investing in high growth digital technology businesses, has
announced the acquisition of Seedcamp Funds I and II ("the Funds")
for GBP17.9 million (EUR20 million). ("the Transaction").
As a result, the Company has acquired stakes in high profile
growing technology companies including Transferwise, a leading UK
based Fintech business. The portfolio also includes a number of
promising companies including Codacy, Edited, Erply, Fishbrain,
Codility, Winnow, Codeship and Try.com. The portfolio's last
reported NAV was GBP23.5 million (EUR26.3 million), resulting in an
increase of GBP5.6 million (EUR6.3 million) (7p per share) for the
Company, against the latest reported NAV per share as at 30
September 2017 of 372p (NAV per share, excluding goodwill, of
344p).
Transferwise, the international money transfer platform, will be
added to the Company's Core Portfolio. Co-founded by Taavet
Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann, TransferWise launched in 2011. It is
one of Europe's most successful fintech startups having raised
$117m in funding from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Sir
Richard Branson, Valar Ventures and Max Levchin of PayPal. Over a
million people use TransferWise to transfer over $1.2 billion every
month.
Draper Esprit's other core portfolio companies include
Trustpilot, Clavis Insights, Sportpursuit, M-Files, Graze, Lyst,
Conversocial, Push Doctor, Graphcore and Perkbox. An overview of
other notable holdings from this Transaction are detailed
below.
Following the deal, Draper Esprit will continue to invest
further in the portfolio to help it develop and grow, working
closely with both the team at Seedcamp and within the portfolio
companies as they grow. The Seedcamp management team will continue
to work closely alongside the Draper Esprit team to manage the
portfolio and to create further value for founders and investors in
the Funds.
To date, the combined Seedcamp Funds I and II, raised in 2007
and 2010, have returned over 4x capital to their investors.
Seedcamp also continues its management of other Seedcamp funds
unrelated to this Transaction.
Simon Cook, CEO Draper Esprit plc commented:
"Although principally a primary series A, B and C VC Growth
investor, we have also been very active over the years as a
secondary tech investor in Europe having acquired a number of
well-known VC portfolios and increasingly taking large direct
stakes in later stage companies. Together with our recently
announced seed fund of funds strategy we can offer long term
patient capital solutions for all European tech companies and their
investors outside of the constraints of a typical 5+5 year
fund.
"We have a great relationship with Seedcamp and recently
invested directly in their Seedcamp IV fund to give our investors
access to seed stage opportunities. This acquisition further
bolsters our growing secondary business; and we are excited to work
with a really good portfolio of European technology companies
including Transferwise, one of Europe's most successful
startups."
Reshma Sohoni, Seedcamp Co-founder & Managing Partner,
commented:
"We are thrilled to help our Seedcamp companies scale to the
next level with the support and firepower of Draper Esprit. As the
Seedcamp team continue to manage Funds 1 and 2, Draper is the
perfect partner to help us manage these businesses moving forward
and ensure we continue to go above and beyond in delivering returns
to our LPs."
Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Seedcamp Managing Partner, added:
"We see this as a great outcome working alongside experienced
and knowledgeable investors who've supported us for many years. We
are always looking at innovative ways to deliver exceptional
returns to our LPs and believe this transaction is a win-win for
everyone involved. We look forward to continuing to work with the
growing companies and founders from our first and second funds with
Draper's added horsepower."
Ends
For further information, please contact:
Draper Esprit plc
Simon Cook (Chief Executive Officer)
Ben Wilkinson (Chief Financial Officer) +44 (0)20 7931 8800
Numis Securities
Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker
Alex Ham
Richard Thomas
Jamie Loughborough
Harry Trueman +44 (0)20 7260 1000
Goodbody Stockbrokers
ESM Adviser & Joint Broker
Don Harrington
Linda Hickey
Charlotte Craigie
Richard Tunney +353 1 667 0420
Belvedere Communications (PR)
John West
Kim van Beeck +44 (0)20 3567 0510
Notes to Editors
About Draper Esprit
Draper Esprit is one of the most active venture capital firms in
Europe, developing and investing in disruptive, high growth
technology companies. We believe the best entrepreneurs in Europe
are capable of building the global businesses of the future. We
fuel their growth with long- term capital, access to international
networks and decades of experience building businesses. Currently
Draper Esprit is a shareholder in a diverse portfolio of companies
including Trustpilot, Graze, Perkbox, PushDoctor and Graphcore.
Visit www.draperesprit.com
About Seedcamp
Seedcamp a leading seed fund in Europe, identifying and
investing early in world-class founders attacking large, global
markets and solving real problems using technology. Since launch a
decade ago Seedcamp has invested in 250 startups including fintech
unicorn TransferWise.
For more information visit www.seedcamp.com
Other notable companies in this Transaction:
Codacy
Based in Lisbon, Portgual this is an automated code review
platform which raised a further $5.1 million in Series A funding
from EQT Ventures, Faber, Caixa Capital, Join Capital and Seedcamp.
Codacy is used by hundreds of companies, including Paypal, Adobe,
Qlik, Cancer Research UK and Deliveroo.
Editd
Editd creates real-time data analytics software for apparel
retailers and brands to monitor the clothing retail market
worldwide. The company has clients across the globe including in
the UK, US, China, Australia, South Africa and South America.
Erply
Erply is an enterprise software company focusing on point of
sale and inventory management technology and was founded in
2009.
Fishbrain
Fishbrain is social network and app for fishing. Other investors
in the company include Northzone, , Active Venture Partners, GP
Bullhound and Edastra Venture Capital.
Codility
Codility is a global leader in tech recruiting assessments. In
June it announced it had become the most widely used platform to
help companies evaluate and hire the best tech talent having
assessed over 4 million candidates.
Winnow
Winnow is a UK startup that has developed smart kitchen
technology to help commercial kitchens reduce waste. Customers
include IKEA, Compass Group and AccorHotels. It recently announced
it raised a further $7.4 million from Circularity Capital, Mustard
Seed and D-Ax.
Codeship
Based in Boston and with offices in Vienna and Berlin, Codeship
offers Continuous Integration products in the cloud that integrate
with the existing DevOps stack and enables clients to accelerate
time-to-market of products and features.
Try.com
Try.com is an e-commerce platform that allows you to try clothes
before you buy from any online store.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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