TIDMGROW
RNS Number : 2132L
Draper Esprit PLC
11 January 2021
11th January 2021
Draper Esprit plc
("Draper Esprit", "the Group" or the "Company")
Investment update
Draper Esprit (LSE: GROW, Euronext Growth: GRW), a leading
venture capital firm investing in and developing high growth
digital technology businesses, today provides an update on recent
developments in its portfolio.
Key highlights are as follows:
-- Draper Esprit continues to experience strong business momentum
-- Delivering on its stated objective to deploy further capital
by leading rounds in high growth technology investments at Series B
onwards
-- Investments comprise a mix of new portfolio companies and
follow on into high growth opportunities in the existing
portfolio
-- GBP56 million invested in 11 investments since 30(th)
September 2020 (GBP32 million invested to half year)
Draper Esprit has undertaken 11 investments since its half year
results, including the following:
GRAPHCORE
In December 2020, Draper Esprit participated with a $14 million
investment in a Series E funding round in Graphcore, maker of the
Intelligence Processing Unit ("IPU"), which raised a total of $222
million. Graphcore is one of Draper Esprit's largest holdings in
the core portfolio having been an investor from its earliest days.
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board led the round alongside
other new investors Fidelity International and Schroders. Draper
Esprit invested with existing investors including Baillie Gifford.
Following the round, Graphcore is now valued at $2.77 billion.
Graphcore's IPU is the world's most sophisticated
microprocessor, designed for next-generation artificial
intelligence workloads. Having launched its Mk2 IPU products in
2020, Graphcore plans to use the investment to drive further global
expansion and accelerate future product developments. For many AI
training and inference tasks, IPU systems significantly outperform
the latest GPU-based systems.
Draper Esprit's fair value holding in Graphcore increased by
approximately GBP17 million as a result of the fundraising to
approximately GBP108 million (including the new capital
invested).
COACHHUB
Also in December 2020, Draper Esprit invested $14 million as
lead investor in a $30m investment round into new portfolio company
CoachHub, a digital coaching platform. The round was supported by
HV Capital, Partech, Speedinvest, signals Venture Capital and RTP
Global, and brings the total funds raised by CoachHub to $50
million.
CoachHub, based in Germany, is a platform for personalised,
measurable and scalable coaching programs that uses AI to match
individuals to business coaches. Since its foundation it has
created a global network of more than 1,000 certified coaches
across six continents, making it the fastest growing company in the
sector. The company will use the funds to accelerate its growth in
the market with plans to add an additional 1,000 coaches to its
network and make 120 new hires across Europe, Asia and the US
taking their team to 300. They also plan to develop the "Coaching
Lab", which uses machine learning technology and business
intelligence to drive behaviour research and development in the
field of coaching and offers expert contributions and tools to
support the development of employees.
OMAG
In November 2020, Draper Esprit led with a GBP12 million
(including GBP5 million from EIS/VCT funds) investment as part of a
GBP15 million investment round into existing portfolio company
Endomag, a breast cancer market leader and one of the UK's fastest
growing private technology businesses. The Series D round was
supported by other existing investors including Sussex Place
Ventures, among others, and follows on from Draper Esprit's initial
lead in Endomag's 2018 Series C round.
Endomag's technologies use non-invasive magnetic sensing to
locate and stage breast cancer and have helped over 130,000 women
across the world receive more precise and less invasive cancer
treatment. The funds from the round are earmarked for expanding
access to new advanced techniques enabled by its products, such as
targeted axillary dissection (TAD) and delayed sentinel lymph node
biopsy (dSLNB). The funds will also be used to scale its product
offering, market reach and employees. Endomag continues to invest
significantly in research and development and, in 2021, is due to
launch its next generation Sentimag(R) platform, as well as new
Magseed(R) products.
It is anticipated that Endomag will join the core portfolio in
the 31(st) March 2021 year-end reporting period.
AGORA
In December 2020, Draper Esprit led a GBP5 million investment
round in AGORA, a London-based startup disrupting the beauty
industry through social commerce. Lakestar and Angel Capital
Management also participated in the round alongside some other
existing investors.
AGORA is an app that allows beauty fans to monetise their talent
by creating and sharing video content that links directly to
products from their favourite beauty brands. The company was
co-founded by Riccardo Basile and Elizabeth Craft Townsend-Rose,
who were part of the founding team of the multi-billion dollar
e-commerce platform Lazada which is now owned by Alibaba. Soft
launched in April 2020, AGORA already has 50,000 registered users
on the app, mostly organically acquired, and content creators have
produced in excess of 50,000 videos to date.
Having successfully launched its first social commerce trial
last month, this investment will help AGORA scale social selling
and build its commerce features, allowing global and independent
brands to launch flagship stores on the platform. The platform is
currently UK-only, however the business is looking to expand into
Europe in 2021.
Martin Davis, Chief Executive Officer of Draper Esprit,
commented:
"When we announced our successful placing in October 2020 we
communicated that we were looking to accelerate our investment
strategy and increase our rate of investment, including through
follow on opportunities within the portfolio. Benefitting from
additional capital, our ability to lead investment rounds and back
Europe's best high growth investment opportunities has been
reinforced. The activity in recent months clearly supports the
execution of this strategy and we continue to push for new
opportunities into 2021. Graphcore and Endomag are fantastic
examples of how Draper Esprit's public model allows us to make
follow on investments into some of our outstanding, scaling
portfolio companies. CoachHub and AGORA are both exciting new
investments, which demonstrate the depth of the dealflow network we
are able to harness. We continue to see significant opportunity in
both follow on and new investments across our four target
sectors."
-S-
Enquiries:
Draper Esprit plc
Martin Davis (Chief Executive Officer)
Ben Wilkinson (Chief Financial Officer) +44 (0)20 7931 8800
Numis Securities
Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker
Simon Willis
Richard Thomas
Jamie Loughborough +44 (0)20 7260 1000
Goodbody Stockbrokers
Euronext Growth Adviser & Joint Broker
Don Harrington
Charlotte Craigie
Dearbhla Gallagher +44 (0) 20 3841 6202
Powerscourt
Public relations
Elly Williamson +44 (0)7970 246 725 /
Donjeta Miftari +44 (0)7961 628 862
About Draper Esprit
Draper Esprit is one of the most active venture capital firms in
Europe, 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 67 companies with 15 of those part of our core portfolio which
accounts for over 60% of our holdings. Our core companies include
Trustpilot, UiPath, Aircall, Graphcore and Revolut. We invest
across four sectors: Consumer Technology, Enterprise Technology,
Hardware and Deeptech, and Digital Health and Wellness, with highly
experienced partners constantly looking for new opportunities in
each. We look for high-growth companies with strong IP, powerful
technology, and the management teams to deliver success. They
operate in new markets, with serious potential for global
expansion. We also look for businesses with the potential to
generate strong margins to ensure rapid, sustainable growth in
substantial addressable markets.
Draper Esprit provides an opportunity for public market
investors to access these fast-growing tech businesses, without
having to commit to long term investments with limited liquidity.
Since IPO in June 2016, we have deployed circa GBP450m+ capital
into fast growing technology companies and have realised over
GBP210m. In October 2020 we raised gross proceeds of circa GBP110m
to help us capitalise on a European VC market which is expanding
rapidly but is still less than one quarter of the combined size of
the US and European market by value. It will also allow us to
capitalise on the transition to a digital future that has been
given added impetus as a result of the recent pandemic.
For more information, go to https://draperesprit.com/
, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by
the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information
Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to
the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further
information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms
and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information
contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an
anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services.
For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange
use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy
Policy.
UPDFIFLDLFILLIL
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 11, 2021 02:15 ET (07:15 GMT)
Molten Ventures (LSE:GROW)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Molten Ventures (LSE:GROW)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024