TIDMVELA
Vela Technologies PLC
06 September 2019
RNS Reach
6 September 2019
Vela Technologies plc
("Vela")
Update re. WeShop Limited - Partnership Agreement with
BrandShield Limited
The Board of Vela (AIM: VELA) would like to update shareholders
on its investment in WeShop Limited ("WeShop"), following receipt
of a shareholder update.
Vela has an interest in 71,429 shares in WeShop representing
approximately 1.4 per cent. of the fully diluted share capital of
WeShop. Vela's holding has a paper value equivalent to GBP427,145,
based on the subscription price of the most recent funding round.
In its audited accounts for the year ended 31 March 2018, Vela
valued its investment in WeShop at the acquisition cost of
GBP100,000.
The shareholder update from WeShop is copied below:
WeShop Limited
Partnership Agreement with BrandShield Limited
Summary
WeShop is pleased to announce an exclusive global partnership
agreement with Brandshield Limited, one of the world's leading
brand protection and online threat hunting companies.
Exclusive Partnership
The partnership is focussed on the co-development of a global
product, merchant and user verification proposition for social
commerce, that will protect users from fraudulent online merchants,
counterfeit product and fake user accounts, and that will protect
brands from counterfeiting and trademark infringement. WeShop
intends to integrate the verification proposition into its B2C and
B2B offering across over 100m products in the UK alone within
various marketplaces, to further enhance its credentials as one of
the world's most powerful social commerce platforms.
Background to BrandShield
-- BrandShield provides a global solution from brand protection
to online threat hunting, by detecting online threats and taking
them down.
-- BrandShield has developed the most advanced AI and big-data
based technology that monitors the web for counterfeits, fraud,
social phishing, executive impersonation and brand abuse, and
automatically analyzes the potential threats based on content,
web-metrics and many other data points of the different items.
-- BrandShield analyses over 20 million online items (including
websites, marketplaces listings, social media users and posts,
mobile apps, paid ads, etc.) every day to detect potential
counterfeits, phishing, fraud, impersonation and other types of
brand abuse).
-- BrandShield's technology was developed by cyber security and
brand protection experts, with experience in the Israeli military
in cyber security, intelligence and information security.
-- BrandShield has growing international blue-chip client base
including Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies. Customers are from a
variety of industries including fashion, pharmaceuticals,
financial, software, sports, entertainment, consumer products,
industrials, online, and more.
Commenting, James Sowerby CEO of WeShop:
"Social commerce is gaining momentum as a major channel of
distribution for brands and retailers, and as a preferred way of
shopping for consumers - users are 4x more likely to buy something
when recommended by a friend. As a result, trust in the merchant
and product becomes increasingly important for brands and consumers
alike. At the same time online fraud, phishing and online
counterfeit sales are growing, and are expanding to almost every
industry and companies of all sizes. Both WeShop and BrandShield
are committing to solving this critical issue."
Key terms of the partnership:
-- WeShop and BrandShield will work together to evaluate how to
most effectively and powerfully utilise BrandShield's technology to
enable the protection of:
o Social commerce users from fraudulent merchants and
counterfeit products
o Brands and retailers from brand abuse and trademark
infringement on social commerce platforms
o Social commerce users and brands from fake users and
accounts
-- WeShop and BrandShield will initially pilot the technology
across 10 global merchants to (including brands, retailers, and
marketplaces) from the WeShop datafeeds with the aim of verifying
the merchant and products
-- The partnership will be exclusive to WeShop within the global social commerce market.
Commenting Yoav Keren, CEO of Brandshield:
"The partnership between WeShop and BrandShield is targeted to
solve one of the most troubling and fast growing problems in
ecommerce - the ability of users buying on online platforms to be
safe from counterfeits and fraud. While BrandShield is used by
companies worldwide to detect and takedown such activities, users
have no tools today to be sure they are buying a genuine product.
Our partnership with WeShop is aimed to provide that safe
experience to WeShop users".
For further information, please contact:
Vela Technologies plc Tel: +44 (0) 7802
262 443
Brent Fitzpatrick, Non-Executive Chairman
Antony Laiker, Director
Allenby Capital Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 3328
(Nominated Adviser) 5656
Nick Athanas/Asha Chotai
Smaller Company Capital Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 3651
(Broker) 2910
Rupert Williams/Jeremy Woodgate
About Vela Technologies
Vela Technologies (AIM: VELA) is an investing company focused on
early stage and pre-IPO long term disruptive technology
investments. There are currently 12 investments in the portfolio
which either have developed ways of utilising technology or
developing technology with a view to disrupting the businesses or
sector in which they operate. More recently, Vela Technologies has
also started to focus on existing listed companies where valuations
may offer additional opportunities.
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END
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