TIDMGROW
RNS Number : 3836S
Draper Esprit PLC
11 March 2019
11 March 2019
Draper Esprit plc
("Draper Esprit" or the "Company")
Investment and exits update
Draper Esprit (AIM: GROW, Euronext Growth: GRW), a leading
venture capital firm investing in and developing high growth
digital technology businesses, today announces an update on recent
investments and developments in its portfolio ahead of hosting its
portfolio CEO Day for analysts and institutional, EIS, and VCT
investors on 12 March 2019. No new material financial information
will be disclosed during the event.
The Company has continued to invest in new and existing high
growth portfolio companies. Recent investments include a GBP7
million funding round in Hadean led by Draper Esprit, a
GBP4.3million (EUR5 million) investment in N26, a GBP3 million
investment in Onefootball and a further investment as part of
Trustpilot's $55 million Series E funding round.
Other developments within the Company's core portfolio include
the acquisition of Graze by Unilever plc and a strategic investment
in Pod Point from Legal & General.
The board is confident that the Company is on track to meet its
NAV growth expectations for the full year ending 31 March 2019.
Hadean
Draper Esprit led a GBP7 million funding round in Hadean, the
London headquartered deep tech company. Hadean has created the
first cloud-first operating system (HadeanOS), enabling programmers
to scale their code by treating entire cloud data-centres as a
single gigantic computer.
Their distributed simulation engine, Aether Engine, is currently
being used by the Francis Crick Institute to simulate large and
complex models for novel research in diseases such as cancer. CCP
Games, influential creator of the MMPORPG EVE Online, has also
announced a partnership with Hadean to explore opportunities around
largescale multiplayer games.
Other investors in the round include Aster and specialist gaming
investor London Venture Partners. Existing investors Luminous
Ventures and Entrepreneur First also participated.
N26
Draper Esprit has invested GBP4.3 million (EUR5 million) in N26
as part of the strategic partnership with Earlybird Digital West.
N26 provides a global mobile bank account. Since launching its
first product in January 2015, N26 has welcomed more than 2.3
million customers in 24 European markets. Customers hold more than
EUR1 billion in N26 accounts.
N26 raised $300 million as part of a series D funding round in
January, led by Insight Venture Partners with participation from
Tencent, Allianz X, Valar Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Earlybird
Venture Capital, Redalphine Ventures and Greyhound Capital.
Earlybird Partnership
In addition to N26, the Company invested GBP3 million via the
Earlybird Digital West partnership into Onefootball, a leading
media platform for global football fans. The Company also invested
GBP1.2 million in aggregate into Kreatize and Mydatamodels.
Trustpilot
Trustpilot, the leading independent platform for companies to
build trust with consumers, has raised $55 million in its Series E
funding round, including participation by Draper Esprit (as
announced on 5 March 2019).
The Company first invested in Trustpilot in 2013, with follow-on
investments in 2015 and 2017. The investment round is supportive of
the NAV uplift reported at 30 September 2018 (including the benefit
of the acquisition of the DFJ Europe X fund in November 2018 which
increased the Company's stake in Trustpilot).
Pod Point
Pod Point, one of the UK's largest electric vehicle charging
point operators, and a constituent of the Company's Core Portfolio,
received new investment from Legal & General in March 2019,
taking a 13% stake in Pod Point.
Seed Funds
The fund of fund strategy continues to increase Draper Esprit's
opportunity to source the best deals from across Europe. Further
commitments have been made to Europe's top seed funds including
Hardware Club (Paris, France), Byfounders (Copenhagen, Denmark),
and Indico Capital (Lisbon, Portugal).
Exits
The Company recently sold its holding in Graze, the UK's leading
healthy snacking brand, as part of its acquisition by Unilever plc
in February. Draper Esprit invested a total of GBP3.7 million in
Graze, having first invested before Draper Esprit's IPO in 2016.
The exit generated an IRR of 19%. Draper Esprit also exited its
small stake in Crowdpress Ltd, which was acquired via the Seedcamp
funds acquisition in 2017.
A total of GBP13 million has been received from realisations,
including escrow balances from previous periods, since the
Company's interim results in November 2018.
Simon Cook, CEO at Draper Esprit, commented:
"We've had another busy period, as we continue to deliver on our
mission - namely to provide support and deep, long-term capital to
the most exciting tech companies in Europe, that we believe have
the potential to become global leaders; thus providing access to
the investment returns from these high-growth, private tech
companies to public investors."
Enquiries
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 +44 (0)20 7260 1000
Goodbody Stockbrokers
Euronext Growth Adviser & Joint Broker
Don Harrington
Charlotte Craigie
Richard Tunney +44 (0) 20 3841 6202
MHP Communications (PR) +44 (0)20 3128 8570
Reg Hoare draperesprit@mhpc.com
Pete Lambie
Flo Mayo
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END
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