TIDMGROW
RNS Number : 1152E
Draper Esprit PLC
07 February 2018
Strictly embargoed until: 07.00 on 7(th) February 2018
Draper Esprit plc
("Draper Esprit" or the "Company")
DRAPER ESPRIT INVESTS IN THREE NEW INNOVATIVE TECH COMPANIES
EVONETIX, DROPLET COMPUTING AND KAPTIVO RAISE A COMBINED TOTAL
OF GBP15.2 MILLION
Draper Esprit (AIM: GROW, ESM: GRW), a leading venture capital
firm investing in and developing high growth digital technology
businesses, announces that funds managed by the Group have recently
committed a total of GBP6.6 million into three exciting new
European based digital technology businesses: Evonetix, Droplet
Computing and Kaptivo.
In aggregate, these companies have recently completed
fundraising rounds totalling over GBP15.2 million.
About the three investments:
Evonetix was founded in 2016 in Cambridge to develop technology
that enables the parallel synthesis of DNA on silicon arrays, to
facilitate the fast-emerging field of synthetic biology, where
there is increasing demand for high throughput and highly accurate
DNA synthesis. The company's platform uses an addressable silicon
array to direct the synthesis of DNA at many sites in parallel,
followed by an error-detection process to allow the assembly of
high-fidelity DNA at scale. Evonetix's platform offers the prospect
of synthesising DNA sequences accurately without limitation of
size, potentially transforming the world of synthetic biology by
enabling scientists to engineer the next generation of medicines,
as well as improved versions of products currently used every
day.
Evonetix completed a Series A round co-led by Draper Esprit and
Silicon Valley based investor DCVC (Data Collective) and including
among others Hermann Hauser, the Cambridge-based scientist and
entrepreneur.
Droplet Computing founded in 2014 in Kidderminster, is
redefining application delivery with its patent-pending application
container technology, enabling applications to be delivered on any
device. Today's businesses are under pressure to transform and
update but are being held back by applications - from legacy up to
current versions. Droplet Computing decouples applications from the
OS for online and offline use and delivers significant business
value by providing costs savings and to user productivity.
Kaptivo is a Cambridge based company bringing analog whiteboards
into the digital enterprise collaboration space. Kaptivo's mission
is to enhance collaboration by providing a bridge between the
physical and digital worlds. Their products provide whiteboard live
streaming and image capture for enterprise and education markets.
Kaptivo develops and applies leading-edge optical technology, image
processing, and embedded computer vision software. Kaptivo has
offices in Silicon Valley, California, and Cambridge in the UK.
Kaptivo recently completed a round of financing with Draper
Esprit investing alongside Benhamou Global Ventures and Generation
Ventures. With the new funding, Kaptivo will expand its global
presence through channel and strategic partnerships, accelerate
product development, as well as adding further world-class talent
to its team.
Simon Cook, CEO at Draper Esprit commented:
"Draper Esprit continues to lead the way in UK and European tech
funding. From synthetic biology, to productivity in the office and
the educational environment, these three recent investments are
great examples of emerging businesses that utilise their technology
to transform the markets in which they operate. All have the
potential to become global leaders and we look forward to providing
further expertise and capital support to enable them to scale
quickly."
*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
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 Droplet
Droplet Computing is redefining application delivery with its
patent-pending application container technology, enabling
applications to be delivered on any device. Today's businesses are
under pressure to transform and update but are being held back by
applications - from legacy up to current versions. Droplet
Computing decouples applications from the OS for online and offline
use and delivers significant business value by providing costs
savings, to user productivity and beyond.
Learn more at www.dropletcomputing.com or follow us on Twitter
@dropletcom.
About Evonetix Ltd
Evonetix is developing a novel, highly disruptive approach to
gene synthesis, the technology which underpins the rapidly growing
field of synthetic biology. The Company was co-founded in 2016 by
breakthrough innovation specialists Cambridge Consultants Ltd and
Providence Investment Company Limited with key staff from
next-generation sequencing company Solexa. Its executive management
team has many years' experience in the development and delivery of
successful biotech ventures.
There are two key components of the Evonetix approach: (i) a
highly scalable platform, with up to 10,000 sites for DNA
synthesis, at each of which there is independent, exquisite control
of the synthesis process; and (ii) the ability to assemble DNA
molecules with a very low error rate using a process of error
detection throughout assembly. In addition, the approach will
permit the synthesis of 'difficult' sequences, such as those with a
high GC content or with repeats.
The company's technology is based upon a novel silicon array,
manufactured with semiconductor microfabrication techniques and
permitting the independent control required at the miniaturised
reaction sites. This will allow massive parallelism in the DNA
synthesis process and therefore very high throughput. The approach
will be suitable for the large-scale projects of synthetic
biology.
For further information see www.evonetix.com.
About Kaptivo
Kaptivo's mission is to enhance collaboration by providing a
bridge between the physical and digital worlds. Their products
provide whiteboard live streaming and image capture for enterprise
and education markets. Kaptivo develops and applies leading-edge
optical technology, image processing, and embedded computer vision
software. Kaptivo has offices in Silicon Valley, California, and
Cambridge, UK. Kaptivo is the trading name of Light Blue
Optics.
For more information, please visit www.kaptivo.com.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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