Draper Esprit PLC Portfolio Company Updates (7673Z)
May 22 2019 - 1:01AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMGROW
RNS Number : 7673Z
Draper Esprit PLC
22 May 2019
22 May 2019
Draper Esprit plc
("Draper Esprit", "the Group" or the "Company")
PORTFOLIO COMPANY UPDATES
Draper Esprit (LSE: GROW, Euronext Growth: GRW), a leading
venture capital firm investing in and developing high growth
digital technology businesses, provides the following update on
three of its portfolio companies.
Transferwise
Draper Esprit notes today's announcement from TransferWise, the
international money transfer platform, following its successful
$292.0 million share sale at a $3.5 billion valuation.
Draper Esprit originally acquired a stake in TransferWise as
part of the acquisition of Seedcamp Funds I and II, which were
acquired for GBP17.9 million in October 2017. The fair value of
TransferWise in Draper Esprit's Gross Portfolio has since increased
from GBP13.1 million as at 30 September 2018 to GBP27.7 million as
at 31 March 2019.
Following today's share sale, Draper Esprit has now sold part of
its stake in Transferwise, although the company remains a core
portfolio holding with a remaining fair value of over GBP12.0
million. Draper Esprit has now generated GBP18.1 million in cash
from Seedcamp I and II, both from TransferWise and the sale of
three other companies from the Seedcamp portfolio. This exceeds the
original GBP17.9m initial investment for those portfolios within 18
months. The remaining stakes in Seedcamp I and II are currently
valued above the original cost.
Co-founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann, TransferWise
launched in 2011 and is now one of the world's fastest growing
payment firms. Today, over five million people use TransferWise
which processes over GBP4bn in payments every month, saving
customers over GBP1bn a year.
UiPath
Leading robotic process automation (RPA) software company UiPath
recently announced it has closed a Series D investment round
raising $568 million at a post-money valuation of $7 billion. This
latest round makes UiPath one of the fastest growing and
highest-valued AI enterprise software companies worldwide. The
investment round was led by Coatue and joined by Dragoneer,
Wellington and Sands Capital.
In January 2019, Draper Esprit acquired an underlying holding in
UiPath as part of its relationship with Earlybird, when the Group
acquired a 5 per cent. interest in Earlybird Digital East Fund I
("DEF") for $20 million. At this time, UiPath was valued at $3
billion (on the basis of their previous funding round in September
2018), and made up 85% of the DEF valuation. The fair value of
UiPath in Draper Esprit's Gross Portfolio at 31 March 2019 is now
over GBP30.0 million.
UiPath is leading the "automation first" era, championing one
robot for every person, delivering free and open training and
collaboration and enabling robots to learn new skills through AI
and machine learning. UiPath's enterprise RPA platform has already
automated millions of repetitive tasks for business and government
all over the world, improving productivity, customer experience and
employee job satisfaction.
Perkbox
Perkbox recently announced GBP13.5 million in equity funding to
support worldwide expansion plans for its employee experience
platform. Draper Esprit led the round alongside long-term Perkbox
angel investors.
Launched in 2015, Perkbox is a platform designed to provide a
unique employee experience, enriching the personal and working life
of employees. The funding will help finance part of the company's
expansion operations in recently launched markets while also
helping to scale the development and distribution of Perkbox's new
products - Perkbox Medical, Perkbox Insights and the platform's
card-linked PerksGO feature, all launched in Q4 2018.
Final Results for the year ended 31 March 2019
The board remains confident that the Company is on track to meet
its NAV growth expectations for the full year ending March 2019 and
will release results on June 4(th) 2019.
Simon Cook, CEO at Draper Esprit, commented:
"Having first invested in TransferWise in 2017, we are delighted
to continue our support as they embark on the next stage of their
development, while simultaneously recognising the opportunity to
create value for our shareholders. The fact that we have already
realised the original sum we invested in the Seedcamp portfolio is
an important vindication of our strategy and underlines our
sustainable investment model. The transaction indicates a maturing
European ecosystem, where opportunities for liquidity via secondary
markets are growing
"UiPath and Perkbox's successful fundraisings underline the
strength and depth of our portfolio. Although both businesses
operate in very distinct areas, both are true innovators in their
respective markets with significant growth potential. We are
delighted to support both firms as part of their ongoing
development."
-ENDs-
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
Powerscourt
Public relations
Elly Williamson
Oliver Norgate +44 (0)20 7250 1446
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END
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