20 August 2024
Mindflair
plc
("Mindflair" or the "Company")
Sure Ventures plc -
Significant increase in NAV
Mindflair plc (AIM: MFAI), the
company investing in next generation technology focused on AI,
notes the trading update announcement made by its investee company,
Sure Ventures PLC ("Sure Ventures"), a London listed venture
capital fund which invests in early stage software companies, for
Q2 2024.
Mindflair has a 23.8% shareholding
in Sure Ventures and Sure Ventures has a 25.9% interest in Sure
Valley Ventures ("SVV1"), in which Mindflair has a 13% direct
investment. Consequently, Mindflair has a combined direct and
indirect interest in SVV1 of circa 19%.
The full text of the announcement
released by Sure Ventures is set out below.
"
Sure Ventures PLC
Q2
2024 NAV Calculation and portfolio update
Sure Ventures is
a London listed venture capital fund which invests in
early-stage software companies in the rapidly growing technology
areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality ('AR'),
Virtual Reality ('VR') and the Internet of Things ('IoT'). We are
pleased to provide an update on the Company's investment
portfolio.
SURE VALLEY VENTURES FUND
(ICAV)
Sure Ventures made a EUR 7million
commitment to Sure Valley Ventures Fund ('Sure Valley')
representing an interest in Sure Valley of approximately 25.9%.
This commitment was made at a price of EUR 1.00 per share. The
current NAV of the Sure Valley Ventures ICAV as of Q2 2024 is EUR
2.02 which is an 85% increase from its NAV as at Q1 2024 and the
fund is fully invested.
SURE VALLEY VENTURES ENTERPRISE CAPITAL FUND
(ECF)
Sure Ventures PLC has a £5m
commitment and owns approximately 5.8% of the overall fund. This
commitment is at an early stage of deployment, with only 19% of
this commitment made so far. The current NAV stands at £0.67172
with a portfolio of 5 investments at quarter end.
Sure Valley Ventures Fund (ICAV)
Landvault
Infinite Reality agreed to acquire
Landvault for US$450 million in an all-share transaction as
announced on the 10th of July 2024. SVV1 has a 7%
shareholding in Landvault and Sure Ventures PLC owns 25.9% of Sure
Valley Ventures (ICAV). The purchase consideration for Landvault
would comprise new shares in infinite reality and it is expected
that this company will be seeking a listing on Nasdaq in Q3 2024
through a combination with its SPAC partner, Newbury Street
Acquisition Corp.
Based on the figures set out above,
this disposal has the potential to generate proceeds for Sure
Ventures PLC of circa US$ 8.3 million depending on the value of
Infinite Reality shares, a circa 470% uplift on SVV1's
carrying value of Landvault as at end of March
2024.
Getvisibility
As previously announced,
Getvisibility has developed an AI-powered platform for data
discovery, classification, security and governance. The technology
is underpinned by Artificial Intelligence models (AI) and the
strength of the technology forged a partnership with Forcepoint
back in 2022, to launch a joint product powered by the
Getvisibility platform.
Forcepoint is a global leading
American multinational software company, headquartered
in Austin Texas, that develops security software
& data protection, cloud access security, firewall
and cross-domain solutions. Forcepoint has revenues in excess of US
$680m, has 2,000 plus employees and is owned by Francisco Partners
(US $41.9bn AUM).
Virtex
Virtex Stadium is an application
that enables Esports organisers to host their existing formats
on
a 3D entertainment platform,
offering millions of viewers a completely new viewing
experience.
Users will be able to download the
application from the main PC VR app stores, Oculus and Steam and
use it with their VR headset of choice (e.g Oculus Quest 2, Valve
Index).
Later on, the company will provide a
2D version of the application as well as port to PSVR and
mobile/Oculus Quest. Virtex closed an additional funding
round in March 2024 which was done at a pre money valuation that
created a significant unrealised gain on the SVV
investment.
WIA
Technologies
WIA https://www.wia.io/ is an
Internet of Things (IoT) company with a ground-breaking
cloud
platform https://www.wia.io/product,
enabling developers to turn any type of sensor device into
a
secure, smart and useful application
in a matter of minutes
WIA's end-to-end platform provides
full device and application management, security, data capture and
storage, analysis, control, as well as the seamless integration of
enterprise systems. Wia has successfully agreed and extension of
multi-million euro major energy monitoring project from 14
countries to 32 countries across the globe
Sure Valley Ventures Enterprise Capital Fund
(ECF)
Th fund is now in active deployment
stage and has invested in 5 companies to date and a short summary
for each has been listed below:
RETinize
RETinize is developing an innovative
software product called Animotive, that is harnessing the latest VR
technologies to transform the 3D animation production process. The
team have spent 30 years in the global film and TV industry,
creating and producing hit sows for the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, ABC
and CBS, amongst others.
JAID
Jaid is an AI-powered platform that
extracts critical data from diverse company and customer
communications. It organizes the data into meaningful, actionable
insights and seamlessly integrates into existing workflows. JAID
are working with major Banks, Wealth Managers, fund administrators
and clearing banks on a Global basis.
Captur AI
Captur has made significant progress
on new business and product features in the last quarter. They have
launched their real-time camera SDK into production, which is now
being used by tens of thousands of users per month. They have
continued to grow their market lead in mobility with plans to
launch with new clients in the US and AUS markets in H1'24. They
are also expanding into delivery and logistics and are in late
stage negotiations with a Fortune 100 retailer in the
US.
Ittybit Ltd
Ittybit offers an advanced developer
tool that optimizes media file management for
enterprises by leveraging a
proprietary ML-based compression algorithm. As video
content
has surged to comprise 82% of
consumer IP traffic, traditional hosting tools have
lagged,
leading to high costs and
inefficiencies in media storage, which has increased fivefold to
over
5 zettabytes in the past five years.
Ittybit addresses this by enabling developers to upload,
store, extract rich data, convert,
compress, and deliver media files efficiently, reducing
bandwidth usage by up to
90%.
Vortex IQ Ltd
E-commerce merchants face
significant challenges in optimising their online store
performance. Traditional analytics
and BI tools offer historical data without actionable
steps,
leaving merchants guessing on
improvements. Vortex IQ transforms this landscape. Their
proprietary AI workflows identify
and analyze data, offering clear insights and
recommendations. Through their
low-code/no-code interfaces, they streamline
implementation, eliminating
guesswork and saving up to 40% in time and operational
costs.
SURE Ventures PLC NAV Calculation
We are pleased to report that, due
to the sale of Landvault and the uplift in Virtex, there was a
quarterly increase of 85% in the Sure Valley Ventures Fund (ICAV)
NAV value. When represented in the SV PLC NAV calculation the
quarterly NAV for Q2 2024 (April-June) stands at 148p, which
represents at 79.32% uplift from Q1 2024.
Director Comments
" The board of Sure Ventures are
delighted with the AIFM performance for Q2 2024 and believe that
this should serve as a reminder to shareholders and potential
investors the scale of the opportunity the portfolio offers. The
Landvault sale has had a dramatic impact on our NAV, but there are
several others that have the potential to be sold at major
multiples of our invested amount, especially from the ICAV, which
has a more mature and developed portfolio of investee
companies.
The British Business Bank backed
Enterprise Capital Fund has invested and will continue to invest
into the exciting and fast-moving Artificial Intelligence (AI)
software arena and we look forward to further portfolio additions
as the team continue to deploy capital.
It is pleasing to announce a 79%
uplift to the NAV and we look forward to keeping investors up to
date in what is an interesting period of both potential exits in
Fund 1 and exciting deployment in Fund 2."
For further information, please
visit www.sureventuresplc.com or contact:
Gareth Burchell
Sure Ventures plc
+44 (0) 20 7186 9918"
Nicholas Lee, Director of Mindflair,
commented:
"As previously announced, the recent
developments in the SVV1 portfolio, particularly in connection with
the disposal of Landvault, have significantly increased this fund's
NAV. This is expected to have a corresponding positive impact
on the value of Mindflair's direct holding in this fund and has
also led to a circa 80% increase in the NAV of Sure Ventures over
the last quarter. We look forward to providing a further update
when we publish our interim results in the next few
weeks."
The Directors of the Company are
responsible for the release of this announcement. The person who
arranged for the release of this information is Nicholas Lee, a
director of the Company.
Enquiries:
Mindflair plc
Nicholas Lee, Director
|
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3368 8961
|
Nominated Adviser
Cairn Financial Advisers
LLP
Liam Murray / Ludovico
Lazzaretti
|
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213 0880
|
Broker
Peterhouse Capital
Limited
Duncan Vasey/Lucy
Williams
|
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7469 0935
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7469 0936
|
Notes to Editors
Mindflair plc (AIM: MFAI) is an
investment company providing investors with access to a portfolio
of next generation technology businesses focused on AI with
significant growth potential. The Company is building an investment
portfolio of high-tech businesses focused on Artificial
Intelligence, across such areas as Internet of Things, Cyber
Security, Machine Learning, Immersive Technologies and Big Data,
which the Board believes demonstrate evidence of traction and the
potential for exponential growth, due to increasing global demand
for development in these sectors. For further information, visit:
http://www.mindflair.tech/.
Sure Valley Ventures
(www.surevalleyventures.com) ("SVV") is a venture capital firm that
invests in early-stage AI software companies in the UK and Ireland.
Investing in AI since the firm's inception in 2017, SVV has a
strong track record of accelerating the growth of private AI
companies through to Series A and beyond.