Draper Esprit completes acquisition of shares in two funds
By Josh White
Date: Tuesday 12 Feb 2019
(Sharecast News) - Technology venture capital company Draper Esprit confirmed the completion of two acquisitions on Tuesday, of shares in both the EB IV and DEF funds.
The AIM-traded firm had announced it was purchasing a 27% interest in EB IV, and a 5% interest in DEF, on 21 January.
At the time, it described the transactions as a furthering of its strategic partnership with Earlybird Digital West, which was announced in July last year.
The agreed consideration for the 27% stake in Earlybird GmbH & Co. Beteiligungs-KG IV (EB IV) was approximately €63m (£55m), with the 5% interest in Digital East Fund 2013 SCA SICAR (DEF) carrying a $20m (£16m) price tag.
As a result of the acquisitions, Draper Esprit was acquiring underlying holdings in smava, Peak Games, Nfon, B2X, Socialbakers and UiPath, which- along with underlying holdings in 13 other companies - would be added to its portfolio.
"We passionately believe in the potential for Europe to become a high-tech powerhouse and are putting our money where our mouth is by furthering our strategic partnership with Earlybird," said Draper Esprit chief executive officer Simon Cook at the time of the initial announcement.
"This allows us to cement our position as a leading VC in Europe, whilst simultaneously offering investors access to exciting and high quality underlying assets."
Cook said the acquisitions represented an "exceptional opportunity" made available to the company through its strategic partnership with Earlybird.
"The two funds include a number of high quality, well positioned and fast growing European assets, the prospects of which we are very excited about.
"We're also supplementing our current financial resources to continue to invest in our strong pipeline of potential future investment opportunities."
Draper Esprit funded the acquisitions through a placing to raise gross proceeds of £100m, which was approved by shareholders on 7 February.
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