LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Venture capital firm Draper Esprit reported strong financial growth for the year ended 31 March and an announcement of hiring a new team.
The company made £33.2m of profits before tax and saw their portfolio value boosted by 43% to £112.7m in 2017 compared to £107m in 2016.

The FTSE SmallCap-listed group also invested across the group in 13 new and existing portfolio companies, including Graphcore, LifeSum, PushDoctor, Resolver, Perkbox, Realeyes, Clavis, Clue, RavenPack and Podpoint.

The company also boasted that significant cash realisations of £42m generated an uplift in value of £24.4m.

Just over £37m of these cash proceeds, according to the group, were deployed in the period into the next generation of opportunities and to further support their existing portfolio.

Net assets, including goodwill, also increased by 17% to £150.7m.

In terms of development, Draper announced that an experienced team were hired to become next generation of investment professionals to lead the business into the next stage with six hires across London and Ireland, taking the total investment team to 14.

The company revealed £0.37 bad debt provision from nil in 2016.

Post year end, the group continued to raise additional capital for new and existing shareholders, with £160m additional capital raised across the group post year end, comprising £100m raised from new and existing shareholders in the plc, £25m across the EIS and VCT funds and further £35m for secondary deals, the board stated.

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