Draper Esprit reports 'strong' business momentum since half-year

(Sharecast News) - Venture capital company Draper Esprit updated the market on its investments on Monday, reporting continued "strong" business momentum.
The AIM-traded firm said it had invested £56m in 11 investments since the half-year on 30 September.

Those investments included Graphcore, in which it participated in a series E funding round with a $14m investment in December.

Graphcore produces the 'Intelligence Processing Unit' (IPU), and raised a total of $222m in the round.

Draper Esprit said Graphcore was one of its largest holdings in the core portfolio, with the company having been an investor from "its earliest days".

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board led the round alongside other new investors Fidelity International and Schroders.

Draper Esprit invested with existing investors including Baillie Gifford, and following the round, Graphcore was valued at $2.77bn.

The company said its fair value holding in Graphcore increased by about £17m as a result of the fundraising to about £108m, including the new capital invested.

Also in December, Draper Esprit invested $14m as lead investor in a $30m round into new portfolio company digital coaching platform CoachHub.

The round was supported by HV Capital, Partech, Speedinvest, signals Venture Capital and RTP Global, and brought the total funds raised by CoachHub to $50m.

It said CoachHub, based in Germany, was a platform for personalised, measurable and scalable coaching programmes that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to match individuals to business coaches.

In November, Draper Esprit led with a £12m investment, including £5 million from EIS and VCT funds, as part of a £15m round into existing portfolio company Endomag.

It described Endomag as a breast cancer "market leader", and one of the UK's fastest growing private technology businesses.

The series D round was supported by other existing investors including Sussex Place Ventures among others, and followed on from Draper Esprit's initial lead in Endomag's 2018 series C round.

It expected Endomag to join the core portfolio in the 31 March year-end reporting period.

Finally, Draper Esprit said that In December, it led a £5m investment round in London-based beauty startup Agora.

Lakestar and Angel Capital Management also participated in the round, alongside some other existing investors.

It described Agora as an app that allowed beauty fans to monetise their talent by creating and sharing video content that linked directly to products from beauty brands.

"When we announced our successful placing in October we communicated that we were looking to accelerate our investment strategy and increase our rate of investment, including through follow on opportunities within the portfolio," said chief executive officer Martin Davis.

"Benefitting from additional capital, our ability to lead investment rounds and back Europe's best high growth investment opportunities has been reinforced."

Davis said the activity in recent months supported the execution of that strategy, with the company pushing for new opportunities into 2021.

"Graphcore and Endomag are fantastic examples of how Draper Esprit's public model allows us to make follow-on investments into some of our outstanding, scaling portfolio companies.

"CoachHub and Agora are both exciting new investments, which demonstrate the depth of the deal flow network we are able to harness. We continue to see significant opportunity in both follow on and new investments across our four target sectors."

At 1156 GMT, shares in Draper Esprit were up 1.2% at 674p.