Member Info for W13Ken

As spotted a few weeks back, Renalytix has dropped the AI in their name. Made official in this afternoon's RNS. The new marketing and comms staff should start to bring in new US contracts in the coming months.

https://renalytix.com/

Thu, 24th Jun 2021 14:00

RNS Number : 0409D
Renalytix AI PLC
24 June 2021
Renalytix AI plc
("Renalytix" or the "Company")

Change of name to Renalytix Plc
Change of registered office
Change of website

NEW YORK, June 24, 2021 - Renalytix AI plc (LSE: RENX) (NASDAQ: RNLX) announces it has changed its name to Renalytix Plc.

The Board believes that the new name reflects the fact the Group is focused on bioprognosis for kidney health, engineering a solution that successfully enables early-stage, progression risk assessment for patients with kidney disease.

The Company expects that the change of name will take effect on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange from 8.00 a.m. on 25 June 2021. The Company's TIDM will remain the same as will the ISIN and SEDOL connected with the Company's shares. Shareholders are unaffected by the change of name and existing share certificates should be retained and remain valid. Any new share certificates issued will bear the name Renalytix Plc.

Good interview with Team17 CEO Debbie Best wick who always comes across as down to earth despite her enormous success. I know she's an inspiration to a lot of people at Team17 and beyond in the gaming world.

https://www.mcvuk.com/development-news/developbrightons-keynote-speaker-will-be-team17s-debbie-bestwick-we-came-together-as-an-industry-and-supported-each-other-in-a-way-ive-never-seen-in-over/

The recent price drop has been disappointing but I've just topped up again at these prices as think the long term outlook is excellent.

This is a well-run fast-growing company (details on 5 recent acquisitions in the link) that specialises in mergers so will quickly get these acquisitions integrated and benefit from the increased income from here on.

https://www.consultancy.uk/news/27024/professional-services-group-k3-closes-fifth-deal-since-lockdown

Not exactly sure how they would get there but it's there in black and white. I make that a sp of £31.

I'm strapped in for the ride :-)

This bears repeating in case you missed it...

CEO Martin Davis said after the FY results that he believes that Draper can deliver 15-20% fair value growth year-on-year. However, in the Evening Standard on 14th June he said that the company could be in the FTSE-100 in two years if it keeps growing at its current pace.

The smallest FTSE-100 company is about £4.8bn so Davis is hinting at 200%+ growth in 2 years, even from today's all-time high.

https://www.standard.co.uk/business/venture-capitalist-draper-esprit-cazoo-trustpilot-transferwise-b940426.html

Welcome magictrades. This is my favourite bulletin board on LSE or elsewhere: lots of good research and analysis but next to no ramping/blathering.

GROW is definitely a share to tuck away in an ISA for the long term and you may look back and be grateful to have got in when it was still 3 figures soon :-)

Another high flyer
K3 Capital (LSE: K3C) is another stock with a lot to like, in my opinion. The Bolton-based business operates professional services businesses that advise SMEs. It has been growing revenue at a rate of knots. From 2015 to 2020 revenue more than tripled. It’s forecast to go from £15m in 2020 to £50.9m in 2022. That’s explosive growth, in my book.

Operating profit is also climbing strongly, margins are high and dividend growth is strong. With a market capitalisation of only £250m, there’s plenty of room for yet more growth.

With any share there is the possibility that the share price might not perform, of course. When it comes to K3 Capital, the main risks I see are that acquisitions may not integrate well or be too expensive. And as a professional group, people are key to its success so losing senior executives and managers could be a big blow.

Overall for me, the pluses massively outweigh the minuses. K3 is, for me, a stock to buy right now.

https://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2021/06/23/3-explosive-stocks-to-buy-right-now/

Slipping back a bit now but the positive press should continue with the main market move:

https://www.cityam.com/draper-esprit-pulls-out-of-aim-ahead-of-float-on-main-market/

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/953079/draper-esprit-heads-higher-as-it-plans-move-from-aim-to-main-market-953079.html

Ha ha, I was trying to be understated and cautious! It's smashed through and we are are up to the mid-900s already.

I hope you are ready to upgrade your targets Sage. I see 4-figures by July now.

""It has been an incredibly strong start to the year, with our investment team finding several exciting new companies for us to partner with as well as follow on rounds in some of the more established businesses in our portfolio. As a result of our accelerated investment strategy and increased fundraising, we are able to lead rounds in companies like FintechOS, Manna and Cervest as well as continuing to invest in the later stage rounds in companies of the scale of Ledger and Aircall. The post-pandemic transition towards technology is showing no sign of slowing and we continue to see so many new businesses with huge potential."

Fabulous news all round! We should be breaking through thaf 900p barrier at last in the coming weeks.

Edison continue their excellent analysis of Draper's figures and future prospects...

"Draper Esprit committed capital to a further 15 funds in FY21, bringing its overall commitments to 35 seed funds as at 31 March 2021. This network provides access to seed stage companies, as well as supporting specialist deal flow across Europe. New FY21 portfolio companies Cazoo and Hopin originated through this network.

New fund commitments included regional funds such as Icebreaker II (Nordics) and Draper B1 (Spanish start-ups), as well as thematic investors, including Atelier (passion economy) and Quatonation (quantum computing). Draper Esprit also invested in the latest funds of existing fund managers including Seaya Ventures III, Icebreaker II, Stride II, Seedcamp V and Amaranthine fund II. The seed fund of funds programme now includes several impact or sustainable funds.

Valuation: Potential for NAV uplift in FY21
As an investment company, Draper Esprit’s financial performance centres around its balance sheet, the growth in fair value of its investment portfolio (FY21: 51%), the resultant growth in net assets (FY21: 57%) and NAV per share (FY21: 34%), and the cash resources available (c £215m) to allow the group to continue to fund its portfolio companies to maturity and exit.

After a very strong FY21 resulting in a five-year NAV/share CAGR FY16–21 of 18.7%, Draper Esprit has demonstrated why it warrants a premium as a rapidly scaling leader in the technology VC sector. Draper Esprit trades at 1.18x FY21 NAV, and having raised a fresh tranche of capital, is ready to continue to scale its business ahead of a listing on the Main Market and the potential launch of a co-investment growth fund in FY22. Catalysts for a re-rating include further scaling of the business, the listing on the Main Market, growth in third-party fee income and successful exits and IPOs."

https://www.edisongroup.com/publication/fy21-results-111m-placing-and-retail-offer/29640

The acquisitions will have helped enormously. This is such an under-researched, under the radar company as you can see by the video views of my update below. Anyone that at least has a scan of it though can see that the future is bright. It currently has a fair value of 644p on Simply Wall Street and this is a share to be patient with. The Trading updates should continue to be upgraded in years to come.

Draper Esprit (LSE: GROW) is a UK-based venture capital enterprise that invests in technology companies in Europe. I think this makes the firm a unique business among UK shares. It’s not what I’d call a high-growth business itself, but it does own stakes in high-growth organisations.

This reduces the risk of buying growth stocks directly, in my opinion, because the company owns a diversified basket of investments. It’s also a specialist growth investor. Therefore it knows far more about the industries it invests in than I do.

That said, this doesn’t mean the company won’t make mistakes. There’s always going to be a chance the group might end up investing in an enterprise that fails. This would hurt its growth rate.

But as a way to invest in a diverse portfolio of growth investments, I’d buy Draper Esprit.

https://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2021/06/22/3-high-growth-uk-shares-to-buy/

That all sounds like a very good setup to have direct partnerships with 35 seed funds and first-hand views of 500+ best-of-the-best startup companies coming through. Draper get to spot the best of these early and to invest directly in the top companies at Series A funding rounds.

From the GROW Annual Report published last week:

Fund of funds programme
In October 2017, we launched our seed fund of funds programme. Three-and-half years after launch, we have invested
in 35 seed funds globally, committing £67.2 million (converted at year-end exchange rates), which will be invested
over approximately five to eight years, with an additional pipeline of further funds identified for future development.
Those funds already have over 530 portfolio companies and have raised c.£2.5 billion in total.

By seeding the early-stage ecosystem, we can source the best companies for Series A and B, pool expertise from sector specific funds, and benefit from scouts based in every corner of Europe. Whether hunting for a company that is
looking to change the eating habits in France, manufacture products in Berlin, or develop novel hardware in Cambridge,
the seed funds in which we invest always have one eye on the next trend.

Earlybird
In July 2018, Draper Esprit signed a strategic partnership with Earlybird Digital West to share deal flow, talent, and resources. When thinking of a new partner, “fit” is everything. We focus on Series A, B, and beyond. The name is on
the tin for Earlybird: they invest early, from seed to Series A. We invest from offices in the UK and Ireland. They, from
Berlin, Munich and Istanbul. The partnership with Earlybird not only gives Draper Esprit a platform of further scale, a larger pipeline of deals, and a larger pool of expertise, it also gives Draper Esprit shareholders greater exposure to some of Europe’s best companies. As European venture capital markets mature, we have scaled our platform to ensure we provide our shareholders with the best opportunities.

That's all very general for now until I put some time aside. There are 2 US funds as well. If I get time I'll try and put together all seed funds and cross-ref portfolios with GROW etc but the map format, no copying of text from it, seperate websites etc make it time-consuming.

General stuff for starters... I need to search on my laptop rather than my phone. Wish we coukd edit posts on LSE :-)

"We like to build a stake in the businesses we back over time, taking the long-term view. We invest at Series A (£2-3m+), but 70% of our capital is for growth stage rounds (Series B+). If an opportunity to acquire an equity stake in a high growth technology company presents itself, we will selectively invest.

For seed investments (companies raising less than £2-3m) we make approx. 200+ seed investments a year through our partner fund of funds program, where we are LP’s in 20+ of Europe’s most amazing seed funds."

2020 FY update: June 2020
"Seed fund strategy
Our seed fund strategy continues to give us
access to the best early stage deals across
the markets where we operate, while also
ensuring that early stage opportunities
across Europe are well funded with capital.
Building a community of seed funds gives
us access to high quality deal flow and
allows us to work alongside a network of
funds from across Europe to fuel the next
generation of visionaries, the best of whom
we help when they need later stage funding
to grow.
In the year, we have committed a further
£5.3 million to 4 new funds, FRST Ventures,
Change Ventures, 7 Percent Ventures, and
LDV Capital.
To 31 March 2020, the Group has made a
total commitment of £39.1 million to 20
funds, with £13.3 million invested at the
year-end, of which £7.2 million occurred
during the financial year. The remaining
commitments will be drawn down over
approximately a 5-year period."

Absolutely agree on the smart move of Draper having investments and partnerships with seed funds even if they don't get directly involved themselves. I had a quick look at Draper's page to try and see all of their seed funds. It wasn't easy to find them all listed separately aside from a high-level European map but I may return to this if I find a better breakdown.

Regarding seed funds, I watched an interesting video from PIWORLD (often a good source of investment ideas) on crowdfunding and decided to make my first crowdfund investment. It was a modest amount in Secret Cinema via Crowdcube and I realise this is high risk but it was an introduction to seed funding and that's a strong brand with positive customer ratings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i93DbbBvxJw