Member Info for W13Ken

A new investment with an ESG angle.

"London’s AI-powered climate intelligence platform Cervest has raised $30 million in a Series A round led by Draper Esprit. Existing investors Astanor Ventures, Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital, and Future Positive Capital followed on, and new Magnus Rausing’s UNTITLED and Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures jumped aboard. As part of the deal, Draper Esprit’s Vinoth Jayakumar will join the board. The company reports that the funding will be used to spearhead entry to the US market and aggressively pursuit European projects."

“Climate Tech has grabbed a lot of attention recently, with good reason. But solutions come from understanding the problem – Climate Intelligence is a new $40 billion market category which seeks to provide us with answers,” said Vinoth Jayakumar of Draper Esprit. “Cervest’s pioneering approach to quantifying risk, in a way that was never before possible, means we can better understand the economics of the problem and bring real-world market solutions to bear.”

https://tech.eu/brief/london-based-climate-intelligence-platform-cervest-secures-30-million-in-series-a-round/

A new investment with an ESG angle.

"Cervest – a startup with a platform that claims to quantify climate risk across multiple decades and threats down to the asset level – has raised a $30 million Series A round led by Draper Esprit. Previous investors Astanor Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital (Chris Sacca), and Future Positive Capital also participated in the round, and were joined by new investors UNTITLED, the venture fund of Magnus Rausing, and TIME Ventures, the venture fund of Marc Benioff. Cervest’s total funding now stands at $36.2 million. It previously raised $5.2M in 2019."...

"‘EarthScan’ will be its first product, giving enterprises and governments a view on how flooding, droughts, and extreme temperatures can impact the assets they own or manage,going back 50 years and looking forward 80 years."

https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/20/climate-risk-platform-cervest-raises-30m-series-a-led-by-draper-esprit/

Now #1 in the Steam charts: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?filter=topsellers

However, there have been some server problems,. It's often the case with major releases of popular games but fingers crossed that these can be fixed in the next 12 hours.

Early reviews are mixed: some find it awesome while negative reviews are mostly focused on performance issues on their current PCs. Expect to see more split comments like this.

Those with more high-spec kit should get the most of it. Top reviewer and ED expert, Obsidian Ant, has given a positive update on the new tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMov_y93tyQ

The Odyssey trailer now has 100k views in 36 hours and is 98% positive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAb3nH5Eilo

Good knowledge #1. Re Frontier Foundry games, Lemnis Gate definitely looks intriguing with its Edge of Tomorrow Live Die Repeat vibe but Struggling is a very strange choice.

Very good indepth article on ED...

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-05-19-frontier-on-elite-dangerous-odysseys-four-decade-journey-from-idea-to-foot-stomping-reality

Good stuff , your username is very appropriate here :-)

I can also see a 2nd Odyssey entry in the top 10. Can you spot the difference?

It looks incredible! I topped up this morning and happy with that decision - sales should be enormous!

A lot of excitement in the comments on the new trailer...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAb3nH5Eilo

Coverage is building...

"Odyssey is a long-waited expansion for Frontier's space sim. It allows players to touch down on newly accessible planets with new atmospheres, explore, engage in combat and trade, take on missions, work together or alone over their surfaces with complete freedom from a first-person, feet-on-the-ground perspective."

https://www.altchar.com/game-news/elite-dangerous-odyssey-launching-this-week-on-pc-a7crx1K5AbGM

"The promise of freely exploring any planet in the Milky Way, lovingly rendered in lifelike detail, is sure to be a tantalizing one for many players. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign eight years ago, Elite Dangerous has had years to build up a loyal fanbase some 12 million players strong. With the release of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey on May 19th, those fans will finally get the chance to take their first steps into the galaxy around them."

https://screenrant.com/elite-dangerous-odyssey-launch-trailer-planetary-exploration/

It's been a long time coming but the 'Spacelegs' version of ED is fully released on PC and Steam on May 19th. This is huge and I expect the shares to rise 10-15% this month.

Servers are scheduled to be out for 11 hours tomorrow so hope all goes to plan for the approx 7pm release.

"A phase of alpha testing has seen Odyssey fleshed out with new features and content that will make it into the final product.

Speaking about the console release, a message from Frontier Development explains: “After continued feedback, iterations and balancing, we are targeting our release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the autumn of this year.

Team17 keeping busy. Good buy-in/top-up price right now.

"Balancing Monkey Games and Team17 has brought its non-violent, civilization-building title Before We Leave on Steam. Set in a world rebuilding after an apocalypse and ripe for exploring and recivilizing, Before We Leave launches on Steam with brand-new content, including scenarios and weather that affects fatigue, crop growth, and movement speed; in-game performance updates; as well as the multiple waves of content first released on Epic Games Store during the past year when it was exclusive to the platform."

https://invisioncommunity.co.uk/before-we-leave-launches-on-steam/

Sage, I agree that Cazoo seems overvalued and has no real 'moat'. I see Cinch on TV, seemingly offering an identical setup. But Draper have investments in 70 companies and a flexible attitude to how long it holds in each. They have a good track record of finding value and have brought in new experts in their team and new specialist regional partners to find future unicorns. They get it right more often than not and the multiples on their successes will outweigh the occasional duds.

...and by the way I'm happy to hold for 10 years or more...

Ha ha Sage, always the Eeyore on a board of Tiggers :-)

I definitely respect your opinion and you are far more qualified on the financials than me so great to have you posting on this forum. A measured approach is sensible and I agree that some valuations will drop. However, a counter-balance is that Draper is often investing at Seed funding or Series A levels so even if the NAV multiples for the bigger successes drops a bit they would still be relatively high. I remain optimistic for post FY/broker updates in June.

A reminder from the recent Trading Update: NAV per share (unaudited) is expected to be not less than 728p (31 March 2020: 555p).

I've topped up again at this price and I'm expecting, as per Steph, that the 14th June FY update and expected broker upgrades will see a good uplift.

So many stories on Hokko and there has been a positive response to the customisation options. There's a big market for good Animal Crossing-like games. The original has been high in the Nintendo charts for over a year.

"I’m a big Animal Crossing player myself, but even I have to admit that Hokko Life looks slightly better. While Animal Crossing has a ton of freedom for customization, Hokko Life has even more. Hell, I’ve been wanting to set my furniture at an angle in Animal Crossing for months. All in all, Hokko Life looks just like the relaxing escape from the past year that we all need."

https://www.pcinvasion.com/animal-crossing-hokko-life-steam/

"PC players will soon be able to experience some of that Animal Crossing-esque village life without having to shell out for a Nintendo console. The cosy sim Hokko Life will have you start fresh in a new town called Hokko, where you can make friends with loads of talking animal pals, catch bugs and fish, work on your interior design skills, and live a lovely peaceful life. It looks delightful, and it comes out in early access on June 2nd."

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/animal-crossing-like-hokko-life-arrives-in-early-access-next-month

Hokko Life to be released at last. There's no question that it has been influenced by Animal Crossing but could do ok as you don't need a Nintendo Switch to play it

https://invisioncommunity.co.uk/hokko-life-launches-into-steam-early-access-next-month/

With this investment Draper buys into the Nordics area. As per one of my previous posts, they also have at least 80 million Euros invested in Earlybird for Central and Eastern Europe expertise.

Jonathan Sibilia, Partner, Head of Secondaries and Fund of Funds at Draper Esprit, said: “Antler is pioneering a new model of talent investing by selecting the world’s most exceptional founders, from serial entrepreneurs and industry leaders to top tier technologists and operators, and then building a network around them. At Draper Esprit we want to ensure we’re partnering with the best businesses early on, and supporting Antler Nordic enables us to do exactly that with a proven formula comprised of specialist teams in prime locations throughout Europe.”

https://www.eu-startups.com/2021/05/vc-firm-antler-closes-e30-million-fund-for-nordic-startups/

“Lyst has made huge progress over the past year with its industry leading app for the fast- growing online luxury fashion market – a trend which looks set to continue as consumers retain their newfound digital habits, and demand for fashion rises further post-pandemic. In recent years we have seen other high-growth fashion tech businesses taking the next step, and we believe Lyst is well positioned to capitalise on this market momentum. Draper Esprit has backed Lyst since Series A and we believe this latest round sets the business up for an exciting next phase,” said Nicola McClafferty, a partner, Draper Esprit, in a statement.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/12/uk-fashion-portal-lyst-raises-85m-in-a-pre-ipo-round-reportedly-at-a-500m-valuation/