Mercia Asset Regulatory News (MERC)

Mercia Technologies PLC

("Mercia" or the "Group")

Mercia invests £3.5million as part of a £5.0million syndicated investment into Intechnica

Mercia Technologies PLC (AIM: MERC), the national investment group focused on the funding and scaling of innovative technology businesses with high growth potential from the UK regions, has completed a £3.5million direct investment into Intechnica Limited ("Intechnica"), a rapidly growing Manchester-based business that provides scalable software solutions to manage high and variable website traffic demand, including the removal of unwanted traffic from bots, crawlers and spiders.

Mercia's investment is part of a £5.0million funding round alongside existing private investors and takes the Group's direct shareholding to 24.3%. The round includes a £1.3million convertible loan facility which is also being provided by Mercia. This facility is subject to the achievement of certain future performance milestones by Intechnica.

This investment will enable Intechnica to scale its TrafficDefender product suite. Typically, over half of website traffic is automated non-human activity*. Internet bots perform repetitive tasks at a much higher rate than is possible by humans and can overload websites with unwanted traffic. In addition, key events caused by promotions and seasonal sales etc. can also overload websites making them inefficient, which results in costly down times and a poor customer experience. TrafficDefender manages both human and bot traffic to ensure continual positive customer interactions.

With revenue growth of over 150% during the last 3 years, the company has already developed a high-profile client base including Ted Baker, ao.com, Pets at Home and Avis. This latest funding will be used to boost its sales and marketing resources, including overseas expansion.

Jeremy Gidlow, Managing Director of Intechnica, said: "We are pleased to have our long-standing investors reaffirm their support for Intechnica with this latest fundraise. The capital will allow us to scale up the delivery of our cloud-based solutions to meet growing demand in sectors such as online retail, insurance, digital publishing, gaming and ticketing. It will also help us to deploy TrafficDefender quickly and effectively to domestic and international customers, allowing them to manage and analyse high volumes of online traffic."

Mark Payton, Chief Executive Officer of Mercia Technologies PLC said: "Intechnica comes from one of Mercia's managed funds which is led by Will Clark, and invests across the North of England. Working with management, Mercia's team has helped to build out the board and broaden the expertise of the management team ahead of the business becoming a meaningful balance sheet investment for Mercia. All of us have experienced the frustration of overloaded websites and TrafficDefender is a working solution to a global challenge, as product and service retailing continues to move online." 

*https://www.statista.com/statistics/670782/bot-traffic-share/

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About Mercia Technologies PLC

Mercia is a national investment group focused on the funding and scaling of innovative technology businesses with high growth potential from the UK regions. Mercia benefits from 19 university partnerships and offices across the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland providing it with access to high quality, regional deal flow. Mercia Technologies PLC is quoted on AIM with the epic "MERC".

Mercia's 'Complete Capital Solution' initially nurtures businesses via its third-party funds (now with circa £350.0million under management following recent mandate wins) and then over time Mercia can provide further funding to its 'Emerging Stars' by deploying direct investment follow-on capital from its own balance sheet. Since its IPO in December 2014, Mercia has invested over £46.0million directly across its portfolio of 'Emerging Stars'.