Mercia Asset Regulatory News (MERC)

RNS 13 July 2017

Mercia Technologies PLC

('Mercia', 'the Company' or 'the Group)

Mercia invests additional £2.0million as part of £2.7million syndicate into nDreams

New board appointments to support accelerating growth

Mercia Technologies PLC (AIM: MERC), the national investment group focused on the creation/identification, funding and scaling of innovative technology businesses with high growth potential from the UK regions, is pleased to announce that it has completed a £2.0million follow-on investment into nDreams Limited ('nDreams'), one of the UK's largest independent developers and publishers focused on virtual reality ("VR") gaming and experiences content.

Mercia's investment into nDreams, which is part of a £2.7million funding round alongside sophisticated private investors and the recently appointed chair, increases the Group's total amount of capital invested to £7.1million and results in a 45.6% equity shareholding. As the VR market continues to expand, the additional capital will be used to support the release of new games and experience titles throughout 2017, including the latest of its five VR experiences, Bloody Zombies, which won a Best of VR Game Award at the 2017 E3 event in Los Angeles last month.

nDreams recently appointed chair is Paul Fitzsimons, a former partner at Apax Partners, a leading private equity group. Rob Precious, the former director of business development at Geomerics/ARM, has also joined the board of nDreams as a non-executive director.

This investment and recent additions to the board come at the same time that nDreams has signed a significant deal to bring exclusive new content to a major VR arcade company. This move into the VR arcade space follows a successful 12 months for nDreams with content released on PC, console and mobile VR platforms, and is one of a number of recent deals with key third party partners.

Patrick O'Luanaigh, CEO and founder of nDreams, said: "Mercia's continued support bolsters our relentless ambition to remain at the forefront of VR. nDreams has expanded rapidly over the past 12 months leading to exciting commercial opportunities, including our move into VR arcade content and our continued focus on creating innovative VR content for home use. We are also delighted to welcome Paul and Rob to the board, who both bring a wealth of experience and insight to the team."

Mike Hayes, Investment Director at Mercia Technologies PLC, said: "nDreams continues to thrive within the VR market, a sector expected to be worth in excess of $30billion by 2020*. Its growing reputation as one of the UK's leading developers and publishers of VR content demonstrates the significant progress that the company has made this year with many of the major hardware brands, in this rapidly growing market. We are delighted to continue back this industry-leading team.

"We believe that continuing to invest in nDreams and other high growth companies across the Digital and Digital Entertainment sector will strengthen our ability to build significant shareholder value."

*https://www2.deloitte.com/nl/nl/pages/technologie-media-telecom/articles/is-virtual-reality-living-up-to-its-promises.html

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About Mercia Technologies PLC

Mercia is a national investment group focused on the creation/identification, funding and scaling of innovative businesses with high growth potential from the UK regions. Mercia benefits from 18 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 more than £336.5million under management following the latest 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 £41.0million directly across its portfolio of 'Emerging Stars'.