MERI.L Regulatory News (MERI)

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Merian Chrysalis Investment Company Limited

23 January 2019

Merian Chrysalis Investment Company Limited (the "Company")

Portfolio Update

· Participation in Growth Street's scale-up investment round

· Update on portfolio composition

Participation in Growth Street's scale-up investment round

The Company is pleased to announce its investment of approximately £5 million in a £7.5 million funding round conducted by Growth Street. Further information on the funding round is contained in a press release issued by Growth Street this morning.

With an ambition to be the next disruptive force in UK FinTech, Growth Street has developed an innovative peer-to-peer (P2P) product specifically targeted at UK SMEs. Growth Street's flagship business finance facility, GrowthLine, is a highly flexible revolving line of credit designed to replace and extend bank overdrafts and invoice financing. In any given month, businesses can draw down funds and make repayments as often as they like within their limits. Growth Street has facilitated more than £80m of borrowing since launching in 2014.

Growth Street is an FCA-regulated company and was founded by CEO Greg Carter and serial investor Thomas Hoegh. The company's proprietary technology platform uniquely integrates with a number of data sources to provide unmatched speed, flexibility and credit monitoring for SMEs. Growth Street reconciles accounting, bank and credit data on a daily basis which enables it to streamline the credit decision process and provide ongoing credit monitoring and credit line adjustment. Customers use funds provided under their GrowthLine account to plan and manage their growth, this includes: purchasing stock, hiring new people and moving offices. Facility limits range from £25k to £2m, based on certain requirements, and SMEs can secure funding against all assets at competitive rates. Growth Street has also already attracted 2,000+ lenders onto its platform.

Richard Watts co-fund manager comments:

"Growth Street has built a differentiated product that provides flexible funds to SMEs, filling the vacuum created by the retrenchment of high-street banks in this space. We're excited to work with Greg, Thomas and the team to provide supportive capital, to allow British businesses to continue to grow."

Update on portfolio composition 

As a result of its investment in Growth Street, the Company has now deployed almost 65 per cent of the net proceeds of the initial issue.

The Company continues to explore a range of further opportunities and will update the market as appropriate.

LEI: 213800F9SQ753JQHSW24

A copy of this announcement will be available on the Company's website at https://www.merian.com/chrysalis/. Neither the content of the Company's website, nor the content on any website accessible from hyperlinks on its website for any other website, is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement nor, unless previously published by means of a recognised information service, should any such content be relied upon in reaching a decision as to whether or not to acquire, continue to hold, or dispose of, securities in the Company.

This announcement may include "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this announcement, including, without limitation, those regarding the Company's financial position, business strategy, plans and objectives of management for future operations (including development plans and objectives relating to the Company's products and services) are forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and accordingly the Company's actual future financial results and operational performance may differ materially from the results and performance expressed in, or implied by, the statements. These factors include but are not limited to those described in the formal Prospectus. These forward-looking statements speak only as at the date of this announcement. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect actual results or any change in the assumptions, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements are based unless required to do so by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the Listing Rules or Prospectus Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority or other applicable laws, regulations or rules.