PIRI.L Regulatory News (PIRI)

11 March 2022

Pires Investments plc

("Pires" or the "Company")

Getvisibility secures €10 million in new funding

Pires Investments plc (AIM: PIRI), the investment company focused on next generation technology, announces the completion of a €10 million funding round by one of its investments, Getvisibility, an artificial intelligence-based data discovery, classification and protection platform company.

Getvisibility has raised €10 million in equity principally from new investors Alpha Intelligence Capital ("AIC"), a global venture capital firm which invests in deep artificial intelligence/machine learning technology-based companies and Fortino Capital Partners ("Fortino"), a leading B2B software venture capital and growth equity firm.

Certain existing investors, including Pires, Sure Valley Ventures ("SVV") and Manifold Investments Limited have also made follow-on investments alongside AIC and Fortino and other additional new investors. As part of this funding round, Pires will be investing an additional €50,000 from its existing cash resources.

Pires made its original investment of €250,000 in March 2020, with a follow-on investment of €62,000 in June 2021. Since then, Getvisibility has made significant progress such that, based on the post funding round valuation, Pires' direct stake in Getvisibility (including its additional investment) is now valued at circa €1,500,000 or over 4 times its total investment cost to date since it made its first investment two years ago. In addition, Pires has a further interest in Getvisibility via its 13% interest in SVV and an indirect interest through its holding in Sure Ventures plc, which together are now valued at circa €1,330,000. Pires' interest in Getvisibility, in aggregate, is therefore now valued at circa €2,830,000.

Getvisibility, is a leader in data visibility and control, using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence ("AI") to classify and secure unstructured information. Getvisibility also provides risk and compliance assessments as well as enforcing protection on sensitive data. The company operates across the US, Europe and the Middle East and North Africa with a presence in several industry sectors including banking, healthcare and the public sector. Getvisibility's clients include a leading global producer of energy and chemicals, a major airport group, one of the largest financial institutions in the Middle East as well as US government entities in the pharmaceutical and manufacturing sectors.

The funds raised will be used to build out the senior management team, further develop the route to market and deliver the company's near-term strategic plan.

Nicholas Lee, Director of Pires commented:

"We are very excited about the progress that Getvisibility has made to date and the significant increase in the value of our investment. The products and services offered by Getvisibility are becoming even more critical in today's world given the rapid growth in cybercrime and constant attacks on IT systems and data that are taking place globally on a daily basis.

This latest funding round to raise €10 million, led by global venture capital investors AIC and Fortino, clearly validates the excellent investment that Getvisibility has represented to date and strongly endorses the company's business prospects going forward. Getvisibility is now well funded and clearly set on a path to make even greater progress with the new funds that it now has available. We look forward to providing further updates on Getvisibility's progress in due course.

This is yet another example of the exciting results that are being achieved by Pires from its investment portfolio, indicating the potential of this portfolio going forward."

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of the UK Market Abuse Regulation and the Directors of the Company are responsible for the release of this announcement.

Enquiries:

Notes to Editors

About Pires Investments plc

Pires Investments plc (AIM: PIRI) is an investment company providing investors with access to a portfolio of next generation technology businesses with significant growth potential.

The Company is building an investment portfolio of high-tech businesses across areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Cyber Security, Machine Learning, Immersive Technologies and Big Data, which the Board believes demonstrate evidence of traction and the potential for exponential growth, due to increasing global demand for development in these sectors.

For further information, visit: https://piresinvestments.com/

About Getvisibility

Getvisibility is an artificial intelligence security company addressing the substantial and increasing problem which corporations face in storing, sorting, accessing and protecting data. Getvisibility has developed and launched a software platform using artificial intelligence that delivers visibility over a wide range of data. 

Getvisibility, a leader in data visibility and control, uses state-of-the-art artificial intelligence ("AI") to classify and secure unstructured information, allowing organisations to quickly visualise their data footprint where new and changing data risks have become evident, thus allowing for proactive data management and security. Its dual-approach provides flexibility to employees to manually classify data whilst also being created with suggestions and automated checking. Getvisibility also provides risk and compliance assessments as well as enforcing protection on sensitive data. 

 Further details about Getvisibility can be found at  https://www.getvisibility.com/.

Caution regarding forward looking statements

Certain statements in this announcement, are, or may be deemed to be, forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ''believe'', ''could'', "should" ''envisage'', ''estimate'', ''intend'', ''may'', ''plan'', ''potentially'', "expect", ''will'' or the negative of those, variations or comparable expressions, including references to assumptions. These forward looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on the Directors' current expectations and assumptions regarding the Company's future growth, results of operations, performance, future capital and other expenditures (including the amount, nature and sources of funding thereof), competitive advantages, business prospects and opportunities. Such forward looking statements reflect the Directors' current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to the Directors.