Draper Esprit updates market on three investments

Venture capital firm Draper Esprit updated the market on recent investments and developments in its portfolio on Monday, reporting that core portfolio company RavenPack - a big data analytics provider for hedge funds and banks - has raised $10m from technology advisory and investment firm GP Bullhound, as it sought to expand sales of its analytics platform in Asia.

The AIM-traded company said RavenPack's platform used “alternative data”, by creating sentiment indicators derived from news and social media that plugged systematically into financial trading applications.

As a result of the valuation at which the funding round was completed, the fair value of Draper Esprit’s investment in RavenPack had increased its net asset value by £18.3m to £33.9m.

Pollen - formerly known as Verve - is an invite-only marketplace that allows people to bring their friends to “the best experiences” and share rewards, and raised $60m in new finance, bringing the total capital raised to date to $100m.

The company said the funding round was led by Northzone, with Draper Esprit participating alongside others including Sienna Capital, Backed and Kindred.

Draper Esprit invested £5.9m in the round as part of a bridge in the first quarter of 2019, as well as the original £3m series A investment in 2017.

As a result of the valuation at which the latest funding round completed, the net asset value increased by £2.3m to £13.2m, meaning that Pollen had joined Draper Esprit's core portfolio.

Finally, Draper Esprit led a $9m funding round into Sweepr, investing £2.7m from the plc in the Dublin-based customer experience platform for the connected home, alongside support from Frontline, a seed investor.

The funds would be used to facilitate expansion of its workforce to 75 employees in 2020, alongside expansion into North America and Europe.

Draper Esprit said it would publish interim results for the period ended 30 September on 26 November, where trading was expected to be in line with its stated financial target of 20% annualised portfolio return.

“These investments underline our commitment to supporting both existing portfolio companies and new investments by providing them with the funding they need in order to scale their offering,” said chief executive officer Simon Cook.

“This funding, as well as our international network and experience in high growth technology companies, means that we are well placed to help our portfolio of European companies become global businesses.

“We also welcome the other quality investors coming on board as part of these respective funding rounds, bringing their own expertise and capital to help support these companies for future growth.”

As at 1418 GMT, shares in Draper Esprit were down 0.22% at 459p.