Draper Esprit completes IPO on AIM and Irish Stock Exchange

Draper Esprit, a technology venture capital company, was admitted to AIM, the London Stock Exchange’s junior market, and the Irish Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The listing follows Imperial Innovations and IP Group’s public offering, and is believed to be the first time a venture capital fund of this type has chosen to float.

The company’s ordinary share capital of 40,673,909 was accepted under the ticker GROW on AIM and to the Irish Stock Exchange's ESM under the ticker of GRW.

About £79m was raised at a price 300p per share on a conditional placing of 14,020,547 new ordinary shares and 1.5m existing ordinary shares. There was subscription of 10.7bn new ordinary shares with institutional and other investors.

Around £74m of proceeds will be used to invest in the company and about £5m will be used for the account of the selling shareholders. About £24m has been is issued on a part consideration for the acquisition of the initial portfolio, therefore shares worth £103m were issued to investors.

The company went public due to the globalisation of the venture capital industry and increasing competition.

Chief executive and co-founder Simon Cook said: "We wanted to be able to invest for longer in our emerging companies and to be able to build bigger stakes as companies remained private for longer periods, capturing more value for shareholders. Secondly, we wanted to further democratise funding for entrepreneurs.

“Traditionally the Limited Partnership model in Europe has restricted who can invest in venture capital backed companies and many growing technology companies are not accessible to institutions or public investors until they go public. Now everyone can participate in the growth of venture capital backed companies from their earliest stages ... to their success in the later stages up to, and including, their initial public offering.”

Draper Esprit is an offshoot of investment firm DFJ, a supporter of Baidu, Tesla, Twitter and Skype. The company is part of DFJ founder Tim Draper's Venture Network.

The company has a portfolio of 24 companies and is valued at over £74m. It seeks to invest in 10 to 20 companies a year. Draper Esprit’s shareholders include Woodford Patient Capital Trust, Baillie Gifford, China Huarong Asset Management, and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund.