Draper Esprit raises another £100m

High-growth digital technology venture capital firm Draper Esprit announced on Friday that gross proceeds of approximately £100m had been raised at an issue price of 324p per share, by way of the conditional placing of 25,912,346 new ordinary shares and a subscription of 4,951,851 new ordinary shares.

The AIM-traded company said the placing, which was oversubscribed, was undertaken with a range of new and existing institutional investors.

It said the fundraise supported £60m of funds the group had already raised in 2017 across its EIS, VCT and secondary co-investment fund platforms.

“We have now raised in excess of £160m of new capital to deploy during 2017 following the £153m raised during 2016 from our IPO2, EIS and VCT funds and the cash realisations available for reinvestment within the company's portfolio,” said CEO Simon Cook.

“If we continue to grow our co-investment funds and make further realisations for reinvestment, at this rate we would over the five years of a typical LP fund, have the equivalent of £800m to deploy, making us a strong partner in Europe and filling a much needed gap in the market post Brexit.”

Cook said Draper invested in “forward-thinking” and “innovative” businesses, and firmly believed that the best entrepreneurs in Europe were capable of building “world leading” technology companies when provided with “patient, long term” growth capital, access to global networks and support from an experienced investment team.

“Furthermore, we believe that all investors large and small should have access to the venture capital asset class.

“By democratising the venture capital model and making our expertise accessible to a wider, broader market we are breaking new ground in the VC market and this placing and subscription is a superb validation of that model.”