IP Group puts £1m into Featurespace fundraising

Intellectual property investor IP Group said on Wednesday that its portfolio company Featurespace, which provides adaptive behavioural analytics for enterprise financial crime prevention, has completed a £30m fundraising to support continued growth.

The FTSE 250 company said the round was led by Merian Chrysalis Investment Company, and also included further funding from existing investors including itself, Highland Europe, MissionOG, TTV Capital and Invoke Capital Partners.

Following completion of the transaction, IP Group would hold a direct undiluted beneficial stake of 19.7% in Featurespace.

The board said it expected the transaction would result in a direct unrealised fair value gain to the group of around £10m compared with Featurespace's last financing round, and that its holding would be valued at about £40m.

IP Group committed £1m to the fundraising.

“Featurespace continues to go from strength to strength, having expanded within financial services, and is working with a wide range of financial institutions across Europe and the US,” said IP Group’s technology partner Jon Edington.

“The company has been recognised with a string of awards including being named in the 2020 CB Insights AI 100 list, being the 25th fastest growing technology company in the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100, and being among RBS's strong partners in the 2019 Results and Investor update.”

Edington said Featurespace was “a great example” of a high-growth technology asset that IP Group had helped nurture over the last eight years.

“We are delighted to support the team with this fundraising which will help drive further international growth.”

At 0858 BST, shares in IP Group were down 1.83% at 53.6p.