Draper Esprit raises extra £100m

Shares in the listed venture investor were issued at 324 pence apiece, by way of the conditional placing of 25,912,346 new ordinary shares and a subscription of 4,951,851 new ordinary shares. The placing was undertaken with a range of new and existing institutional investors, the firm said in a statement. The new ordinary shares were placed through Numis and Goodbody, the company's joint brokers.

This adds to the £60m already raised in 2017 by Draper Esprit across its EIS, VCT and secondary co-investment fund platforms.

CEO Simon Cook stated that the funds will be used to continue investing in series-A rounds onwards, with 70% of the firm's capital reserved for scaling up and increasing its stakes in existing portfolio companies through later rounds.

The firm also highlighted that the money raised through the placement would be deployed across approximately one year, with no obligation to be returned within five years, as opposed to traditional closed-ended VC models.

Draper Esprit listed in London and Dublin in mid-2016 with an initial £102m of permanent capital. Since then, the firm has generated £42m from realisations. Excluding new investments and realisations, the gross portfolio value has increased 41% since IPO, the firm said in a statement following the placement of new shares.

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• Topics
• Venture
• UK / Ireland
• Venture
• Listed private equity