Draper Esprit to co-invest with Earlybird

Draper Esprit has taken a stake in Earlybird's new Digital West Early Stage Fund VI and will initially invest €18m. Subsequently, Draper Esprit plans to make further investments of around €17m a year until 2022.

Following Draper Esprit's commitment, Earlybird Fund VI will have total commitments of €175m, of which to date €36m has been invested across 13 companies.

Draper Esprit has also issued new shares in exchange for a minority stake in the management company of Earlybird Fund VI. The consideration sees the issue of 64,820 new ordinary shares of one pence each in the capital of the company to the Earlybird Digital West partners.

Following the issue, the company's issued share capital will consist of 99,057,545 ordinary shares, with each share carrying the right to one vote.

Companies in Earlybird's latest fund include Shapeshift, Everoad, Movinga, Fraugster, Medidate, Xain and Crossengage.

As part of its latest fund-of-funds push, Draper Esprit committed £12m in February 2018 to five seed funds managed by VCs, including Berlin-based Join Capital and Helsinki-based Icebreaker.

Draper Esprit listed in London and Dublin in mid-2016 with an initial £102m in permanent capital. In June 2017, it raised an additional £100m by issuing new shares. This added to the £60m already raised in 2017 by Draper Esprit across its EIS, VCT and secondary co-investment fund platforms.

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