
Augmentum invests £7m in three fintech companies
Augmentum Fintech, a London-listed VC vehicle launched by retail investment trust fund manager Augmentum Capital, has invested £7m in three British fintech companies - Tide, Previse and DueDil.
The VC fund invested £3m in Tide via a convertible note as part of an £8m funding round which saw the participation of previous backers Anthemis, Creandum, Local Globe and Passion Capital.
The company will use the fresh capital to boost its expansion and develop new features on its platform.
In addition, Augmentum invested £2m in London-based machine learning specialist Previse as part of a £5.3m series-A financing. US-based VC house Bessemer Venture Partners led the round alongside Augmentum, while Hambro Perks and several angel investors took part in the financing.
Previse, which specialises in predictive analysis to improve invoice-to-cash collection for small companies, plans to use the funding to scale up its team and expand its operations.
Furthermore, Augmentum injected £2m in data provider DueDil as part of an £8m series-C funding round raised alongside Oak Investment Partners, Notion Capital and VentureFounders.
Augmentum Fintech is a vehicle dedicated to make early-stage investments in fintech companies predominantly in the UK and mainland Europe. It was launched with a target of £125m on January 2018 which was later reduced to £100m. The fund raised £94m via its listing on the London Stock Exchange in March 2018. The listing consisted of 94 million shares valued at 100 pence apiece, with Augmentum's management team and their family members holding 3.6% of the issued share capital following the flotation. In total, the management team, the GP's sole LP RIT Capital Partners and other principal vendors of the portfolio invested a combined £12m in the listed fund.
Previous funding
Tilde received an initial 2m seed investment from Passion Capital and subsequently raised a $14m series-A funding round from Creandum and Anthemis in July 2017. Passion Capital and LocalGlobe also took part in the round.
Previse was backed by Hambro Perks in a £2m seed round in July 2017. Founders Factory and several angel investors also participated in the investment.
DueDil raised a $5m series-A series round in April 2013 from Oak Investment Partners, Notion Capital and Passion Capital, following a seed investment from Passion Capital in 2011 and two rounds of angel funding in 2011 and 2012.
Subsequently, Oak, Notion and Passion led a series-B funding round in March 2014 to expandthe company’s coverage to new geographies. Oak led the round and took up a seat on Duedil's board of directors following the capital increase.
Company
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in London, Tide specialises in business banking for UK-based SMEs and helps them simplify the accounting and administrative aspects of their business. It offers current account services and access to features that help businesses receive credit, accept card payments, manage accounting, expenses and foreign exchange. The company employs a staff of 80 people.
Established in 2016 and based in London, Previse provides algorithm-driven invoice payment predictions. The company uses machine learning to predict the likelihood that a multinational will ultimately pay a supplier's invoice in order to reduce costs and inefficiencies associated with delayed payment terms.
Established in London in 2011, DueDil provides data on private companies and their management by using its proprietary matching technology to source and link data from authoritative sources. It offers business prospecting, compliance on-boarding, risk assessment and monitoring in order to help companies uncover business opportunities and understand risks. Its client base is composed of around 175,000 financial and technology companies.
People
Augmentum Fintech -Tim Levene (CEO).
Tide - Oliver Prill (CEO).
Previse - Paul Christensen (co-founder, CEO).
DueDil - Justin Fitzpatrick (CEO).
Latest News
Stonehage Fleming raises USD 130m for largest fund to date, eyes 2024 programme
Multi-family office has seen strong appetite, with investor base growing since 2016 to more than 90 family offices, Meiping Yap told Unquote
Permira to take Ergomed private for GBP 703m
Sponsor deploys Permira VIII to ride new wave of take-privates; Blackstone commits GBP 200m in financing for UK-based CRO
Partners Group to release IMs for Civica sale in mid-September
Sponsor acquired the public software group in July 2017 via the same-year vintage Partners Group Global Value 2017
Change of mind: Sponsors take to de-listing their own assets
EQT and Cinven seen as bellweather for funds to reassess options for listed assets trading underwater