Mayfair et al. in additional $150m series-D for Graphcore

The private placement was made by financial asset managers, growth equity funds and investment trusts, and includes new investors Baillie Gifford and M&G, alongside existing investors Merian Chrysalis, Ahren Innovation Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners and Sofina.

Mayfair Equity Partners invested from Mayfair Equity Partners II, a 2018-vintage vehicle that closed on its hard-cap of £650m in January 2019. The fund invests around £20-50m in mainly UK companies in the sectors of media, technology and telecommunication, but has exposure in the European and US markets as well. 

Goldman Sachs acted as placement agent for Graphcore.

The new round is an extension of Graphcore's series-D, which closed in December 2018, and brings the total investment in the company to date to more than $450m, valuing it at $1.95bn.

Graphcore now has $300m in cash reserves after the new investment, which will be used to support the company's continuing R&D investment and global expansion.

Previous funding
A consortium of VC firms and strategic investors led a $30m series-A for Graphcore in 2016. Amadeus Capital Partners, C4 Ventures, Draper Esprit, Foundation Capital and Pitango Venture Capital also took part.

Atomico joined the syndicate in 2017, leading all of the series-A investors in a $30m series-B. Sequoia entered the capital structure later that year, backing a $50m series-C.

In 2018, Atomico and Sofina led a $200m series-D funding round. VC firm Draper Esprit invested $12m. New investor Merian Global and existing backers Amadeus Capital Partners, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, C4 Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, Foundation Capital, Pitango, Samsung and Sequoia Capital also participated. The round valued the business at $1.7bn and included commitments from strategic investors Microsoft and BMW.

Company
Founded in 2016, Graphcore is a hardware systems company that develops technologies for machine learning and AI applications. It employs approximately 150 people. In 2019, the company opened a sales and support centre in Beijing, an engineering centre in Cambridge, and an operations facility in Taiwan.

People
Graphcore – Nigel Toon (CEO).

Advisers
Company – Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe (legal).

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• Topics
• Expansion
• UK / Ireland
• Technology
• United Kingdom
• Venture
• Draper Esprit
• Mayfair Equity Partners
• Amadeus Capital Partners Ltd
• Atomico