Draper Esprit (AIM: GROW, ESM: GRW), a venture capital group, has acquired Seedcamp I and II for £17.9 million. An interesting result of the transaction was the inclusion of a stake in Transferwise, a leading Fintech unicorn.
The portfolio also includes a number of other companies including Codacy, Edited, Erply, Fishbrain, Codility, Winnow, Codeship and Try.com. The portfolio’s last reported NAV was £23.5 million, resulting in an increase of £5.6 million for the Company.
Transferwise, the international money transfer platform, will be added to the Company’s Core Portfolio. Co-founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann. Launched in 2011, TransferWise is one of Europe’s most successful Fintech startups having raised $117 million in funding from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Sir Richard Branson, Valar Ventures and Max Levchin of PayPal. Over a million people use TransferWise to transfer over $1.2 billion every month.
Following the deal, Draper Esprit said it will continue to invest further in the portfolio to help it develop and grow, working closely with both the team at Seedcamp and within the portfolio companies as they grow. The Seedcamp management team will continue to work closely alongside the Draper Esprit team to manage the portfolio and to create further value for founders and investors in the Funds.
To date, the combined Seedcamp Funds I and II, raised in 2007 and 2010, have returned over 4x capital to their investors. Seedcamp also continues its management of other Seedcamp funds unrelated to this Transaction.
Simon Cook, CEO Draper Esprit plc commented;
“Although principally a primary series A, B and C VC Growth investor, we have also been very active over the years as a secondary tech investor in Europe having acquired a number of well-known VC portfolios and increasingly taking large direct stakes in later stage companies. Together with our recently announced seed fund of funds strategy we can offer long term patient capital solutions for all European tech companies and their investors outside of the constraints of a typical 5+5 year fund. We have a great relationship with Seedcamp and recently invested directly in their Seedcamp IV fund to give our investors access to seed stage opportunities. This acquisition further bolsters our growing secondary business; and we are excited to work with a really good portfolio of European technology companies including Transferwise, one of Europe’s most successful startups.”
Reshma Sohoni, Seedcamp Co-founder & Managing Partner, said they were thrilled to work with Draper Esprit. Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Seedcamp Managing Partner, added:
“We see this as a great outcome working alongside experienced and knowledgeable investors who’ve supported us for many years. We are always looking at innovative ways to deliver exceptional returns to our LPs and believe this transaction is a win-win for everyone involved. We look forward to continuing to work with the growing companies and founders from our first and second funds with Draper’s added horsepower.”