Draper Esprit ‘on track’ to meet growth expectations for full year

Dublin and London-listed venture capital company Draper Esprit said on Monday that it was "on track" to meet its net asset value growth expectations for the full-year ending March 31st.

In a statement to the stock exchange, the venture capital company said it had continued to invest in new and existing high-growth-portfolio companies since its interim results.

Chief executive Simon Cook said: "We've had another busy period, as we continue to deliver on our mission – namely to provide support and deep, long-term capital to the most exciting tech companies in Europe that we believe have the potential to become global leaders, thus providing access to the investment returns from these high-growth, private tech companies to public investors."

Some of its recent investments include start-up bank N26, which operates in Ireland. Draper Esprit said it had invested £4.3 million (€5 million) in N26 as part of its strategic partnership with Earlybird Digital West.

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Draper Esprit also led a £7 million funding round in Hadean, the London-headquartered deep-tech company. Hadean has created the first cloud-first operating system (HadeanOS), enabling programmers to scale their code by treating entire cloud data centres as a single gigantic computer. Other investors in the round include Aster and specialist gaming investor London Venture Partners. Existing investors Luminous Ventures and Entrepreneur First also participated.

Other developments within the company's core portfolio included the acquisition of Graze, the UK's leading healthy snacking brand, by Unilever. Draper Esprit's exit generated an internal rate of return of 19 per cent. The company said a total of £13 million had been received from realisations, including escrow balances from previous periods, since its interim results in November 2018.