Draper Esprit invests €19m in three European tech businesses

Venture capital firm Draper Esprit has invested £17 million (€19m) in three European digital technology businesses.

Funds committed by the Irish-listed company in the four-month period to the end of September reached £38.5 million (€43.1m) following on from the £100 million (€112m) raised by Draper Esprit in June. Three benefactors of a portion of that money were flagged by the company in a statement on Tuesday.

Those include an insurance broker software provider PremFina, a digital health company Ieso Digital Health and a sales platform provider Verve.

Between them the three companies have recently completed fundraising to the tune of around $75 million (€63.7m).

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"We want to help build large successful European technology companies that can compete on the global stage, and all three of these recent investments have that potential," said Simon Cook, Draper Esprit chief executive.

“We are now in a position to invest larger amounts in investee companies and retain the ability to hold and grow these companies for much longer than our non-listed competitors can.”

In a note to clients Goodbody analyst Gerry Hennigan said the investments clearly demonstrated "progress towards portfolio addition/expansion" and the subsequent deployment of the company's net cash balance of £24.9 million (€27.8m).

In addition to investing in the three European businesses, Draper co-led both the $36 million (€30.5m) equity and debt facility round in PremFina and the £18 million (€20.1m) funding round in Ieso.