Draper Esprit announces the sale of portfolio company Clavis Insights (“Clavis”) the leading eCommerce insights company to Ascential plc (LSE: ASCL.L) (“Ascential”), the global business-to-business information company for an initial cash consideration of $119 million paid in December 2017.
Draper Esprit (AIM: GROW, ESM: GRW), a leading venture capital firm investing in high-growth digital technology businesses across Europe, announces the sale of portfolio company Clavis Insights (“Clavis”) the leading eCommerce insights company to Ascential plc (LSE: ASCL.L) (“Ascential”), the global business-to-business information company for an initial cash consideration of $119 million paid in December 2017. Draper Esprit originally invested £8.1 million in Clavis in December 2016 and will receive total proceeds of £15.3 million.
The sale is estimated to increase the Company’s total Net Asset Value by approximately 3p, when compared to the NAV reported at the time of the Company’s Interim Results.
Clavis is a market leader in eCommerce analytics, with proprietary technology enabling consumer product companies to track and optimise the performance of their products across hundreds of retailer websites and mobile commerce sites globally. Clavis customers include some of the world’s largest consumer product companies, such as P&G, Nestle, Unilever and L’Oreal.
This sale adds to the exits of Aveillant to Thales Group and Moviepilot to Webedia in recent months. Of the original 24 companies in the portfolio at IPO in June 2016, Draper Esprit has now exited 9 companies, generating a return of ¬¬200% on invested capital and £57 million cash. The Company has also invested in a further 16 companies, including Graphcore, Pushdoctor, Perkbox and Transferwise. Overall, Draper Esprit now has 31 portfolio companies, excluding the acquisition of Seedcamp Funds I and II.
Draper Esprit intends to invest the proceeds of the transaction, which add to current cash balances of £73 million, into new and existing portfolio companies.
Commenting on the sale, Simon Cook, CEO of Draper Esprit said: “We continue to prove that investing in high growth European technology companies can be lucrative and cash generative. Clavis demonstrates the flexibility provided by our permanent capital model whereby positive returns can be made by investing in and supporting companies in the later stages of their lifecycle. More importantly, the model enables us to recycle our exits to invest further in both new and existing companies and over the long term build global technology leaders in Europe. We look forward to 2018 with continued confidence that the listed venture capital model is working.”