Draper Esprit is pleased to co-lead the $50milllion Series B fundraise for London based Fintech company PrimaryBid. OMERS and London Stock Exchange Group co-led the round, alongside Fidelity, and existing investors Pentech and Outward VC among others.
PrimaryBid is a technology platform that allows everyday investors fair access to public companies raising capital. The company ensures retail investors are able to transact at the same time and at the same price as institutional investors. Through their long-term agreement with the London Stock Exchange they have created the infrastructure to connect everyday investors with public companies.
Draper Esprit became a publicly listed company to help enable everyday investors to access venture capital investments, so we are highly aligned with PrimaryBid’s mission. We look forward to working with Anand and his team and look forward to watching and working with PrimaryBid as it grows.
Vinoth Jayakumar, Partner at Draper Esprit, commented:
“Our investment in PrimaryBid aligns with part of our wider investment thesis to democratise retail investors access to public markets as well as modernise market infrastructure software. For us, both our companies are anticipating the direction of travel of the future of finance.”
Anand Sambasivan, Co-founder and CEO at PrimaryBid, commented:
“We are delighted to count Draper Esprit as a both an investor and a partner as we expand across internationally and look toward North America. Our simple, inclusive technology has global applicability. It allows corporate issuers to access the widest possible set of investors, improving capital formation and putting the public back into public markets.”
Read the press release below to find out more.
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London, 26 October 2020 – Draper Esprit today announces that it has co-led a $50m Series B fundraise for London-based fintech PrimaryBid. OMERS and London Stock Exchange Group co-led the round, alongside Fidelity, and existing investors Pentech and Outward VC among others.
Founded in 2015, PrimaryBid has created a critical piece of infrastructure to seamlessly connect everyday investors with public companies. Through a long-term agreement with London Stock Exchange, it ensures that retail investors transact at the same time and at the same price as institutional investors, creating a more democratised access to public markets. To date it has been involved in 90 issuances on London markets, including Compass Group, Ocado, Taylor Wimpey and William Hill.
This is Draper Esprit’s first investment in PrimaryBid, and forms part of Draper Esprit’s wider investment thesis to widen retail investor access to public markets and drive sweeping changes to markets infrastructure driven by new technology. Draper Esprit’s previous investments include Crowdcube (access to equity crowdfunding) and Freetrade (access to trading listed stocks and ETFs), as well as financial infrastructure companies like Form3, Ravelin and Thought Machine. Draper Esprit has itself been instrumental in pushing for greater democratisation of public markets. Its AIM listing means it is open to all investors through an evergreen listed vehicle.
This investment follows shortly after Draper Esprit announced it has successfully raised another £110m on the London Stock Exchanges to continue investing in high-growth European technology businesses. The capital will be deployed across a combination of larger rounds, follow on opportunities and new deal flow (typically Series A and beyond), as well as investments in seed funds across Europe. This is the fourth time in four years that Draper Esprit has raised over £100m on public markets.
Draper Esprit has continued to invest in innovative technology companies throughout 2020, with recent investments including ICEYE (microsatellite manufacturer), Aircall (cloud telephony systems) and Cazoo (online used car marketplace).
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