Today we are delighted to announce Draper's most recent raise, enabling visionary European entrepreneurs to achieve their global ambitions.
European technology is currently being starved of growth capital. Over the past five years, only 40% of European seed stage start-ups went on to raise further capital, in the US, this number is closer to 70%. Draper Esprit is building a platform to enable start-ups to scale up, bringing Silicon Valley ambition to teams who live anywhere from London to Stockholm, Madrid to Dublin.
Here at Draper Esprit, we offer long-term capital, global networks and years of experience to empower Europe’s entrepreneurs to invent the future.
We changed the model, so you can break the mould.
We believe in Europe’s potential to grow the companies that will shape the future. We’re here to help that happen, by growing our community of extraordinary teams – a team of teams. And by reinventing European venture capital – long-sighted, flexible and global.
“We’ve got global ambition and there are very few European VCs who can help you deliver that. Having Draper Esprit as one of our core investors means we have access to a global network across the world” says Eric Larcheveque, CEO and founder of Ledger. “That’s rare, and very powerful for a European entrepreneur who wants to build a business with international scale.”
With this mission firmly in mind, we are delighted to announce a raise of over £170 million to invest in passionate and visionary tech entrepreneurs.
“This proposed fund raise follows increased investor demand for exposure to Europe’s high growth, privately owned technology companies and will provide us with additional firepower to invest across the consumer technology, enterprise technology, hardware and digital healthcare sectors,” says Simon Cook, Draper Esprit’s CEO. “European tech start-ups are crying out for the growth capital they need in order to scale up and become the global technology giants of tomorrow and, with this additional funding, we will be able to play our part in helping to bridge this gap thanks to our ability to invest, hold and grow our investments for far longer than our non-listed competitors can.”
Draper Esprit has a pedigree of supporting ambitious entrepreneurs with ambitious goals. Notable successes include; the acquisition of Tails by Nestle’s Purina PetCare; Oracle’s acquisition of Grapeshot; and Intel’s acquisition of Movidius.
In 2016, we re-invented the venture capital model by listing on the stock exchange. It was a bold move to build a venture platform that cuts us free from five-year fund cycles, enabling our start-ups to grow to their full potential. Since IPO in June 2016, 25 new businesses have joined our clan and our portfolio value has grown by over 200%.
Alongside the funding, we also announce a strong first full year as a public company, delighted in the knowledge that the value of our portfolio has more than doubled. Primarily down to the hard work and determination of passionate teams whom are building businesses on the front line, the first tech unicorn may soon be on the horizon.
Since launch, we’ve partnered with some incredible companies and in the last few months we’ve invested in businesses at the forefront of technological advancement, such as ICEYE, Revolut and Ledger. Our flexibility means we can focus on growing sustainable businesses. Because we know it takes time, belief, and effort to build the companies with global impact.