Draper Esprit (AIM: GROW, ESM: GRW), a UK-based venture capital firm investing in high growth digital technology businesses, launched a strategy to target up to £75m ($100m) of investment in the top 10 to 20 seed funds, angel networks and early stage investment platforms across Europe over a five-year period.
In this framework, the firm has committed to investing in the latest funds of both Seedcamp and Episode 1 Ventures, two UK-based seed stage vc firms. Draper Esprit are already investors in crowdfunding companies Crowdcube and Seedrs.
This strategy complements the firm’s core investment strategy to invest up to approximately £100m ($130m) a year in technology businesses at series A, B, and C+ rounds across the plc balance sheet, EIS, VCT and secondary funds.
Led by Reshma Sohoni, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Seedcamp Seedcamp is a seed fund identifying and investing early in world-class founders attacking large, global markets and solving real problems using technology. Since launch a decade ago, the firm has invested in 250 startups including unicorn TransferWise.
Founded in 2013 by Simon Murdoch, Managing Partner, Episode 1 Ventures is a software only venture capital firm that invests £250k to £1m in early stage, revenue-generating startups. With 20+ years of experience investing in software businesses, its partners have made early investments in some of the UK’s success stories including Betfair, LoveFilm, Natural Motion, ScanSafe, Shazam, Shutl, Zoopla and Viagogo.
Investments include CarWow, Cluster HQ, Raising IT, Scurri, SwiftShift, Touch Surgery, TripTease, TV Beat and User Replay.
FinSMEs
16/10/2017