Zeus Capital is acting as joint book-runner to Draper Esprit Plc (AIM Ticker: GROW), a leading venture capital investor, on its £79m placing and admission to AIM and ESM.

Draper Esprit is one of the leading venture capital investors involved in the creation, funding and development of high-growth technology businesses with an emphasis on digital technologies in the UK, the Republic of Ireland and Europe.

Zeus is pleased to announce that it has acted as joint book-runner alongside Numis and Goodbody on Draper Esprit’s initial public offering by way of a placing and subscription.

The IPO involved a £102m fundraising and limited partner rollover (being £74m gross proceeds for the Company, £4.5m for selling shareholders and £24m rollover of consideration shares), including £29 million to be used to make further primary and secondary investments, and to provide working capital for the Group.

Based on the issue price of £3 per share, the market capitalisation of the Company on admission to trading on AIM and ESM will be £122 million.

Simon Cook
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Draper Esprit
The Draper Esprit team are grateful for the strong support that Zeus Capital has given us in our IPO.  The additional demand Zeus generated made a significant difference and helped make this a successful IPO.

Our motivation for evolving our Venture Capital business model was twofold. Firstly, we wanted to be able to invest for longer in our emerging companies and to be able to build bigger stakes as companies remain private for longer periods, capturing more value for shareholders. Secondly, we wanted to further democratise funding for entrepreneurs.

Traditionally the Limited Partnership model in Europe has restricted who can invest in venture capital backed companies and many growing technology companies are not accessible to institutions or public investors until they go public. Now everyone can participate in the growth of VC backed companies from their earliest stages through series A and B to their success in the later stages up to and including their IPO.

 

Benjamin Robertson
Equity Capital Markets, Zeus Capital

We are delighted to have supported Draper Esprit in achieving their IPO.  The creation of a listed permanent capital vehicle to focus on backing European digital entrepreneurs is an exciting development.

The Draper Esprit team have an excellent track record of creating value for their stakeholders and we believe entrepreneurs will be attracted by their ability to back winning investments for longer.