Draper Esprit (LSE: GROW, Euronext Growth: GRW), a leading venture capital firm investing in and developing high growth digital technology businesses, today announces its final results for the year ended 31 March 2021.

Draper Esprit Annual Results FY2021 from Draper Esprit on Vimeo.

Financial highlights

  • Gross Portfolio Value of £984m (31 March 2020: £703m).
  • £206m of cash realisations (year to 31 March 2020: £40m).
  • 51% Gross Portfolio Value fair value growth (year to 31 March 2020: 10%).
  • £128m invested, and a further £34m from EIS/VCT funds (year to 31 March 2020: £90m and £38m from EIS/VCT funds).
  • NAV per share of 743p (31 March 2020: 555p).
  • Net assets of £1,033m (31 March 2020: £660m).
  • £161m available Plc cash, as well as £43m available from EIS/VCT funds. (31 March 2020: £34m, with c.£50m from EIS/VCT funds).
  • £107m net funds raised during the financial year.
  • £267m profit after tax (year to 31 March 2020: £40m).
  • <1% operating costs (net of fee income) as a percentage of NAV.
  • Some of the measures above are Alternative Performance Measures ('APMs') - see Note 29 of the Annual Report for further details.

Operational highlights

  • Significant cash proceeds of £206m received during the year from realisations (full and partial) and escrows, which were predominantly generated by the exits from Peak Games, TransferWise and Decibel, and the partial disposals of Trustpilot and UiPath.
  • Invested £128m in the year, increasing the investment cadence in H2 with £96m of investments made.
  • Invested into 9 new companies (as well as 3 new via Earlybird) and 18 existing companies (as well as 3 via Earlybird)*.
  • Committed to 15 new seed funds via our seed fund of funds programme, bringing the overall seed fund of funds portfolio to 35 funds.
  • Acquisition in February 2021 of the shares not previously owned in Elderstreet Holdings Limited, holding company of Elderstreet Investments Limited which is manager of Draper Esprit VCT funds, further scaling the Group.
  • Continued to build the infrastructure for scaling, welcoming six new team members into the Partnership and Platform teams that support the investment function.
  • Continued to progress our ESG roadmap, including approval of our ESG Policy, assessment of our portfolio against the UN Sustainable Development Goals and development of ESG KPIs.

Post year-end

  • Increased and extended our revolving credit facility with SVB and Investec by an additional one year from £60m to £65m.
  • Invested a further £48m post year-end to 11 June 2021, including investments into Manna, FintechOS, Cervest, Ledger, and Lyst.
  • Refreshed fund of funds programme, with the approval by the Board and Investment Committee of an additional £75.0 million investment budget. Commitments deployed over 5 years.

*Reporting threshold for Earlybird of £1m.

Martin Davis, CEO at Draper Esprit, commented:

'Our financial year and my first full year as CEO demonstrated the strength and flexibility of the Draper Esprit model in market conditions at two extremes. Despite market shock in the first half, our scale and maturity gave us room to focus on the needs of our portfolio companies and structuring ourselves for growth. Our close relationship to our portfolio and industry insight enabled us to accelerate into the digital transformation catalysed by the pandemic. Our investment team increased its cadence in the second half, deploying significant funds into existing portfolio companies and new, as intended when we raised equity in October. We look to the future with confidence that our model positions us well for opportunities in a transformed world. In line with the growth and maturity of the business, our intention is to move our listing to the Premium Segment of the Official List and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market as well as to the secondary listing segment of the Official List of Euronext Dublin and to trading on the regulated market of Euronext Dublin. Preparations to transfer our listing are well advanced and we expect to complete the move within the next couple of months.'

Availability of Annual Report and Notice of AGM

The Annual Report and Accounts for the financial year ended 31 March will be available today on Draper Esprit's website at http://draperesprit.com/. The notice of the Annual General Meeting ('AGM') of Draper Esprit to be sent separately.

The Annual Report and Accounts for the financial year ended 31 March 2020 is available here.

The RNS is available here.

Posted on 14 Jun 2021

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Draper Esprit plc published this content on 14 June 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 15 June 2021 11:05:07 UTC.