Augmentum Fintech and Draper Esprit are both raising more cash for fintech investing

Along with their results today, listed venture investors Draper Esprit and Augmentum Fintech are both looking to raise additional cash for investments.

After hinting last week, Augmentum revealed that it’s both planning to raise £40m in an upcoming share issuance and wants to broaden the scope of its investments to include seed-stage fintechs.

“We continue to seek out opportunities ahead of popular adoption of new technologies to the fintech mainstream, and this positions Augmentum competitively at a time when more global institutional investors than ever before are seeking to access European fintech,” said Augmentum’s CEO Tim Levene.

“This has led to valuation inflation in parts of the sector, but we continue to remain price disciplined and theses driven, even if that means being contrarian at times.”

Along with its results, the board and Levene are recommending a change to the group’s investment policy allowing both sub-£100,000 seed round participation and a reduction in the amount of cash it holders as a percent of assets from 10-20 per cent down to 5-15 per cent.

During the year to 31 March, Augmentum’s net asset value increased by 35 per cent to £183.2m, helped by the likes of Onfido and Grover raising further funding at larger valuations.

Other highlights in Augmengum’s results were an unrealised annualised rate of return (IRR) of 19 per cent for the year, up from 18 per cent in 2020.

Along with Augmentum, Draper Esprit also announced a fundraise this morning, with plans to raise £111m from a placing through a bookbuild and a retail offering via its portfolio company PrimaryBid.

"By deploying more capital into our portfolio companies and new investments, taking part in and leading larger rounds and continuing to grow our fund of funds strategy, we will be able to expand our platform even further,” said Draper Esprit CEO Martin Davis.

“We can then reward a wider group of investors who for so long have found it hard to invest in fast-growing privately-owned technology companies."

The proceeds of its placing will go towards increasing Draper’s annual investment cadence to around £150m, with the potential to go as high as £200m.

Draper likewise saw its net asset value increase during the year to 31 March by nearly 64 per cent to £1.033bn, with 51 per cent of that attributable to its portfolio growth, thanks to a number of lucrative exits including in Wise (formerly TransferWise) and Stripe.

Davis is also looking to move Draper’s listing to the Premium Segment of the London Stock Exchange main market in the coming months.