Draper Esprit admitted to FTSE 250 with a £1.6bn market cap

Draper Esprit, the technology-focused venture capital (VC) firm, has been admitted to the FTSE 250 with a market capitalisation of more than £1.6 billion (€1.86 billion).

The moves comes shortly after the VC moved its listings to the main exchanges in Dublin and London.

Shares in the firm began trading on London’s main market with a secondary listing on Euronext Dublin in late July after the firm shifted its listings from the AIM in London and the Euronext Growth Market.

When Draper Esprit first listed five years ago, its portfolio consisted of 24 tech companies that had a combined value of £74.9 million. It now has over 70 companies with its portfolio that were valued at £984 million at the end of 2020.

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The firm’s market cap has experienced a more than elevenfold increase from its initial listing value of just over £120 million.

Draper Esprit said admittance to the FTSE 250 would raise its profile, as well as potentially increase liquidity and enable its shares to be acquired by a wider group of investors.

Diverse portfolio

Currently, Draper Esprit is a shareholder in a diverse portfolio of 71 companies. Among the many companies the VC has backed are UiPath, Graphcore, Revolut, Ledger, Trustpilot and Cazoo. Draper Esprit has also been a big supporter of Irish tech companies, including Roomex and Sweepr. It recently led a $25 million Series A investment round for Bobby Healy's drone delivery start-up Manna.

Draper Esprit announced a £111 million raise earlier this year to bring total funding secured since its IPO to to over £535 million with an annual deployment of about £200 million.