Molten Ventures plc (LON:GROW), a leading venture capital firm investing in and developing high growth digital technology businesses, has announced its interim results for the six-month period ended 30 September 2021.
FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
· Gross Portfolio Value of £1,350m (31 March 2021: £984m)
· 27% Gross Portfolio fair value growth in the six-month period to 30 September 2021 (six months to 30 September 2020: 10%)
· Net assets of £1,357m (31 March 2021: £1,033m)
· NAV per share increased to 887p (31 March 2021: 743p)
· £156m available plc cash (31 March 2021: £161m)
· £165m invested in the period (six months to 30 September 2020: £32m)
· £108m net funds raised during the period
· Cash realisations of £67m (six months to 30 September 2020: £106m)
· Profit after tax of £218m (£54m for the six months to 30 September 2020)
· Operating costs (net of fee income) continue to be less than the targeted 1% of period-end NAV
OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
· Cash proceeds from realisations during the period of £67m, predominantly generated by the exits from SportPursuit, Conversocial and PremFina, selling down some of our shares held in publicly-listed Trustpilot and UiPath, as well as escrow receipts relating to previously announced disposals
· Cash investments of £165m, increasing deployment in excess of levels initially anticipated for the full year. This is attributable to a higher level of follow-on opportunities in the existing portfolio, consistently leading rounds in primary investments and the continued expansion of the investment platform with further additions to the team
· Committed to 12 new seed funds via our seed fund of funds programme, bringing the overall seed portfolio to 47 funds
· Completed move 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
· Continued to progress our ESG roadmap, including advancing our TCFD and carbon emission projects, release of our Board Diversity and Inclusion policy, and engaging with the portfolio on ESG.
POST PERIOD-END
· In November 2021, to reflect our ambition to transform venture capital, Draper Esprit unveiled a new name, Molten Ventures, a new website, moltenventures.com, and a new motto “Make More Possible”. The new brand reflects our ongoing transformation: the rapid acceleration of investment, our expanding team, and our recent inclusion in the FTSE250
· Post period-end, we have deployed £36.6 million in investments including an investment in Satellite Vu, a British start-up using satellite technology to determine valuable insights into economic activity, energy efficiency and carbon footprint.
· We have realised cash proceeds of £26.1 million post period-end, as a result of further Trustpilot and UiPath share sales.
The above figures contain alternative performance measures – see Note 23 for reconciliation of APMs to IFRS measures.
Martin Davis, CEO at Molten Ventures, commented:
“We have achieved a huge amount over the last six months both from a financial and operational point of view. We have been active in investing, building on the increased investment cadence we experienced in H2 FY2021, culminating in deployment being in excess of what we initially anticipated for H1. This was due to an acceleration of rounds for some of our existing companies, but also through new investments, taking larger stakes and, crucially, leading rounds.
Market conditions remained buoyant during the period. The shift to online, accelerated by the pandemic, has remained a permanent fixture of our daily lives largely due to advances in the technology infrastructure, which was available during previous investment cycles. While we cannot be certain about what the future holds in the technology landscape, I am confident in venture capital as an asset class and in our strategy, enhanced investment platform, and diversified, resilient portfolio which spans climate tech to health tech and fintech. We are sufficiently diversified to counter volatility. We anticipate fair value growth in the region of 35% for the full year to 31 March 2022, subject to wider market conditions.”
