A year on from the launch of Claret Capital Partners – we’re immensely proud of what we have achieved as a team and would like to take this opportunity to share our growth and progress.
In the 12 months since Claret’s spinout from Harbert, our mission, of providing low dilution growth capital to European technology companies, has remained unchanged. We’ve made 30 investments which includes new deals as well as 11 follow-on deals into our existing portfolio companies. In addition, we’ve seen nine exits within the portfolio in the same period.
On the company side, our priority has been to ensure we continue to grow as a team. We announced six promotions over the past few months, rewarding members of our team that have been with us since the beginning and continue to contribute to the success of each Fund. We’ve also hired seven new employees, including both market-facing talent and key players to expand our back office – to guarantee the firm is ready for the long haul.
In the portfolio, we’re thrilled to have seen several of our companies raise high-profile funding rounds, including: Wefox’s $650M raise – valuing the business at $3BN, PPRO reaching a $1BN valuation on the back of a $180M raise, and most recently, Razor Group’s $125M raise – pushing the company past a $1BN valuation. In addition, JobandTalent raised $120M in Series D funding from SoftBank and $100M in debt financing, Paysend raised $125M at a +$700M valuation and Lyst raised $85M at a $700M valuation.
Furthermore, in the last eight months, since the launch of Fund III, we have invested in 17 businesses – and are thrilled to welcome European leaders such as: Playtomic, Urban Sports Club, LogPoint, Elder, Winningtemp and Infinity into the Fund III portfolio.
Of course, we can’t deny the pandemic put a spin on how we usually conduct business, but over the course of the year, we continued to meet new investors, grow our network of entrepreneurs and experienced great support from various institutions for Fund III – all via Zoom. This provides a strong testament to the quality – and future – of the European technology ecosystem.
We’re thankful for the continued support and confidence of our investors, partners and portfolio companies. With one year under our “new” belt, we are poised to see Claret extend its position as a leader within the European growth investment industry.
Thank you,
Johan, David and the Claret Capital Partners team
A YEAR IN NUMBERS
17 deals in Fund III…
With companies based in Germany, United Kingdom, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden, Spain and Ireland.
9 Exits…
Ez Systems, Tango, Linkfluence, Aava, Diaxonhit, TradeMarkNow, Longboat, AdaptiveMobile and Decibel
11 Follow-fundings…
iiPAY, Stormagic, Near, Razor Group, Voss Solutions, Paysend, Coople, MYCS, CurrencyFair, and Getronics.
6 Team Promotions…
We are pleased to have promoted Hemal Rawal and Bryan McLoughlin to Principals, Lyall Davenport and Antony Baker to Vice Presidents, Daniel Mallon to Associate and Evdokia Karakatsani shifted from Portfolio Analyst to Investment Analyst.
7 New Hires…
This year’s new hires include – Paul Bramley, CFO; Kara Conway and Ruchir Shah, Investment Analysts; Nick Smith, Portfolio Manager, Momin Alnabahin, Fund Accountant, Jared Magnus, Portfolio Analyst, and Tracy Collison, Office Manager.