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Programme

Molten Ventures (previously Draper Esprit) 2021

Finance and Risk Capital

Impact for scaleups

41

UK companies backed

37%

Follow-on investment

37%

Investment outside of London

32

Growth-stage investments

Key sectors

Impact ventures / Social Impact Life Sciences & Biotech Building & Construction Manufacturing / Advanced Manufacturing Creative, digital, film, games & media Professional services Defence & security Technology & Communications Engineering / Advanced Engineering Transport & Logistics Environmental Science & Technology Farming, fisheries & forestry Finance Food & drink Healthcare

Molten Ventures (previously Draper Esprit) invests in venture and growth-stage companies based in Europe. Founded in 2006, with offices in London, Dublin and Cambridge, it invests primarily in four sectors: consumer technology, enterprise technology, hardware and electronics, and digital health and wellness. 

The firm makes between ten to 20 new investments annually, including follow-on, typically investing between £2m to £50m. Notable scaleups which it has supported include Graphcore, Lyst, PrimaryBid, Freetrade, PushDoctor and Cazoo.

Five years after the firm’s admission to AIM, in 2021 it moved its listing onto the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange with a secondary listing on Euronext Dublin. The 67 companies in the portfolio at the end of its last financial year had a valuation of £984m. The firm says that this demonstrates how “publicly listed venture capital is a powerful force for supporting entrepreneurs on their own long-term journeys to outsized success.As a listed VC firm, it says that it is “free from five-year fund cycles;” and in June 2021 it raised £111m on the public markets. 

Between 2014 to June 2021, it invested a total of £1.49bn in 41 UK companies in 65 fundraising rounds. The average turnover of these companies was £24.4m and the estimated average number of employees was 135. 

The firm is the European arm of the global Draper Venture Network – which comprises 24 independent VC firms from across the world – to help its portfolio companies develop relationships with global corporates, launch into new markets and connect with international investors.

Molten Ventures (previously Draper Esprit) 2021 website