TIDMSURE
RNS Number : 1273V
Sure Ventures PLC
05 August 2020
Sure Ventures plc ('Sure Ventures' or 'the Company')
Portfolio Update Q2 2020 period
Sure Ventures plc is a London listed venture capital fund which
invests in early stage software companies in the rapidly growing
technology areas of augmented reality ('AR'), virtual reality
('VR'), Internet of Things ('IoT') and Artificial Intelligence
(AI). We are pleased to provide an update on the Company's
investment portfolio.
SURE VALLEY VENTURES FUND
Sure Ventures made a EUR 7million commitment to Sure Valley
Ventures Fund ('Sure Valley') representing an interest in Sure
Valley of approximately 25.9%. This commitment was made at a price
of EUR1.00 per share. The current NAV of the Sure Valley Ventures
ICAV is 1.0767 Euros.
Sure Valley has several investments across the AI, AR, VR and
IoT sectors:
VR Education Holdings - https://immersivevreducation.com/
VRE is a ground-breaking developer of Virtual Reality ('VR')
software and immersive experiences with a specific focus on
education and enterprise learning and development. VRE's core
platform is the Engage VR platform that enables educators to
develop VR education experiences and enterprises to develop
corporate learning and development VR simulations for workplace
training.
The company has released five major products to date and has
recently signed a commercial agreement with Deutsche Telecom for
the launch of a 5G VR device. The current COVID-19 outbreak really
has highlighted the use/power of virtual reality for teaching,
seminars, business meetings and conferences. This is reflected in
the market reaction to VR Education since mid-March.
VRE also received a strategic investment of EUR3m from HTC
Corporation, which is a major milestone for the company and
coincides with a commercial global licensing and sales distribution
deal for the E ngage Platform . Importantly, this is only exclusive
with HTC in Asia and still allows them to partner with other
distributers in US, Europe and other international
jurisdictions.
As a result of this investment VRE's stock price increased
substantially enabling Sure Valley to sell 3,362,000 shares (GBP
522,422), which was equivalent to Sure Valleys original investment
(inc costs) and return this to the investors in Sure Valley which
included Sure Ventures (note this return of funds will show in the
Q3 report). Sure Valley Ventures still holds 10,578,580 shares in
VRE and plans to hold them for the medium term. The appreciation in
the VRE share price during Q2 valued our investment in VRE at a 3x
uplift from the end of Q1.
Licensing agreements were also signed with Tokyo Global Gateway
(Online education specialist) and an MOU with the virtual college
show that E ngage Platform is making real traction. Existing
relationships with Deutsche Telecom and Victory XR continue to make
progress and commercialising the Engage Platform is the ongoing
focus. The lockdown environment of COVID-19 worldwide has
intensified the need for educators and businesses to adapt and the
Engage Platform is a clear winner given its capabilities.
WarDucks - www.warducks.com
Founded by former Facebook employee, Nikki Lannen, WarDucks
mission is to build incredible, high quality, fun augmented and
virtual reality games. The company has six bestselling titles under
its belt, the latest two of which were Top Ten on PlayStation VR.
To enable the company to take this product to the market it
completed a series A round of EUR3.284 million in Q1, with new
investors EQT investing EUR2.58 million, Sure Valley following on
to maintain it percentage with EUR453,858.32 and existing investors
making up the remaining investment. The transaction completed on
the 29(th) of March 2019. This represented a 4x unrealised uplift
in our initial investment.
Nikki and her team received high public praise from Tim Cook
(Apple CEO) on the AR game being built and was quoted as saying "
WarDucks set out to create a game with fun, engaging and colourful
characters and they nailed it".
Wia - www.wia.io
WIA is a ground-breaking Internet of Things (IoT) cloud platform
enabling developers to turn any type of sensor device into a
secure, smart and useful application in a matter of minutes. WIA is
the easiest and fastest way to link sensors and devices to develop
IoT applications. WIA's end-to-end platform provides full device
and application management, security, data capture and storage,
analysis, control, as well as the launch and seamless integration
of enterprise systems. WIA also just launched its own hardware
product called the "Dot One" https://www.wia.io/dot-one as an entry
level device for first time makers
During the Covid lockdown the company has focused on developing
IoT Tech to help businesses return to the workplace safely. In June
Wia released the next iteration of the Wia Cloud. The new Wia Cloud
is designed to help businesses understand and monitor their
building, making it a powerful tool in the effort to return to the
workplace. The new Wia Cloud is an Internet of Things platform
designed to enable Real Estate, Operations and Facilities
Management teams to understand the performance of their building
and make data-based decisions.
This new update brings in a host of new tools and features,
namely around three use cases;
-- Occupancy and Space Utilisation
-- Energy Utilisation
-- Regulation Compliance
Wia offers end-to-end services for a range of smart building
solutions including people counting, space utilisation monitoring,
energy utilisation monitoring and air-quality monitoring. To
achieve this, Wia deploys a constellation of IoT devices to
accurately capture data wirelessly. These devices are then
connected to a secure, private IoT network. The collected data is
sent to the Wia Cloud platform where it is processed and can be
visualised and used to make informed operational decisions.
Building operators can also set up commands and notifications based
on custom triggers such as creating an alert to clean the restrooms
after it has been used 40 times.
Cameramatics - www.cameramatics.com
Cameramatics is the leader in CameraMatics solutions for
commercial fleets. They deliver products that allow fleet managers
to reduce fleet risk, increase driver safety and comply with
growing governance and compliance regulations. Cameramatics has
merged 4 key technologies: video input systems (cameras and
scanners), smart processing systems, communications systems and
unique algorithmic IP to deliver intelligent driver and fleet
safety systems. To support further growth and USA market entry the
company has started meeting investors to lead its series A round
which we had expected that to close in Q2, but is now anticipated
to close in Q3.
NDRC Arc Labs - http://www.arclabs.ie/
The NDRC@ArcLabs investment was structured as a subscription and
as a limited Partner to the Accelerator. The purpose of the
Accelerator is source and develop 30 start-ups over two years that
Sure Valley has the right to invest in. The Accelerator is running
three calls for 10 start-ups over 2 years in areas that are related
to the fund's investment strategy of AR/VR, IoT and AI. As a result
of the Accelerator's programme significantly overlapping with the
Fund's investment areas, we see this Accelerator being a source of
proprietary deal flow.
Nova Leah
Nova Leah is the leader in cyber security for connected medical
devices and is an IoT investment by Sure Valley. Nova Leah sells
directly to the top medical device manufactures typically in
Boston, and the west coast of the USA. The company's first product
SelectEvidence helps medical device manufacturers identify and
address cyber-security issues throughout the manufacturing and
release process of their connected medical devices. Sure Valley
invested 750K euros in the company for 10.62% of the business fully
diluted. Anita Finnegan (CEO) is happy with progress and Nova Leah
is now working with 6 of the world largest medical device
manufacturers.
The company is making good progress on its Annual reoccurring
revenue (ARR) and is in the final stages of completing a deal with
a major US med-tech company which will bring its ARR close to the
EUR1m mark to support the company towards a Series A raise, which
is planned to start in early 2021.
Admix Ltd
Admix has developed what is called a Supply-Side Platform (SSP)
which enables developers to monetize their content by creating,
managing and sell advertising inventory. Being an SSP, Admix is a
broker that sells developers (think WarDucks) inventory
programmatically at scale. Being programmatic automatizes the
buying/selling process. Admix enables, for the first time, VR/AR
inventory to become immediately available to thousands of
advertisers connected to the existing ecosystem, which provides
VR/AR developers with instant revenue. The company completed a
Series A funding round to scale their platform announced on April
the 15(th) 2020 at a 4.5x uplift from the seed round where Sure
Valley originally invested. We followed on with a further GBP443K
pounds in the institutional led investment round.
The COVID-19 environment has led to significantly higher
consumption of digitalized content, which creates a positive market
dynamic for Admix and its programmatic platform.
VividQ Ltd
VividQ is a deep tech software company with world-leading
expertise in 3D holography: the next generation display technology.
Holography has long been considered the ultimate display
technology. The science fiction ideal of engineering and
manipulating light to produce 3D projections appealed to the
imagination of millions through franchises such as Star Wars or
Star Trek. Holography overcomes these issues and paves the way for
immersive 3D without the need for glasses at all. VividQ disrupts
existing ways of creating 3D images, such as stereo or
autostereo-display, to power the next generation of holographic VR
headsets, AR smart glasses, and automotive head-up displays. Sure
Valley invested GBP500K in preference shares at a pre-money
valuation of GBP6.5m for a total stake of 5.23% fully diluted. Sure
Ventures have invested alongside Fluxunit and UTEC and adoption of
the technology is accelerating, announcing partnerships with Himax
and Compound Photonics, with a strong pipeline developing with some
of the world's leading and well-known brands.
VividQ are now working with some of the worlds largest and
leading businesses in both technology hardware and software, the
automotive space and optic technology companies, exploring the
commercial uses of holography.
Ambisence
Ambisense's Ambilytics(TM) platform optimises the delivery of
environmental risk assessment on some of the world's largest
infrastructure projects across industrial, Oil & Gas and Waste
Management verticals, partnering with global multinationals such as
CEMEX, SGS & Arcadis. Ambilytics(TM) encompasses both IoT and
AI solutions, combining information from remotely deployed field
devices with contextual data sources such as weather, satellite,
geophysical and operational data to build machine learning
models.
Ambisense were awarded a contract supporting Highways England in
the planned Lower Thames Crossing project. The project is the
largest single biggest road infrastructure project since the M25
was completed more than 30 years ago.
Since completing our investment, Ambisense have identified
increasingly significant government backed infrastructure projects
which via tender process, the company have been successful in
winning. In two particular use cases, the contractors concerned
feared that the technology they required 'didn't exist in the
market', but such is the power behind Ambylitics and the ability of
the Company to design effective and bespoke monitoring models, the
Company has been successful in winning these multi-year, recurring
revenue contracts.
The Company successfully operates on a break-even basis, despite
Covid-19 related issues. In fact, it has been successful in winning
new contracts due to their ability to solve for IOT monitoring
models, whatever the circumstances.
GetVisibility
GetVisibility was established on the 31(st) August 2017 by Ronan
Murphy and Mark Brosnan. The Co-founder and CEO, Ronan Murphy
worked as a C-level executive in the Cybersecurity industry since
2005. He is widely regarded as an expert in the field. Ronan has
acted as a strategic advisor to many publicly traded organisations
on improving their cybersecurity posture and worked with IBM on the
first IBM's Watson for Cybersecurity deployment globally.
The company has developed and launched a software platform
called GetVisibility targeting this data security sector. This
software delivers visibility over unstructured data, e.g. Word
documents or pdfs, for enterprises, by automatically, accurately
and precisely scanning and classifying the data to a corporate
taxonomy using artificial intelligence (AI) at scale (NLP and
Neural Networks).
Since our investment the company has developed partnerships and
is in discussion with global players that if secured as key
customers would be significant milestone for the product offering
and put GetVisibility firmly on the map at global scale.
Buymie Technologies
The Company was founded in 2016 by Devan Hughes and Artavazd
Sokhikyan. Devan previously worked for Salesforce.com, specializing
in commercial efficiency, platform architecture and data management
within the FMCG and Automotive Manufacturing sectors. Having also
worked in the Energy markets for many years in the area of network
optimisation. Devan is a guest lecturer in some of Europe's top
Universities, and a recognised thought leader in the areas of
digital platform economics, last mile logistics, automation and
grocery ecommerce.
Buymie is an on-demand grocery service, currently available in
Dublin, Ireland and Bristol, UK. An individual can order goods from
a selection of local stores such as Tesco and Lidl in Ireland and
the Co-op and Asda in the UK via the Buymie app and have them
delivered by a personal shopper in as little as 1 hour. Delivery
charges from EUR3.99 (free for orders over EUR100), up to 30%
cheaper than visiting a traditional convenience store. More
convenient than traditional eCommerce platforms reducing the
environmental impact of grocery shopping.
Sure Valley initially invested in Buymie's Seed round in March
2020, investing EUR300,000 at a pre-money valuation of EUR8,000,000
giving Sure Valley a fully diluted equity position of 3%. The seed
round was led by ACT Venture capital with participation from Haatch
Ventures, BVP Ventures, HBAN and Enterprise Ireland.
Sure Valley subsequently participated in Buymie's Series A round
which was completed in June 2020. The total amount of capital
raised was EUR5,400,000 and was led by a large family office. The
pre-money valuation was EUR15,000,000. Sure Valley invested
EUR510,000 and has a fully diluted equity position of 5.05%.
DIRECT INVESTMENTS
Investments made directly by Sure Ventures plc:
Immotion PLC ('Immotion'), is a UK based company that creates
its own high-quality VR content and enhances the immersive
experience by coupling this content with motion simulation. Sure
Ventures made a GBP500,000 investment in February 2018. Immotion's
Q1 trading update released on 15(th) Jan 2020showed a strong pace
of headset deployment, with 93 headsets to be installed by the end
of Q1. They have installed their out of home headsets in the London
Sea life centre on the South Bank and numerous aquariums and
entertainment sites. The company had forecast EBITDA breakeven at
or around the end of Q1 and its pipeline was strong. The Covid-19
outbreak has of course hit their model hard as stated in its
trading update released on the 11(th) of March 2020. The management
team are taking steps to cut costs and ensure working capital
requirements are met.
The company have recently announced that the Mandalay Bay (Vegas
based) attraction and a number of the sites within their portfolio
have re-opened and a COVID 19 cleaning system is also being offered
to their estate to help with consumer confidence.
VividQ- In addition to the Sure Valley stake of GBP500K, Sure
Ventures has also made a direct investment into VividQ of GBP500k
at the recommendation of the AIFM. The board identified the
opportunity as a suitable and complimentary investment for Sure
Ventures and agreed that this was an exciting deep technology
company that could have developed a solution that changes the way
that people view content in 3D. Holography could be the next
generation of display technology and the types of companies that
are early stage adopters of VividQ's software offers shareholders
and exciting opportunity. We remain excited about the progress
being made here and anticipate that 2020 could be a
transformational year for the company.
Sure Ventures Director, Gareth Burchell said, "Despite the major
disruption to the global economy by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have
been very impressed with the resilience and performance of the
portfolio. We would like to congratulate both the AIFM Shard
Capital and the Management teams of the underlying investments. It
is particularly pleasing to see an uplift of 6.77% in our NAV with
the series A completion of Buymie as well as the major milestone of
HTC's investment in VRE. The share price of both VRE and Immotion
Plc have lifted from a low base at the start of the pandemic. We
look forward to updating investors on the progress of the portfolio
as a whole as we progress into Q3."
For further information, please visit www.sureventuresplc.com or
contact:
Gareth Burchell Sure Ventures plc +44 (0) 20 7186 9918
Notes to Editors
Sure Ventures plc listed on the London Stock Exchange in January
2018 giving retail investors access to an asset class that is
usually dominated by private venture capital funds. Sure Ventures
is focusing on companies in the UK, Republic of Ireland and other
European countries, making seed and series A investments in
companies with first rate management teams, products which benefit
from market validation with target revenue run rates of at least
GBP400,000 over the next 12 months. Website:
https://www.sureventuresplc.com/
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END
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August 05, 2020 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)
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