Here’s the list of my current portfolio and exits. Broadly, these go from oldest to newest. The information given is: sector; instrument type, exit type; last known status. Founder shares are marked*. Where available, value at last raise is listed (estimates given where actual figures aren’t available). Current portfolio valuations are not disclosed for reasons of commercial confidentiality.
- Facilities management; partner*; trade sale of goodwill; N/A
- Payments processing; ordinary shares; founder buyback; raised 2+ later rounds; £2M
- Virtual tour; ordinary shares; founder buyback; trading; ~£2M
- Virtual estate agency; share option; option buyback; raising 2+ later rounds; £20M
- Art eCommerce; ordinary shares; founder buyback+fee; trading; N/A
- UK property portfolio; sole owner*; current (passive); ~£2M gross
- Foreign exchange; convertible debt; debt repayment (small stake); raised 1+ later round ~£1M
- P2P parking payments, ordinary shares, trade sale (pending) (majority stake)
- Retail analytics, ordinary shares, current, raised 1 later round
- HR psychometrics & recruitment, ordinary shares, current
- Courier online marketplace, ordinary shares, current (small stake), raised 1 later round, raising
- EdTech ebooks, ordinary shares, current
- Charity auctions, ordinary shares, current
- Remote workforce monitoring, ordinary shares, current
- Virtual letting agent, ordinary shares, current (small stake)
- Outdoor adtech hardware, ordinary shares, current (small stake)
- Remote staff HRtech SaaS, ordinary shares, current
- Prefab housing, ordinary shares, current (small stake)
- Personal financial management, ordinary shares, current, (small stake)
- Compute resource marketplace, ordinary shares, current, (small stake)
- Charity payments processing, ordinary shares, current, (small stake)
- Property crowdfunding marketplace, ordinary shares, current, (small stake)
- Commercial subletting marketplace, ordinary shares, current, (small stake)
Some references:
All references are provided in full and unedited. These founders are very busy people, so kindly do not request confirmation.
A couple of notes:
- Pipeline projects, and failed/dormant deals are omitted. There were a handful – it’s a risky business!
- I’ve not put firm names up, as founders get lots of unsolicited requests for references. If you want more details, just ask. I’m happy to give the good, the bad, and the ugly.
- My investments normally include sweat, and some also include cash. I’m not the kind of investor who dumps 500K into a business, then emails in 3 years to see how it’s going. If hands-on value-building isn’t your bag, look elsewhere. (NB Some people don’t regard sweat as ‘proper’ investment – but as it’s 100% risk-bearing, I think ‘investment’ is the only reasonable way to describe it.)
- For investments in the fundraising process itself, I invest cash in the production and marketing process – with my investment return conditional on raising. Normally, I’ll look to make investments directly into the firms, too – but this is not always possible, for tax reasons.
Interesting post.