Silicon Valley venture capitalists DFJ take stake in Prelude Trust manager Esprit
Prelude Trust plc, specialist investors in high growth technology-based businesses, said Draper Fisher Jurvetson has acquired a strategic stake in Esprit Capital Management Ltd, Prelude's manager.
DFJ, a venture capital firm, will become DFJ's exclusive partner in Europe. Esprit will rebrand as 'DFJ Esprit' and members of DFJ's Silicon Valley based team will join Esprit's investment committee. Esprit will become the latest addition to the DFJ Network of venture partnerships which stretches around the world.
The DFJ Network provides Esprit access to deal flow, informed due diligence, corporate contacts, hundreds of technology companies, best-of-breed practices, co-investment partners and potential exit opportunities globally.
DFJ Esprit CEO Simon Cook said: "Silicon Valley's greatest export in the last decade has been its entrepreneurial spirit which is being adopted globally and especially across Europe.
“DFJ was one of the first US VCs to expand out of its home market and thus has the knowledge and approach to make global venture partnerships a success. We believe our partnership with DFJ will significantly expand our resources to assist European entrepreneurs and their companies in becoming global leaders in their target markets.
“DFJ's outstanding track record of success and network of experienced partners across the USA, Asia and South America will help us realise our vision of a vibrant and successful Europe within a global venture capital industry".
Tim Draper, Founder and MD of DFJ said : "Europe is full of exciting entrepreneurs with global winners emerging such as Skype and CSR but is underserved by global venture firms."
Over the last 16 years, DFJ said it has created a broad, collaborative network of venture capital partnerships. The DFJ Network is consists of more than 120 venture capital professionals, across 30 cities in the US, Asia, Europe and South America, with more than 500 portfolio companies and over $5 billion of capital under management. Recent DFJ Network successes include DivX, Skype, Mobile365, Baidu and EnerNOC.
DFJ Esprit currently manages $500 million in two funds focused on private technology companies in Europe; Esprit Capital I which it acquired via a management buyout from Cazenove in 2006 and the LSE-listed Prelude Trust plc.
The team focuses on funding entrepreneurs with the vision to build leading global companies. The DFJ Esprit portfolio consists of more than 35 high growth technology companies across Europe including Lovefilm, Packetexchange, Buy/at, Intense, Displaylink, XMOS and WAYN. DFJ Esprit have led numerous successful exits for its investors in recent times with trade sales of Alphamosaic, KVS, Fillfactory, Blackspider, Neteconomy and DRI and in previous roles the Cambridge-baed Esprit team have invested in the first rounds of successful companies such as CSR, Xaar, Arakis, and Bookham.
6th August 2007
