The
announcement made this morning contained a number of square
brackets which have now been removed.
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE
INFORMATION AS STIPULATED UNDER REGULATION (EU) NO 596/2014 OF THE
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL OF 16
APRIL 2014 ON MARKET ABUSE, AS AMENDED FROM TIME TO TIME,
WHICH IS PART OF UK LAW BY VIRTUE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
(WITHDRAWAL) ACT 2018, AS
AMENDED.
21 June
2023
Augmentum Fintech
plc
Volt completes Series B with
$60 million raise, increase in value
of Augmentum’s
holding
Augmentum Fintech plc (LSE: AUGM) (the
“Company” or “Augmentum”), Europe’s leading publicly listed fintech
fund, announces
that it has made a further £5.4 million investment into Volt, the
real-time payments infrastructure company, as part of Volt’s
$60 million Series B funding round
led by new investor IVP, the Silicon Valley-based technology
venture capital fund. New investor, CommerzVentures, is also
participating in the round alongside existing investors EQT and
Fuel Ventures.
The new round implies a value of the
Company’s existing stake of £17.8 million, which represents an
uplift of £11.4 million on the unaudited carrying value of £6.4
million as at 30 September 2022. As
this new round has closed after Augmentum’s year end of
31 March 2023, the new valuation will
not be fully reflected in the updated NAV disclosed in the
Company’s Annual Report when it is released on 4 July. Augmentum
first invested in Volt in December
2020 with an investment of £0.5 million and has invested a
further £4.0 million since then, excluding this latest
investment.
Recent milestones for Volt include a new
global partnership for real-time payments with Worldpay from FIS,
the world’s largest merchant acquirer, and partnering with Shopify,
the global ecommerce platform, to become their first open banking
provider.
Volt intends to use the additional capital
to fund expansion into new international markets such as APAC and
the Americas, and support product development in existing markets
across Europe, the UK and
Brazil.
Perry
Blacher, Partner at Augmentum Fintech, said: “We are excited
to continue to back the Volt team. The new capital and the addition
of leading investors IVP and CommerzVentures serve as further
reinforcement for the company’s accelerating growth trajectory, as
they continue to deliver their world-class service to global
merchants."
This announcement does not constitute or
describe an updated NAV of the
Company.*
Enquiries:
Augmentum
Fintech
Tim Levene, Portfolio
Manager
Georgie Hazell Kivell, Marketing and
IR |
+44 (0)20 3961
5420georgie@augmentum.vc |
Quill
PR
Nick Croysdill,
Sarah Gibbons-Cook (Press and
Media) |
+44 (0)20 7466
5050press@augmentum.vc |
Peel Hunt
LLP
Liz Yong,
Luke Simpson,
Huw Jeremy (Investment
Banking) |
+44 (0)20 7418
8900 |
Singer Capital
Markets
Harry Gooden,
Robert Peel,
Alaina Wong(Investment
Banking) |
+44 (0)20 7496
3000 |
Frostrow Capital
LLP
Paul Griggs, Company
Secretary |
+44 (0)20 3709
8733 |
*The Company’s
NAV
This announcement does not constitute or
describe an updated NAV of the Company. The Company's NAV and NAV
per ordinary share as at 31 March
2023, both prior to and post performance fee, will be
calculated in accordance with the Company’s valuation policy and
are expected to be announced with the Company’s full year results
on 4 July 2023. Shareholders should
note that the calculation of the NAV per ordinary share as at
31 March 2023 will take account of
the valuations of all of the Company's investments as at
31 March 2023 and any applicable
costs and charges, and that the NAV as at 31
March 2023 is not expected to fully reflect the increased
valuation of Volt due to Volt’s latest fundraise closing after
Augmentum’s year end.
About Augmentum
Fintech
Augmentum invests in fast growing fintech
businesses that are disrupting the financial services sector.
Augmentum is the UK’s only publicly listed investment company
focusing on the fintech sector in the UK and wider Europe, having launched on the main market of
the London Stock Exchange in 2018, giving businesses access to
patient capital and support, unrestricted by conventional fund
timelines and giving public markets investors access to a largely
privately held investment sector during its main period of
growth.
About
Volt
Founded in 2019, Volt is building the
infrastructure for global instant payments. Today, its open
payments gateway allows merchants and PSPs to process transactions
securely between accounts held at more than 5,000 banks in the UK,
the EU and Brazil. Volt’s unique
aggregation model provides unrivalled open payments reach and
maximises the speed, security and resilience of
transactions.