News
Noble Fund Managers announces final close for second Venture Finance Fund
01/05/2008
Noble Fund Managers today announces the final close of its second venture finance fund, Noble Venture Finance II L.P. (‘NVF II’), having reached the target for the fund of £100 million. The fund is more than twice the size of its predecessor, which was raised in 2003. Including reinvestment, the fund will be able to commit as much as £350 million over its lifespan.
All investors in NVF I participated in NVF II. A major new investor was Arch Group, a London based privately owned financial services group.
NVF II typically provides debt and working capital finance between €1 million and €10 million to venture capital stage companies across Europe. Notable deals already completed for NVF II include a €6 million facility announced in January 2008 to The Cloud, Europe’s leading mobile wireless broadband service provider, and most recently a £3.5 million facility to Artimi, the Cambridge-based developer of high speed wireless connectivity for portable consumer electronic devices. NVF II has already committed £27 million in 13 loans to 8 new companies.
NVF II provides finance in the form of loans, leases or hire purchase facilities, through multiple tranches. In addition, NVF II will receive equity rights, typically by way of warrants.
Noble’s first Venture Finance Fund, NVF I LP, has committed over £40 million to 20 companies in eight European countries. In April 2008 NVF exited from one of its Fund I investments, financial services information provider Complinet, generating a minimum IRR of 25 per cent. NVF remains an investor in Complinet through NVF II.
Mark Taylor, Head of Noble Venture Finance, said: “While the lack of liquidity in the debt markets has all but stopped private equity activity at the large end of the spectrum, the venture capital market in Europe is going from strength to strength. The increased size of NVF II allows us to scale up our operations and take full advantage of the fact that businesses are increasingly looking at leveraging their equity funding and alternatives to bank financing, such as venture finance”.
“What many early-stage companies need when raising finance is speed, and in the current climate arranging facilities with the banks can be a protracted process. We can complete deals within a very tight timeframe, as demonstrated by our recent transactions.”
Noble Venture Finance (‘NVF’) is part of Noble Fund Managers and one of only a small group of venture debt providers in Europe. The head of venture finance at Noble is Mark Taylor, who set up Europe’s first Venture debt fund for Dresdner Kleinwort Benson in 1998.
Venture Finance typically comprises loans, leases or hire purchase facilities to provide working and/or fixed capital finance to fast growing privately held venture capital backed companies throughout the EU.
Overall returns are made up of transaction fees, monthly payments, and an equity kicker. On investing, NVF seeks warrants or share options in the company. These are usually exercised in the event of a trade sale or an IPO of the investee company.
Ends
For more information contact:
Mark Taylor, Head of Venture Finance, Noble Fund Managers
+44 20 7763 2256
Henry Chaplin, CEO of Noble Fund Managers
+44 131 243 0404
Ben Thompson, Head of Marketing Noble Group
+44 20 7763 2200
Toby Mitchenall, Citigate Dewe Rogerson
+44 20 7282 1092
About Noble
Noble is an independent UK investment bank. It has four operating companies providing a range of services including investment management of specialist asset classes, corporate finance and broking services and corporate administration. All four companies are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.