LONDON: Augmentum Fintech plc, the UK’s only publicly listed investment company focusing on the fintech sector, has made an aggregate of £8.5 million of follow-on investments into three portfolio companies as follows:
£5 million investment in Tide, an emerging force in SME challenger banking
£2.5 million investment in Monese, the UK based fast-growing mobile-only current account provider
£1 million investment in DueDil, a predictive company intelligence platform
Augmentum has invested £5 million via an advance subscription agreement in Tide (www.tide.co). This investment by Augmentum follows investments of £3 million in a convertible loan note (CLN) in August 2018, which was part of an £8 million funding round alongside existing investors including Anthemis, Creandum, Local Globe and Passion Capital, and a further £1 million CLN in December 2018 alongside Goodwater and Speedinvest.
Since Augmentum’s initial investment, Tide partnered with ClearBank, who were awarded £60 million from the Capability and Innovation Fund of Banking Competition Remedies, the independent body established to manage the £775 million Royal Bank of Scotland State Aid Alternatives Remedies Package.
Augmentum has invested a £2.5 million CLN in Monese (www.monese.com). This investment follows Augmentum’s investment of £5.3 million in September 2018 in Monese’s £46 million Series B fundraising round, alongside Kinnevik, PayPal and Avios.
Monese launched in September 2015 as the first mobile-only current account in the UK. Monese gives people the financial freedom to ‘thrive anywhere’, and by May this year had achieved over 1,000,000 sign-ups (600,000 sign-ups at the time of Augmentum’s initial investment in 2018).
Augmentum has invested £1 million as part of a CLN in London-based DueDil (www.duedil.com). This investment by Augmentum follows a £2 million investment as part of a Series C financing in August 2018 alongside co-investors including Oak Investment Partners, Notion Capital and Venture Founders.
Tim Levene, Portfolio Manager said: “We are pleased to announce these follow-on investments in three of our existing portfolio companies. Since our initial investments last year, we have been working closely with the management teams in each of these companies and have been impressed with the progress that they have made against their respective business plans. All of these innovative businesses are continuing to effect change and much needed disruption in their target markets.
Now in our second year since IPO in March 2018, we continue to look for opportunities where we can add value to a company in addition to making a financial contribution.”