DFJ Esprit exits account for one third of all European VC M&A exits over last two years

Source: www.cabume.co.uk

Last week the French hardware verification firm, EVE, was acquired by Silicon Valley’s Synopsys. Details of how much the sale was for are not been released, but together with the exits of LOVEFiLM, The Cloud, Kiala and Zeus it was enough to take DFJ Esprit’s total exits since January 2010 to over $2.1 billion – or £1.3 billion – from 15 exits.

This represents 33 per cent of the $6.5bn European venture backed M&A exits during that period based on figures from Dow Jones VentureSource looking at exits over £25m.

The Cambridge and London based venture capital firm says it also continues to make a significant number of new investments having pumped in $75m (£46.8m) into portfolio companies in the last year.

Since July 2011, DFJ Esprit has invested 30 times, 10 in new companies and a further 20 through follow-on rounds in portfolio companies, which means it is investing at roughly the same pave as it is exiting.

DFJ Esprit currently has over $1.1bn (£690m) of funds under management, increased by $200m (£125m) over the past year through its secondaries joint venture with Tempo, which has seen the acquisition of eight companies in a secondary portfolio.

There is also the EIS work. Though a VC, new UK government legislation has also allowed DFJ Esprit to use the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) to establish an Angel EIS Co-Investment fund which it says has been oversubscribed in its first pilot launch with participation not just from recognised angels, but the CEOs from successful DFJ Esprit portfolio companies.