Finally, some VCs that actually get us.
Saurav Chopra, CEO
We’ve got global ambition. And we’ve found a VC to help us deliver it.
Eric Lavercheque, CEO, and Pascal Gauthier, President
We’re building a product for women based on science. We needed a VC with expertise in health, not just finance.
Ida Tin, CEO
When Draper Esprit back your business, they back you all the way.
Peter Mühlmann, CEO
We invest in tech companies that see new ways for the world to work. Which explains why our portfolio is full of inventors and visionaries.
Lovefilm was the trailblazer that set the benchmark, firstly for DVD home delivery then streaming services.
Lovefilm started out in 2002, by which time the DVD was rapidly replacing video as the preferred format for home movie viewers. The company was eventually sold to Amazon, who had been a major shareholder, in 2012.
Our CEO Simon Cook worked with Lovefilm’s many founders over many years. The verdict? In the words of their COO, William Reeve: “Simon has been one of the most value-added investors we have had and has made a very positive contribution to the business. He is what many VCs want you to think they are, but aren't.”
Cambridge Silicon Radio built the first scalable technology for Bluetooth, making it easy for devices to talk to each other.
Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) was the British company that paved the way for device connectivity. Their inexpensive chips could be added to many electronic devices to make them Bluetooth compatible – for as little as $2.
We invested in CSR when some of us were at 3i – spotting the potential of the BlueCore chips to transform the way our devices connect to each other. And when we came to found Esprit, we bought the 3i portfolio, carrying that same vision forwards when 3i exited the VC market.
Cambridge Silicon Radio
It’s only natural, small is beautiful when it comes to microprocessors.
Movidius technology is used in drones, security cameras and augmented and virtual reality devices. Its latest chip — the size of a fingernail — can make sense of multiple video streams at once. It’s used by Lenovo, DJI, FLIR, Hikvision and Google.
The team sketched the original design on a menu in a Dublin craft beer pub. In the semiconductor business designing a chip, successfully taping out, testing and qualifying your device, can take many years. Their vision was years ahead of the market, and that’s a brave and risky place to be. We worked with the Movidius team for four years, helping them to grow to 180 employees.
