MIL’s parent company, Mercia Technologies PLC, was floated on AIM last year and raised £70 million for direct investments in the emerging stars in the Mercia Group portfolio. The nationally renowned Mills & Reeve venture capital team, is led by partner Zickie Lim assisted by associate Pippa Pearce has advised the Mercia Group on its portfolio investments, fund creation and structuring work for the last 10 years.
Of the investments undertaken by the Mercia Group in Q1 of this year, £8.7 million were direct investments in five of their emerging stars:
- VirtTrade, which delivers the mechanics of physical card and sticker collecting and trading, using digital technology to make the experience more interactive and engaging.
- Crowd Reactive, which allows event organisers to broadcast, on large event screens, photographs, video and social content from a variety of different social media platforms.
- nDreams one of the largest global publishers in the PlayStation Home virtual world.
- Soccer Manager, an online multiplayer football management game played globally in 39 languages.
- Science Warehouse, a provider of internet based business to business e-procurement services and content management services.
Mark Payton, Chief Executive Officer of Mercia Technologies PLC, said: ”These first investments by MIL mark a new chapter for the Mercia Group. We have a long standing relationship with Mills & Reeve who understand our investment approach and have a strong track record of advising on equity investments in fast growth businesses. They remain the obvious choice to support us on these transactions”.
Zickie Lim, said: “It is a pleasure to continue to advise Mercia on its portfolio investments, whether through MIL or the other funds in the Mercia Group. We are delighted that they have raised this further funding for direct investments and look forward to continuing to work with Mercia in their deployment of this vital growth capital for exciting, disruptive technology businesses in the UK.”