Investor Mercia Technologies optimistic for 2016

WARWICKSHIRE-based technology funder Mercia Technologies has said it is looking forward to its second year as a fully-fledged PLC.

The Henley-in-Arden group floated on the London Stock Exchange earlier this year and it has said the year has been far busier than it had initially thought.

Mark Payton, chief executive of Mercia Technologies, said: “In the 12 months since Mercia’s debut on AIM, we have made good progress towards meeting our stated strategic objectives and we expect this momentum to continue. To date, over £20m of the IPO proceeds have been invested and this amount is ahead of our original IPO projections.”
 
With the advance of innovation and the strategy of avoiding disruptive technology, the company is eyeing further growth during 2016 by using its team of highly-experienced technology directors to pinpoint where new opportunities will arise.

While calling itself a national investor, the company is focusing its efforts on its Midlands heartland, the North of England and its fledgling operation in Scotland.

The group, which aligns itself closely with the university sector in the hope of spotting future stars, has recently secured two additional university partnerships north of the border and opened an office in Edinburgh to evaluate and invest in new businesses.

“Deal flow in these areas is good and our focus as we move into 2016 is still very much on these core areas,” said Payton.

“We have 11 university partners at the moment as they are supplying us with some very interesting opportunities.”

In its latest interims, Mercia revealed that in the six months to September 30 it had invested £4.4m in 11 portfolio companies; four of which were considered new emerging stars.

A further £0.8m has been pumped into VirtTrade and a second tranche of £0.5m into Crowd Reactive.

It has also invested £0.8m of direct investments into each of Edge Case Games, Impression Technologies and LM Technologies.

Within its managed funds operation – Mercia Fund Management – the group has raised around £6m in third party EIS/SEIS funds to invest in developing the early stage businesses, of which there are around 45 currently being supported.

Moving into the second half, a further £4.2m has been invested – including £1m into a new emerging star, Intelligent Positioning.

Another operational highlight has been the launch of Samsung’s Gear VR headset in the US, where initial stocks sold out. nDreams’ game Gunner and experience Perfect Beach both run on Gear VR and can be downloaded from the Oculus store via Samsung smartphones.

Major Chinese games publisher and developer Seasun Games has also been persuaded to be a co-investor Edge Case Games and the potential offered by the Chinese and South Korean games sector could see similar deals repeated during the next 12 months.

“The past year has been even better than we could have hoped for and so we are looking forward to 2016 with real optimism,” said Payton.