Molten Ventures is a London-based venture capital (VC) firm that invests in the European technology sector. It has a portfolio of c 70 investee companies and includes a range of funds (seed, EIS and VCT) within the group, as well as its flagship balance sheet VC fund.
Valuations of early-stage companies across the broad VC markets softened further in Q423. PitchBook highlights that 2023 was the worst year in terms of European VC exits since 2013, with an exit value of just €11.8bn compared to €40.4bn in 2022. That said, we note some initial signs of revival in the IPO markets (as illustrated by the listings of Arm, Klaviyo and Instacart) as well as in private M&A markets. The long-term outlook for the industry is supported by the strong emphasis put on tech innovation by investors and governments, as illustrated in the UK by the Science and Technology Framework, the R&D tax regime and Mansion House reforms.
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Financials |
Flash note
Ben Wilkinson
CFO
Martin Davis
CEO
Forecast net debt (£m)
N/A
Forecast gearing ratio (%)
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% | 1M | 3M | 12M |
---|---|---|---|
Actual | (7.1) | (14.7) | (23.5) |
Relative | (8.7) | (18.8) | (23.3) |
52 week high/low | 311.8p/208.8p |
Molten Ventures has recently successfully completed the all-share offer for Forward Partners. The latter’s focus on early-stage investments (pre-seed and seed stage) complements Molten’s core strategy, its ‘sweet spot’ being post-A Series, in particular Series B and C investments. It therefore provides a broader pipeline of early-stage assets for follow-on investments, on top of Molten’s seed fund-of-fund programme and the Earlybird partnership. From Forward Partners’ perspective, the transaction (together with Molten’s recent equity raise) will provide further capital support to its portfolio companies.
Y/E Mar | Revenue (£m) | EBITDA (£m) | PBT (£m) | EPS (fd) (p) | P/E (x) | P/CF (x) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2022A | 351.2 | N/A | 331.1 | 201.7 | 1.1 | 1.1 |
2023A | (217.4) | N/A | (242.3) | (156.2) | N/A | N/A |
2024E | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
2025E | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |