Latest News from Origin
Cazana bought by Cazoo for £25m.
Origin portfolio company Cazana, a leading pan-European provider of historic vehicle transaction data, has been bought by on-line car retailer Cazoo, for £25m in cash. The transaction delivered a full exit for Origin, generating an excellent c. 4x return to investors. Read more here.
Origin increases holding in Echion
We have increased our stake in battery materials business, Echion Technologies, to just under 10%. Origin originally invested in Echion’s August 2018 seed round, reinvested in 2019, and was a significant participant in the company’s £10m Series A round, that has recently completed. See here for more information.
Origin Capital co-leads £2.1m investment in platform biotech Somaserve
Origin Capital was the largest investor in a £2.1m funding round recently completed by Somaserve, a developer of specialised nanoparticle technologies for delivery of pharmaceutical and other therapeutic agents to targeted cell types. Read more here.
CyTAL secures investment from Origin Capital
We have made a significant investment in CyTAL, a provider of cybersecurity product assurance services. The funding will support CyTAL’s accelerated growth plans for ProtoCrawler, its specialist “fuzz-testing” software application, used for identifying vulnerabilities in a wide range of connected devices. Read more here.
Origin Capital News: Q3 2020
We have published our latest newsletter! See here.
Follow-on investment: Echion Technologies
Origin propels Muve forward
We are delighted to announce our investment in Muve, a specialist conveyancing business. Origin led a £1.1m funding round, which included the Angel Co-Fund and a family office as co-investors. Read more..
Spectral Edge – successful exit
We have had a good trade sale exit from our investment in Spectral Edge, which develops sophisticated “image fusion” technology, potentially of value in mobile phone camera systems but also in other areas, such as broadcast media and imaging for defence applications. We are not able to comment on details of the transaction, but we have noted market speculation that the business was bought by Apple – see here.
Inductosense – New unquoted investment
We have recently invested in Inductosense, a Bristol-based company supplying novel Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) technology to the Oil & Gas and Petrochemical industries, amongst others. Inductosense’s approach uses inductive coupling to enable sensors attached to pipework to be powered and interrogated wirelessly to measure pipe thickness and corrosion. We believe the potential market size for Inductosense’s solutions is substantial.
New IoT sensor investment: Cyclops Marine
Origin has invested in Cyclops Marine, a developer of innovative devices for wireless monitoring of forces on masts and rigging and in other load-bearing locations of sailing vessels. We believe Cyclops has a leading technical and market position in this specialist market.
