Sure Ventures
PLC
Q3 2024 NAV Calculation and
portfolio update
Sure Ventures is
a London listed venture capital fund which invests in
early-stage software companies in the rapidly growing technology
areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality ('AR'),
Virtual Reality ('VR') and the Internet of Things ('IoT'). We are
pleased to provide an update on the Company's investment
portfolio.
SURE VALLEY VENTURES FUND
(ICAV)
Sure Ventures made
a €7million commitment to Sure Valley Ventures Fund
('Sure Valley') representing an interest in Sure
Valley of approximately 25.9%. This commitment was made at a
price of €1.00 per share. The current NAV of the Sure
Valley Ventures ICAV as of Q3 2024 is €198.528 which is
down 1.7% from its NAV as at Q2 2024 and the fund is fully
invested.
SURE VALLEY VENTURES
ENTERPRISE CAPITAL FUND (ECF)
Sure Ventures PLC has a £5m
commitment and owns approximately 6% of the overall fund. The
investment period is still at a relatively early stage, with only
24% of this commitment made so far. The current NAV stands at
£0.69468 and the portfolio has grown and at quarter end consists of
8 AI technology companies.
Sure Valley Ventures Fund
(ICAV)
Landvault
In July 2024 the company announced
that they had accepted an offer of
$450m from Inifinite Reality Labs. This offer is a
share-for-share transaction in Infinite Reality which intends to
list on Nasdaq. The reported valuation of Infinite Reality was
$5.1BN, which was underpinned by a new fundraise of $350m at the
same time as the acquisition.
Getvisibility
On the 18th of July 2024 Forcepoint
announced a new GenAI Security Solution and a collaboration with
OpenAI, using Getvisibility's cutting-edge AI technology. The new
launch is set to transform the data security landscape by providing
end-to-end visibility into how and where sensitive data is being
used. The technology will integrate with some of the top Large
Language Model (LLM) providers and puts Getvisibility and its
partners in a unique position in the market to help organisations
gain control of their GenAI security.
Getvisibility has experienced
significant traction in the last six months, reaching the milestone
of 277 customers across 39 countries with multi-million ARR. They
recently launched their GenAI readiness suite which allows
organisations to test and contextualise and protect their data
before they share it with large language models.
Zenos (Formerly Virtex)
Zenos Technology Limited (Formerly
Virtex) is an application that enables Esports organisers to host
their existing formats on a 3D entertainment platform, offering
millions of viewers a completely new viewing experience.
In Q3 Virtex rebranded to Zenos
Technology. Zenos successfully delivered on a few client milestones
and deliverables, booking break even months on a P&L basis. The
company expanded its offering beyond immersive spectating
applications as demand has grown in areas such as broadcast/live
production software as well as software to support gaming events in
special venues.
WIA
Technologies
WIA is the easiest and fastest way
to link sensors and devices to develop IoT applications. WIA's
end-to-end platform provides full device and application
management, security, data capture and storage, analysis, control,
as well as the seamless integration of enterprise systems. Wia has
successfully agreed an extension of multi-million euro major energy
monitoring project from 14 countries to 32 countries across the
globe.
Engage XR
On 30th September, the Company
announced that it has rolled out its 'School of AI' to all its
educational clients. Developed inhouse by the team at ENGAGE XR,
the School of AI creates an immersive learning environment, in
which students can speak to notable figures of history, powered by
conversational and generative AI.
Sure Valley Ventures
Enterprise Capital Fund (ECF)
The fund is now in active deployment
stage and has invested in 8 companies to date and a short summary
for each has been listed below:
RETinize
RETinize is developing an innovative
software product called Animotive, that is harnessing the latest VR
technologies to transform the 3D animation production process. The
team have spent 30 years in the global film and TV industry,
creating and producing hit shows for the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, ABC
and CBS, amongst others.
JAID
Jaid is an AI-powered platform that
extracts critical data from diverse company and customer
communications. It organizes the data into meaningful, actionable
insights and seamlessly integrates into existing workflows. JAID
are working with major banks, wealth managers, fund administrators
and clearing banks on a global basis.
Captur AI
Captur has made significant progress
on new business and product features in the last quarter. They have
launched their real-time camera SDK into production, which is now
being used by tens of thousands of users per month. They have
continued to grow their market lead in mobility with plans to
launch with new clients in the US and AUS markets in H1'24. They
are also expanding into delivery and logistics and are in
late-stage negotiations with a Fortune 100 retailer in the
US.
Ittybit Ltd
Ittybit offers an advanced developer
tool that optimizes media file management for
enterprises by leveraging a
proprietary ML-based compression algorithm. As video
content
has surged to comprise 82% of
consumer IP traffic, traditional hosting tools have
lagged,
leading to high costs and
inefficiencies in media storage, which has increased fivefold to
over
5 zettabytes in the past five years.
Ittybit addresses this by enabling developers to upload,
store, extract rich data, convert,
compress, and deliver media files efficiently, reducing
bandwidth usage by up to
90%.
Vortex IQ Ltd
E-commerce merchants face
significant challenges in optimising their online store
performance. Traditional analytics
and BI tools offer historical data without actionable
steps,
leaving merchants guessing on
improvements. Vortex IQ transforms this landscape. Their
proprietary AI workflows identify
and analyse data, offering clear insights and
recommendations. Through their
low-code/no-code interfaces, they streamline
implementation, eliminating
guesswork and saving up to 40% in time and operational
costs.
Phinixt Robotics Ltd
Phinxt provides a decentralized edge
computing software solution to automate warehouses by enabling
real-time synchronization between robots from various OEMs,
significantly enhancing automation efficiency. With 90% of
warehouses still manual due to the high costs and complexity of
current robotic options, Phinxt addresses this by offering a cloud
platform that allows 10x simpler robotic deployments with zero
upfront costs. Their robot-agnostic system ensures seamless
integration and operation of diverse robots without on-premise IT
infrastructure, making it adaptable and affordable. Amidst labor
shortages and rising e-commerce demand, Phinxt enables autonomous
robot operation with high flexibility, allowing easy swapping of
different robot makes without software changes.
Stylus (Learncycle Ltd)
Stylus delivers an AI-powered
marking solution aimed at reducing teacher workload and addressing
the recruitment and retention crisis in education. By automating
the marking of paper-based assessments, Stylus significantly cuts
down the time teachers spend on grading. The platform provides
detailed, personalized feedback for students, enhancing their
learning experience. Teachers can easily scan completed
assessments, which are then processed by Stylus's AI to provide immediate feedback
and follow-up questions, streamlining the evaluation process and
helping to alleviate teacher burnout.
Purple Transform Limited
Purple Transform provides a
cutting-edge SaaS platform, SiYtE™, designed to address
dataoverload and enhance safety and security in large
infrastructures like rail networks. By leveraging advanced AI and
machine vision, the platform transforms existing cameras into smart
sensors, delivering real-time alerts and predictive analytics. It
seamlessly integrates with current IoT sensors and camera systems,
optimizing operational efficiency and reducing costs for
organizations managing extensive sensor networks.
SURE Ventures PLC NAV
Calculation
The NAV of Sure Ventures PLC for Q3
2024 is 139p, which represents a 6% decrease for the period. This
decrease was largely due to the foreign exchange (USD-GBP) movement
on the holding in Infinite Reality. This is something we may look
to hedge going forward until the position has been realised. The
NAV calculation for Q3 2024, leaves the Sure Ventures PLC share
price trading at a 38.84% discount to its net asset
value.
Director Comments
" Q3 2024 has seen the AIFM team
deploy capital into 3 new portfolio investments in the "Enterprise
Capital Fund" and we are very happy with the inclusion of Purple
Transform, Phinixt Robotics and Stylus. All three are exciting AI
technologies, solving real life problems, with unique and
cutting-edge software solutions.
The Inifinte Reality uplift
significantly boosted our NAV for Q2 2024 and we look forward to
the next 3-4 months in Fund 1, with a number of the more mature
companies in the portfolio beginning to look for exits. We would
like to remind shareholders at this point, that on receipt of sale
proceeds and subject to board approval, we would look to return
cash to shareholders via a special dividend (in accordance with
Investment trust tax rules) and we will update the market in due
course.
For further information, please
visit www.sureventuresplc.com or contact:
Gareth Burchell
Sure Ventures plc
+44 (0) 20 7186 9918