DFJ Esprit Backed Eve Sold To Synposys

DFJ Esprit said it has sold its French portfolio company EVE and its line of ZeBu hardware-assisted verification products to Synopsys. The exit is the firm’s fifteen since January 2010 and together have a combined value of more than $2.1 billion. DFJ Esprit added in a press release that since July 2011 it has invested in 10 new companies and 20 follow-on rounds.

PRESS RELEASE

EVE exit continues DFJ Esprit’s leadership in European VC-backed M&A

Leading European VC achieves successful exit of EVE and accelerates investment pace.

London – 10th October 2012 – DFJ Esprit, the European partner of Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, today announces the successful sale of portfolio company EVE (Palaiseau, France) and its line of ZeBu hardware-assisted verification products to Synopsys (Mountain View, Calif.).  This further sale continues DFJ Esprit’s leading track record of success with the total enterprise value of DFJ Esprit’s fifteen exits since January 2010 now totalling over $2.1 billion: including the sales of LOVEFiLM, Icera, The Cloud, Kiala and Zeus amongst many others.  This represents 33% of all European Venture backed M&A exits during that period, which total $6.5bn according to Dow Jones VentureSource (exits over $40m/£25m).

DFJ Esprit also continues to make a significant number of new investments and is one of Europe’s most active VCs, with a cumulative investment of $75 million in portfolio companies in the last year. Since July 2011, DFJ Esprit has invested 30 times; in 10 new companies, and a further 20 follow-on rounds in portfolio companies.Significantly, the total capital raised by these companies equates to over $250 million, targeted at Europe’s fastest growing technology companies.  DFJ Esprit’s portfolio companies have achieved 100%-300% growth in the last 12 months including market leaders such as electronic shelf label company ZBD Solutions, leading home furnishings ecommerce business ACHICA, ultra-low power wireless semiconductor company GreenPeak, the snack subscription business Graze and genomic tools medtech company Horizon Discovery.

DFJ Esprit’s Secondaries business also continues to grow through its unique primary/secondary fund model with the acquisition of 8 companies in a secondary portfolio from Top Technology, including Arieso and Revolymer, which had a recent IPO.

Following the positive changes announced to the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) by the UK Government in the 2012 Budget, DFJ Esprit recently launched its Angel EIS Co-Investment fund.  This has had a good reception and has been oversubscribed in its first pilot launch, with many high profile angels and CEOs of our successful companies investing.

Simon Cook, CEO, DFJ Esprit, said “The continued strong success of our business on all fronts; exits, new investments, secondary portfolio acquisitions and fund raising innovations, is testament to the amazing team of entrepreneurs both within DFJ Esprit’s team and at our portfolio companies”.

DFJ Esprit has over $1.1 billion of funds under management, increased by $200 million over the past year through a joint venture with Tempo to create DFJ Esprit Secondaries and the revolutionary DFJ Esprit Angels’ EIS Co-Investment Fund.