DFJ Esprit Sees 5x Return on TLC Exit

European venture investor DFJ Esprit said that it sold portfolio company TLC to Serco plc for 55.9 million pounds. The firm said the exit represents a 5x return on its investment. TLC is a supplier of customer relationship management technologies.

PRESS RELEASE
Leading European venture capital firm DFJ Esprit has announced the sale of TLC, supplier of Customer Relationship Management, call centre and telemarketing solutions, its fourth exit so far in 2011. This success follows the sales of Lovefilm, and The Cloud this year, continuing a series of seven exits over the past twelve months totalling $1.2 billion in enterprise value. The total of VC backed M&A over the period according to Venturesource is $2.5 bn in enterprise value (excluding Biopharmaceutical exits).

Announced yesterday, TLC was sold to Serco plc for £55.9m, this exit represents a 5x return on DFJ Esprit’s investment.” This follows on from the successful sale of Lovefilm to amazon.com, announced January 20, 2011, and The Cloud to BSkyB, announced January 27, 2011 and another yet unannounced sale. A strong start to the year, these exits build on DFJ Esprit’s fruitful 2010, with the sales of Lagan, Phyworks and Apatech.

Paul Murray, Partner, DFJ Esprit: “TLC is an award winning company and has delivered terrific growth over the last few years. We’re delighted with this exit, it’s a great result for DFJ Esprit and the other shareholders, and allows the TLC team to take this platform to another level within Serco.”

Simon Cook, CEO, DFJ Esprit, says: “We have begun the year with a bang. While the global economy has been challenging, our series of exits over the past year shows there is still a strong exit route for venture backed companies. The US VC exit market has had a fantastic rebound in the last 12 months and we are starting to see that here in Europe”.