IP Group's portfolio company raises £25m investment with major New York firm

IP Group plc, a developer of intellectual property-based businesses, has announced that portfolio company Featurespace Ltd, a provider of adaptive behavioural analytics for fraud detection and risk management, has completed a £25m fundraising round.

The round was led by Insight Venture Partners, a New York-based global private equity firm focused on high-growth investments in the technology sector, while MissionOG, a US-based venture capital fund with operational experience across the payments industry, also participated in the round as a new investor.

The funding was also supported by existing investors including IP Group plc, Highland Europe, TTV Capital, Robert Sansom and Invoke Capital.

Following completion, IP Group’s direct undiluted beneficial stake of 23.9 per cent in Featurespace is valued at £29.3m, representing a direct unrealised fair value gain to IP Group of £9.6m compared with the last round.

IP Group committed £4.1m to the fundraising.

Jon Edington, partner of technology at IP Group, said: “Featurespace has gone from strength to strength, having expanded within financial services, and is now working with a wide range of financial institutions across Europe and the US.

“The company has been recognised with a string of awards including The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Innovation as well as having been ranked in the Deloitte Fast 50 two years in a row and is a great example of a high growth technology asset that we have helped nurture.

“We are therefore delighted to support the team with this fundraising which will help drive further international growth.”

Featurespace will use the funds to support international expansion and continued development of its software capabilities as well as supporting the continued distribution of its real-time, ARIC™ platform, which uses Adaptive Behavioural Analytics to detect anomalies in individual behaviour for fraud and risk management.