Draper Espirit completed the acquisition of stakes in two funds of EarlyBird for £71m.

Draper Espirit, a tech-focused venture capital firm, completed the acquisition of stakes in two funds of EarlyBird, a venture capital investor focused on European technology innovators, for £71m. The acquisition includes a 27% interest in Earlybird IV for c.£55m and separately a 5% interest in Digital East Fund 2013 for £16m. As a result, Draper Esprit acquired underlying holdings in smava, Peak Games, Nfon, B2X, Socialbakers and UiPath. "These acquisitions represent an exceptional opportunity made available to us through our strategic partnership with Earlybird. The two funds include a number of high quality, well positioned and fast growing European assets, the prospects of which we are very excited about. We're also supplementing our current financial resources to continue to invest in our strong pipeline of potential future investment opportunities," Simon Cook, Draper Esprit CEO.