We hope you had a wonderful summer break.
In addition to our in-depth feature on the future of the travel industry, written by Claret Vice President, Bryan McLoughlin, this month’s newsletter highlights:
- Aava Mobile has been acquired by the German electronics and sensor design group, Pepperl + Fuchs
- We welcome Swrve, an international user-engagement market leader, to our portfolio
- Fresh dog food delivery company, Butternut Box, raised $55.4M of funding to continue its expansion
- Brydge CEO, Toby Mander-Jones, speaks to us about industry-leading products and future business plans
- And Claret’s Investment Analyst, Daniel Mallon, provides e-commerce insight and funding updates
As always, we’re here to explore new partnerships and opportunities, so If you’d like to connect with our team, click here.
COVID-19 has had an immeasurable impact on the travel industry. Uncertainty and change offer an unprecedented opportunity to those in the sector with the foresight to innovate.
In this exclusive Claret Capital feature by Bryan McLoughlin, we talk to a number of travel firms to better understand how they have adapted and innovated in this new paradigm.
Discover how legacy players will embrace new technologies and how emerging tech-enabled players extend the business model beyond aggregation.
Claret portfolio company Brydge, has had an impressive few years being at the forefront of innovative and industry-leading products. We sat down with CEO, Toby Mander-Jones, to understand where the business is going and just how the company competes with some of the world’s biggest tech giants.
“In our industry, we’re competing with global companies like Apple, Microsoft and Logitech, and you have to have a relentless mindset to succeed. It’s not only about having a terrific team and best-in-class products, but the tenacity to push ahead despite roadblocks. In short, never give up.”
Aava Mobile has been acquired by the German electronics and sensor design group, Pepperl + Fuchs.
Claret has been a long time investor and supporter of Aava Mobile, the world leader for POS professional tablets and industry expert for omnichannel solutions, and want to congratulate the entire team on their successful exit.
We are excited to welcome Swrve into the Claret portfolio.
Swrve is a Gartner leader for marketing and customer engagement across mobile, web, and Streaming TV platforms. The company helps world-leading brands such as Emirates Airlines, Sony, Telefonica, WB, and Arsenal connect with their mobile-first customers and drive lasting, profitable customer relationships.
We’re impressed by Swrve’s product leadership, the blue-chip customer base, the scale in powering nearly two billion customer relationships, and the leadership team led by Lisa Cleary, CEO.
Butternut Box has raised $55.4 million in a new funding round.
The London-based business bills itself as a “human-grade, fresh dog food company” with a “personalized dietary offering” driven by its own tech platform, which has been developed since the company launched in 2016.
Daniel Mallon is an investment analyst at Claret Capital Partners and has influenced a dynamic range of funding deals and provided insight into key vertical and emerging markets over the past two years.
What changes have you noticed from VCs in the past 18 months?
“Everyone would agree that there is a lot of cash in the market at the moment which is leading to pretty eye-watering valuations. As an investment team, we interact with a lot of the leading VCs across Europe and the consensus is that the top quartile companies will command super-premium valuations for a prolonged period.”
“Overall, from a venture debt perspective, it has become more competitive over the last 18 months as we’re now competing against not only specialist debt providers but also a buoyant equity market.”Read the full interview, here.
If you missed our July newsletter enjoy the extended highlights, here.