The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR")
19 June 2018
Vela Technologies plc
("Vela" or the "Company)
Investment in Vibe Group Holdings Limited
Further to the announcement released by the Company on 9 May 2018 the Board of Vela (AIM: VELA), the investing company focused on early stage and pre-IPO disruptive technology investments, confirms that on 18 June 2018 it entered into a subscription agreement to invest £200,000 in Vibe Group Holdings Limited ("VGHL") as part of an overall fundraise by VGHL which has raised £700,000 for the company. Vela's investment is unconditional and irrevocable. The investment by Vela has been funded from the Company's existing cash resources.
Following completion of the investment, Vela owns 5,674 ordinary shares in VGHL equivalent to approximately 4 per cent. of the issued share capital of VGHL.
VGHL is a recently incorporated holding company that owns 97% of the share capital of Vibe Tickets Limited ("Vibe Tickets") and 90% of the share capital of Vibe Pay Limited ("Vibe Pay"). The remaining 3% of Vibe Tickets is expected to shortly be transferred to Crowdcube investors who previously invested in TheVibe Limited while the remaining 10% equity holding in Vibe Pay is owned by key members of the management team of Vibe Pay.
Information about VGHL
VGHL consists of the following 2 businesses:
Vibe Tickets is a peer to peer social community with a marketplace at its core, connecting fans, allowing them to cut out the middle man and save fees. A company competing directly with the big four operating in the space; Viagogo, Seatwave, StubHub, GetMeIn. Vibe is fast becoming the resale platform of choice for consumers and has now grown to over 84,000 active users organically.
Vibe Pay is a peer to peer payments platform offering direct to bank money transfers. Vibe have built APIs which sit directly in-between the banking (open banking) infrastructure (rails) and the consumers. Vibe has built trust with its users and now moves towards owning the relationship between its users directly as opposed to sending them to other third party solutions.
Vibe Group Holdings Limited was incorporated on 23 April 2018 for the purposes of acquiring the shareholdings in Vibe Tickets and Vibe Pay and, as such, has not published accounts. Based on the latest financial information provided by management of VGHL, Vibe Tickets generated a net loss of £70,400 for the one month ended 31 May 2018 and as at 31 May 2018 had net liabilities of £70,300 while Vibe Pay generated a net loss of £39,100 for the five months ended 31 May 2018 and as at 31 May 2018 had net liabilities of £39,000.
For further information, please contact:
Vela Technologies plc Brent Fitzpatrick, Non-Executive Chairman
Antony Laiker, Director Tel: +44 (0) 7802 262 443
Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser) Tel: +44 (0) 20 3328 5656
Nick Athanas/Asha Chotai
Smaller Company Capital Limited (Broker) Tel: +44 (0) 20 3651 2910
Rupert Williams/Jeremy Woodgate