Molten Ventures (GROW) has taken £17.5m in gains from ICEYE, the Finnish satellite operator which it says recently secured a €2.4bn (£2.1bn) valuation in a €150m fund raising.
The £856m investor in unquoted, high growth technology companies said after the partial realisation its remaining holding in ICEYE is worth around £85m, up from £74m at 30 September because of the funding round.
Including the £17.5m proceeds, Molten said it had generated a 4.6 multiple on its investments in ICEYE, which has grown rapidly on the back of military and intelligence service demand for the high-definition images its satellites provide. Molten first invested in a series B round in 2018, with follow-on investments in 2019 and 2021 in series C and D rounds.
The disclosure will be of interest to shareholders in Seraphim Space (SSIT) which at 30 September had 34.7% of net assets in ICEYE, its biggest position worth £98.5m. This was a 6% reduction from £105.1m at 30 June due to “corporate activity”, Seraphim said in its first quarter update last month. This followed a 70% gain in the valuation in the previous quarter when the Polish government reportedly took a stake in the business.
The ICEYE proceeds bring total cash from realisations since 31 March to £104m, or 7.6% of gross portfolio value, which puts Molten on track for its annual 10% target. The company said it would use the money to support new investments and share buybacks, of which it has done £44m from a £50m programme since July 2024. Its shares stand on a 33% discount to net asset value (NAV), up 49% over the past year but down 24% over three years.
Molten also announced an additional £12.5m investment in Modo Energy, a company that measures the performance of renewable and electrification assets in which it first invested last year. This time it led a £25m series B funding round saying the new funding would “support Modo Energy’s international expansion into 20 markets and further enhance its platform. AI has the potential to transform how the world values and finances electrification; Modo Energy is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation”, it said.
Chief executive Ben Wilkinson said: “The deals in today’s update bookend our process of value creation, from early deployment, on this occasion at Series B into Modo Energy, to partial realisation in ICEYE, one of the most mature of our core portfolio holdings.”
