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22nd September 2014
FeedHenry, founded in 2010, a portfolio company of the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Venture Funds, has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Red Hat Inc. for €63.5m and will deliver over €14m in cash to our Funds. This is comprised of an 8 times multiple on our 2010 Bank of Ireland Seed and Early Stage Equity Fund investment of €500k and a 5 times multiple on our 2013 Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund investment of €2m.
"Kernel Capital have been a superb partner. Since inception their support enabled the acceleration of our growth plans across Europe and North America. From their initial investment and through the later institutional rounds of funding, they never wavered in their support to our team and their commitment to provide capital when required.”
Cathal McGloin, CEO & Investor, FeedHenry
"We recognised from the outset that FeedHenry was filling a void in the mobile enterprise market. The unique strength of the Company's cloud, telecommunications, web and cross platform technologies coupled with a clearly focussed and well executed business model, provided a compelling case to invest. Today's announcement is an excellent result for the Company and all involved, especially Cathal and his team, the angel investors who were with us from the time of our initial investment, and the Strategic Corporate investors who syndicated with us on the later series of institutional funding rounds."
Dr. Daniel McCaughan, Partner, Kernel Capital
"From a novel research project at Waterford Institute of Technology, this is an excellent example of how an initial investment from our Bank of Ireland Seed and Early Stage Equity Fund has enabled a start-up Irish technology company to create a global impact in just a few years. It is great news for the Company, Waterford and the South East region. This Fund, managed by Kernel Capital, is supported by Bank of Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, University of Limerick Foundation and the NUI Galway Foundation.”
Padraic White, Chairman, The Bank of Ireland Seed and Early Stage Equity Fund I.C.
"This is our 16th exit to date and our 6th exit in the past year. A year during which our Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Venture Funds have completed over 30 new investments in Irish technology and life science companies. Our funds are outperforming global industry benchmarks. Earlier this month we confirmed the sale of Covagen AG, a portfolio company of our Seroba Kernel Life Science Fund, and that divestment has delivered a six times multiple. Our portfolio exits now exceed US$700 million and have delivered over US$120 million in cash returns to our investors. We anticipate further announcements across our portfolios before year end 2014."
Vincent Fennelly, Director, Kernel Capital, Seroba Kernel & FeedHenry