Chrystal Capital Partners LLP (“Chrystal”), a Mayfair-based corporate finance and investment house, is pleased to announce that Velocity Black (“Velocity”), a leading digital concierge company that delivers travel, entertainment, shopping and dining offerings to consumers globally, has been sold for a reported USD296m to Capital One (NASDAQ: COF; $42.5bn market cap) .
Chrystal was one of the early investors and subsequently raised over £22m for Velocity across its Post-Seed, Series A and Series B rounds. The raises were supported by a combination of High Net Worth's and family offices from our global network. Importantly the company also attained Enterprise Investment Scheme authorisation meaning investors that too EIS were able to capture all their capital gains tax free.
“We are delighted to have supported Velocity with its critical growth capital during the early years of its technology development. Alex and Zia have been pioneers in using AI to disrupt a large addressable market and the success of their vision has clearly been borne out in the value Capital One have ascribed to the business. The 100% sale of Velocity to Capital One marks the end of a highly successful journey for our investors who backed Velocity through multiple rounds at valuations significantly below the ultimate acquisition price.”
About Velocity Black
Founded in 2014 on the principle that time is our most precious asset, Velocity deploys cutting edge technologies and human experts to transform how high performance people discover and enjoy their world. They help their members do and be more in the digital age.
Velocity has built a unique customer experience — its proprietary platform deploys cutting edge technology and human experts to offer inspiration, recommendation and fulfilment in one place, making it an integral part of customers’ lives. It harnesses the power of artificial intelligence, the warmth of human experts and the convenience of the latest interfaces to help high performance people actualise the full potential of their lives. They curate the best life has to offer, then their engine puts it at their members’ fingertips. Welcome to the conversational interface.
To learn more about Velocity Black, visit https://velocity.black/.
About Chrystal Capital Digital Economy
We work with companies that are using technology combined with a scalable business model, to significantly influence an existing market.
We believe that Digital Marketplaces and eCommerce businesses are attractive to investors due to the speed and scale to which they can grow by offering a clear customer proposition, with transparent pricing and ease of delivery. They are more capital efficient than traditional companies and can quickly command a dominant market position that is difficult to usurp.
Digital Marketplaces and eCommerce propositions have been a high priority for any tech savvy investor over the past decade – with those who have invested benefiting from the positive market forces that have surrounded the shifts in behaviour of the buyers and sellers of products and services.
Whether operating in a large established market or a niche it has been repeatedly seen that one company can dominate the landscape in a very short period of time. Due to the virtuous circle that is created between the buyers and sellers these companies with ever increasing brand presence can be difficult to dislodge.
For more information about Chrystal Capital please visit https://www.chrystalcapital.com.
For further information please contact:
James Innes, Managing Partner
james.innes@chrystalcapital.com
https://www.chrystalcapital.com
