Start-up technology investor Allied Minds (ALM) is expected to see its portfolio’s valuation jump by around 5% thanks to fresh funding for its HawkEye 360 business.

HawkEye has raised $10m in its latest financing round, with new investment coming from Shield Capital (defence industry focused financial investor) and existing investors Razer's Edge Ventures and an undisclosed US Aerospace/Defence company.

Allied Minds, which had previously owned 50% of HawkEye, has invested $3m in extra capital. HawkEye provides satellite tracking technology used by shipping fleets, emergency response units and others agencies, to governments and international businesses.

The really good news for Allied Minds investors is that these new funds imply a near-tripling of the underlying value of the HawkEye business, from roughly $29m to $75m, according to numbers crunched by analysts at broker Numis Securities.

US-BASED START-UP FUNDER

Boston-based Allied Minds funds and operators a portfolio of early stage technology and life sciences businesses looking to commercialise intellectual property. Allied Minds supports its investee businesses with cash and expertise.

Prior to this round, Allied Minds owned 50% of HawkEye, with its stake valued at circa $14m and it represented about 4% of the total portfolio value.

‘As a result of this transaction, we estimate Allied Minds' existing stake has increased in value by $23m, which has a circa 5% positive impact to net asset value (NAV),’ says Numis.

Shares in Allied Minds remain flat at 84.5p in early trading on Monday (13 August) and investors are likely watching for more detail at half year results, due around 28 September.

They will also be hoping for news then, if not earlier, of additional funding for Allied Minds’ Spin Transfer Technologies unit, an exciting digital data storage technology developer using Magnetoresistive Random-Access Memory, or MRAM for short.

Spin Transfer Technologies is calculated to be worth roughly 28% of Allied Minds portfolio.

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Issue Date: 13 Aug 2018