[EN] Epawn acquired by Starbreeze, First and successful exit for Elaia Alpha Fund
Elaia announces the first exit from Elaia Alpha Fund, its latest fund closed in July 2012.
In June 2016, the French virtual reality and toys-to-life technology company ePawn was sold to Starbreeze, an independent editor, publisher and distributor of high quality entertainment products, listed on Nasdaq Stockholm First North Premier market. The acquisition, that includes seven registered patents, will enable Starbreeze to significantly diversify its virtual reality and toys-to-life offering, as well as speed up the development of existing projects.
ePawn is a next generation VR and toys-to-life company, merging real-life and digital gaming experiences thanks to its ability to track multiple pawns on gaming boards or large room scale floors. ePawn’s patented technology captures everything that happens on the game board and feeds digital applications with information. Up to 40 objects equipped with off-the-shelf NFC (Near Field Communication) tags can simultaneously be put into play on a game board: ePawn’s technology will then calculate their position, location and altitude in real-time and down to the millimeter.
Virtual reality applications include large and flexible flooring tiles that can be pieced together and equip areas with an affordable positioning system capable of tracking several people in a room. As for Starbreeze, these applications will provide attractive opportunities to offer even more immersive experiences in VR-centers.
Elaia was the first and only investor in the company since December 2012. Based on the strong intellectual property developed and patented by the company, as well as significant market traction, a mandate was signed in December 2015 with NOR Capital to assess strategic options for ePawn: this included the search for a potential exit opportunity.
The deal was achieved partly in cash and partly in shares and generated a 25% IRR for Elaia Alpha Fund, consistent with the historical performance of previous funds managed by Elaia . An additional earn- out consideration will be paid to the selling shareholders based on performance of the business in the coming years.
Originally published on July 6, 2016.
