Touch Ventures is an investment holding company focused on high growth, scalable investment opportunities in Australia and internationally, including those who may benefit from Afterpay’s ecosystem Touch Ventures is a public unlisted company that intends to build a portfolio of investments in unlisted companies considered to be at the growth-stage of their life cycle Touch Ventures’ key objective is to create long-term shareholder value from the capital appreciation of its portfolio, identifying compelling investment opportunities within the retail innovation, consumer, finance and data segments Touch Ventures includes the following features: o A foundation portfolio, comprising investment of approximately $75.4 million in 5 unlisted companies, and a strong pipeline of investment opportunities; o an experienced management and investment team, led by CEO, Hein Vogel; and o a Collaboration Agreement with substantial shareholder Afterpay Limited (Afterpay), an ASX-listed buy-now-paylater (BNPL) business.. To further pursue investment opportunities, Touch Ventures is raising gross proceeds $100 million via an Initial Public Offer (IPO) to list on the ASX as a Listed Investment Company The Directors, Afterpay and Woodson Capital have committed a minimum of $21.4 million to the IPO
Corporate history
Touch Ventures was initially established in May 2016 as Change Up Holdings Limited (Change Up), a start-up company with the intention of collaborating with Touchcorp Limited (now a subsidiary of Afterpay) to leverage Touchcorp’s payments platform and intellectual property. In July 2019, the Company and Afterpay agreed to explore mutually beneficial opportunities and established a collaboration agreement pursuant to which Afterpay increased its stake in APV Hein Vogel was appointed as CEO in October 2019 to further develop Touch Ventures' strategy The current investment strategy was adopted in December 2019 and Touch Ventures has since completed three capital raisings to fund investments of approximately $75.4 million in 5 unlisted companies Subject to shareholder approval at an EGM on 6 September 2021, AP Ventures Limited will be renamed Touch Ventures Limited in preparation for its listing on the ASX in conjunction with the Offer.
Investment strategy
Touch Ventures is an internally managed investment holding company with broad flexibility as to how it deploys its capital in seeking to achieve its investment objectives. Touch Ventures has however formulated an investment strategy focused on seeking to deploy capital towards high growth, scalable investment opportunities. In particular, Touch Ventures believes there are compelling investment opportunities within the retail innovation, consumer, finance and data segments in Australia and internationally, including those that may benefit from exposure to Afterpay’s ecosystem. Touch Ventures has developed a series of investment criteria. Touch Ventures intends to identify and invest in companies which perform strongly when assessed by it against these criteria. This is referred to as its "core investment strategy" in this Prospectus. Touch Ventures may also invest a small portion of its portfolio (up to 5%) in earlier stage companies. This is referred to as its "early-stage investment strategy"
