Investment Review of 2017 The UK has long been seen as a centre of excellence in the development of technology but there is no doubt that there has been a further acceleration of growth in the ITC sector recently making the UK one of the most progressive technology markets outside of the US. This growth, combined with <strong>Albion</strong>’s strategy to focus on the technology sectors is reflected in our 2017 investment allocations. Locum’s Nest completed £1.1m investment round led by <strong>Albion</strong> Capital and IDO Investments Locum’s Nest is a mobile first platform founded by doctors which is revolutionising the way staffing shortages are addressed in the NHS, The <strong>Albion</strong> investment will be used to expand Locum’s Nest nationally and add additional functionality to the service. Locum’s Nest is already working with seven NHS Trusts helping them save some of £350 million (the equivalent of employing 11,000 extra full-time junior doctors) that the NHS spends each year on agency fees. <strong>Albion</strong> invested over £33 million across 23 businesses in 2017 and of those, 18 have developed proprietary software in sectors such as artificial intelligence, cyber security, automation, big data analytics, media monetization, medtech & healthcare to name a few. Quantexa raised £2.55m early in 2017 led by <strong>Albion</strong> Ventures and HSBC Founded in 2016 by a team of world-class software, data and advanced analytics experts, Quantexa uses big data analytics to tackle complex financial crime and data challenges within the financial services, corporate and public sectors. In July they furthered their international expansion by opening a new office in Sydney, Australia. 2017 also saw the opening of their Brussels offices office in April and the doubling in size of their Global Headquarters in London. The team was boosted in autumn by the appointment of former IBM EVP Nick Donofrio who will support the company’s ongoing strategy as it expands into international markets. 2017 also saw four <strong>Albion</strong> portfolio companies in the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 which ranks Britain’s private technology companies with the fastest-growing sales. Black Swan Data, Egress, Grapeshot and Symetrica. We believe that <strong>Albion</strong> Capital is the only investment company to have four companies in this list. <strong>Albion</strong> portfolio companies also scoop two awards at the prestigious WCIT EAD awards, the ‘Oscars for the Entrepreneurs’ Imam Hoque of Quantexa won the Evergreen Entrepreneur award and John Snyder of Grapeshot won the Enterprise Entrepreneur award. This follows the success of Steve King and Hugo Amos of Black Swan Data who won the Enterprise Award the previous year. Oviva Health secured $12 million in Series A funding in 2017 Participants in the round included <strong>Albion</strong> Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, F-Prime Capital Partners, Partech Ventures, and Walking Ventures. Oviva is a new type of healthcare provider using technology to scale the dietitian workforce to help meet this growing demand. They use virtual clinics and high-frequency follow-up to increase system capacity, improve clinical outcomes, and lower the cost of delivering care. G.Network received investment totalling £4.675m from <strong>Albion</strong> Capital. Based in Mayfair, London, G.Network provides affordable ultra-fast broadband connectivity to businesses across Central London, bridging the gap between constrained copper-based broadband and expensive leased lines which have long lead times. A fast, reliable broadband connection is an increasingly critical requirement for Central London’s c. 100,000 SMEs, who are driving a rapidly rising demand for data, recorded at 30% growth annually. The investment from <strong>Albion</strong> Capital will be used to build out G.Network’s broadband infrastructure in Central London, prioritising streets with significant business density. G.Network recently completed an audit to identify 200 streets for the installations of its fibre, which connects every business on the street, and the funds helped to connect 70 more streets to its fibre network by the end of last year. MPP Global Raised £12m ($15M) Series B Investment from <strong>Albion</strong> Ventures and Grafton Capital MPP Global, a high growth technology business delivering digital monetization services to the media, sport and retail sectors. Based in Warrington, UK, MPP Global counts major global media companies including Sky, <strong>News</strong> UK, Daily Mail Group, L’Equipe and McClatchy among its clients. STILL A LOT MORE TO GET ON HERE... In 2017 MPP announced the opening of three new offices. It opened its first Middle Eastern office in Dubai, UAE, its new office in Manchester, U.K. for the development team and its new North American headquarters to support the growing team in New York, NY.