Schroder British Opportunities

Schroder British Opportunities Trust plc

Investment into Rapyd

Schroder British Opportunities Trust plc ("SBO" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has made an investment into Rapyd, a leading global Fintech-as-a-Service company with significant UK operations. SBO's investment forms part of Rapyd's $300m Series D financing round, which was led by Coatue and which marks the Company's third private equity investment. SBO invested via its co-investment partner for this deal, Target Global, a pan-European growth & venture focused firm and an early stage investor of Rapyd. Other new and existing investors in this round include Spark Capital, Avid Ventures, FJ Labs, Latitude, General Catalyst, Oak FT, Tiger Global, Durable Capital, Tal Capital, and Entrée Capital.

Rapyd offers one of the fastest ways to power local payments anywhere in the world, enabling companies across the globe to access markets quicker than ever before. By utilizing Rapyd's unparalleled payments network and Fintech-as-a-Service platform, businesses and consumers can engage in local and cross-border transactions in any market. The Rapyd platform is unifying fragmented payment systems worldwide by bringing together 900-plus payment methods in over 100 countries.

Rapyd's platform embeds fintech services into any application and simplifies the complexity of offering local payment methods through an easy-to-use API while managing diverse compliance and regulatory requirements. Businesses can accept and send payments without having to build their own infrastructure through the Rapyd Global Payments Network, which supports hundreds of local payment methods including cards, bank transfers, e-wallets and cash.

2020 saw a massive acceleration in the adoption of local and cross-border digital payments, which has fuelled significant global growth for Rapyd. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated certain changes that historically have been much more gradual - namely in consumer behaviour - with McKinsey recently reporting that five years of change has been compressed into less than one year. The change in purchasing habits has propelled consumers and businesses, in both mature and emerging markets, online resulting in the increased need to accept and send payments using cards and alternative payment methods.

The new financing will be used to double the size of the engineering and product teams, as well as expanding the "Self-Service" element of Rapyd's platform, empowering businesses globally to onboard and begin utilizing any of Rapyd's financial capabilities in the shortest possible time frame. Rapyd will continue its focus on core markets that serve B2C and B2B ecommerce payments, marketplace, and financial services businesses.

This investment is in line with SBO's focus on backing high-quality, high growth UK-based businesses, with opportunities for significant further expansion and a strong alignment between shareholder value and fundamental positive purpose in society. The investment in Rapyd is consistent with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal ("SDG") 8 "Decent Work and Economic Growth" as well as SDG 10 "Reduced Inequalities".

Tim Creed, Head of UK and European Private Equity at Schroders, commented: "We are delighted to announce SBO's third private equity investment. Rapyd is a strong, high growth business with significant UK operations that helps to simplify the global payment ecosystem through its unique API. Rapyd's team has done an outstanding job but still has a huge opportunity ahead of it and we are delighted to be part of the next phase of the Rapyd journey".

Enquiries:

About Schroder British Opportunities Trust plc

Schroder British Opportunities Trust plc has been established to invest in a diversified portfolio of both public equity investments and private equity investments consisting predominantly of UK Companies with strong long-term growth prospects.

ESG company engagement is a key feature of the Company's investment strategy. The Company's focus is on companies with business models which are considered to be sustainable in terms of both the longevity and durability of their businesses and their environmental, social and governance (ESG) behaviours.

The Company's ordinary shares are listed on the premium listing segment of the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority and have been admitted to trading on the main market for listed securities of the London Stock Exchange in December 2020 under the ticker "SBO".

Further information on the Company is available at www.schroders.com/sbot 

About Rapyd

Rapyd is the fastest way to power local payments anywhere in the world, enabling companies across the globe to access markets quicker than ever before. By utilizing Rapyd's unparalleled payments network and Fintech-as-a-Service platform, businesses and consumers can engage in local and cross-border transactions in any market. The Rapyd platform is unifying fragmented payment systems worldwide by bringing together 900-plus payment methods in over 100 countries. Rapyd's investors include Stripe, General Catalyst, Oak FT, Coatue, Tiger Global, Durable Capital, Target Global, and TaL Capital. To learn more about the company that is accelerating the Fintech-as-a-Service revolution, visit www.rapyd.net

About Target Global

Target Global is an international investment firm headquartered in Berlin, with more than €1bn in assets under management. With investing offices in London, Tel Aviv and Barcelona, Target Global connects the key European startup ecosystems and leverages the unique DNA of each of its target geographies, across its global network. Building on its experienced team with substantial operational and investment experience, Target Global helps exceptional entrepreneurs to build market leaders. Target Global invests across multiple stages, investing in fast-growing tech companies, targeting trillion € markets. Its Partners have been investing for more than 15 years in the digital technology space, backing some of the key European success stories.