Mergermarket
In 2006 Spark sold its stake in Mergermarket for £27.8m to the FT Group, generating almost 24 times Spark's initial investment of £1.2m.
SPARK was the first investor in Mergermarket as a start-up in 1999 and supported the company through every phase of its growth. The company performed extraordinarily since its foundation and the launch of its first working product in 2000, in a very competitive but vibrant market. Mergermarket successfully built an unrivalled blue chip client base through the development of its complementary portfolio of "must have", subscription-based electronic products including mergermarket, Debtwire, dealReporter and Wealthmonitor.
This transaction reflects SPARK's core competence of picking start-up and early stage investments created by outstanding management teams in growing markets.