The Business
Lightworks has over 25 years’ experience bringing the best visualisation and rendering technologies to companies across a variety of sectors. Since its formation in 1989, its portfolio of products and services has expanded to include application, plug-in and configurator development, VR design review experiences and creative visualisation and rendering services.
The Deal
We originally invested £1.9m in the management buyout of Lightwork Design and Machineworks, a group of two companies known together as VSI Limited, in 2006.
The Plan
When we invested in VSI, we backed two extremely smart management teams. Each team worked with us to further develop highly innovative software and build excellent customer bases.
The Impact
VSI was demerged in 2011 and Machineworks was divested to a large German engineering group, in 2014. We realised our investment in Lightworks to Siemens PLM Software, a business of Siemens AG, the global conglomerate focusing on electrification, automation and digitalisation in 2018. Both Lightworks and Machineworks are now part of international corporates, bought for their strategic importance and best in class technologies.
Total returns to the Mobeus VCTs from VSI represent a return of 4.8x money and a 29% IRR to shareholders.
