New exit for Molten Ventures VCT: payments giant Worldpay to acquire fraud-prevention startup Ravelin
On 4 February 2025, Molten Ventures VCT announced that payments giant Worldpay has struck a deal to buy fraud prevention platform Ravelin, the VCT’s 13th-largest holding. The acquisition is expected to complete in Q1 2025 – the terms are undisclosed.
Ravelin was founded by a team of five in 2014 to address the gap for a fast, accurate anti-fraud tool for online businesses. Its machine-learning platform is now used by merchants – including Deliveroo, Just Eat, Spotify, Trainline, Frasers Group, River Island and Booking.com – to analyse all ecommerce transactions and spot and block fraudsters in real time.
The sale of Molten’s stake in the company follows another recent success: in July 2024 Molten exited its second largest holding, breast cancer treatment technology Endomag, generating a 3.9x return. Past performance is not a guide to the future.
How does Ravelin help protect ecommerce merchants and their customers? Why did Molten invest? How could you invest in similar companies through Molten Ventures VCT?
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What does Ravelin do?
Ravelin estimates online payment fraud costs global businesses 1.8% of revenue – a cost often passed back to customers by businesses. Fraud can also affect brand loyalty: a customer may blame the online seller for what happened and avoid the site in future.
Ravelin’s fraud-prevention software helps protect both merchants and customers. It analyses every action of every user on-site or in-app in real-time – from behaviour down to device used – in order to spot anomalies and prevent dangers like account takeovers and payment fraud.
Paying with a stolen credit card is one form of fraud. But there’s also “friendly fraud”: this is when a merchant’s own customers commit fraud or abuse its promotions, vouchers or refund and returns policies – costing substantial lost revenues each year. A Ravelin survey found more than 40% of internet shoppers admit having done it, whilst a similar number were considering it. By uncovering such fraud, Ravelin helps merchants close loopholes without having to confront and lose customers.
Ravelin also performs 3D secure authentication and continues to innovate. Ravelin underlines that its machine learning models aren’t meant to replace fraud teams but to enhance their abilities with tools and insights –helping clients free up thousands of analyst hours in the fight against fraud.
Worldpay operates in 146 countries, processing $2.3 trillion’s worth of merchant/consumer cashless payments a year. It expects Ravelin’s cloud-based AI platform will allow it to offer its customers leading-edge technology to further improve authorisation rates.
We are delighted to see Ravelin reach this significant milestone and congratulate the entire team on their success. We wish them the best for the next stage of their growth alongside Worldpay.
In today’s online world, equipping merchants with next-generation AI-powered fraud prevention products is vital, and we believe Ravelin’s technology and expertise will significantly enhance Worldpay’s overall value proposition to the marketplace.
Why did Molten invest?
One of Europe’s leading venture capital firms, Molten aims to identify and support companies that are “quietly shaping the future of banking, payments, and beyond”.
Its track record of doing so includes backing Wise and Revolut – two fintechs that grew to achieve unicorn status (startups with over $1 billion valuation).
In 2018, Ravelin’s highly advanced machine learning platform caught Molten’s attention, and Molten began a deeper exploration of the company’s market segment and operations.
In 2019, Ravelin estimated it had calculated one billion fraud scores for clients and opened its US office. Meanwhile, its success with heavyweight clients like Deliveroo and Just Eat strengthened Molten’s view this was a world-class team and product.
When the opportunity arose in 2020, Molten led Ravelin’s $20 million Series C funding round via its plc balance sheet and EIS/VCT funds, joining earlier investors Amadeus Capital Partners, Passion Capital and Playfair Capital.
How to invest in similar companies
Molten Ventures VCT is currently open for investment.
The VCT launched in 1998 and has been managed by Molten Ventures plc (formerly Draper Esprit plc) since 2017.
The VCT co-invests alongside the plc’s own balance sheet and currently has a portfolio of around 35 active companies. The bias is towards early-stage digital technology businesses in four sectors where the manager has considerable experience and a strong track record: consumer technology, enterprise technology, deep tech & hardware, and digital health & wellness.
Molten Ventures VCT targets dividends of 5% of NAV p.a. – dividends are variable and not guaranteed. In the five years to 31 December 2024, it delivered a NAV total return (including dividends) of 1.5%, paying out cumulative dividends equivalent to 25.4% of the starting NAV. Past performance is not a guide to the future.
Performance of Molten Ventures VCT
NAV and cumulative dividends per share over five years (p)
Source: Morningstar. Past performance is not guide to the future. Dividends are variable and not guaranteed. The bar chart shows net asset value and cumulative dividends (paid out) per share for the period 31/12/2019 – 31/12/2024.
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Alex Davies
Chief Executive
Alex was a board director at Hargreaves Lansdown, where he worked for 15 years. He was responsible for building Hargreaves Lansdown into the biggest direct-to-consumer SIPP provider in the UK with more than 150,000 clients and over £12 billion under management. He is a keen investor with a portfolio of shares, funds, student property, EIS and VCT investments.