Silicon Valley tycoons including Mark Zuckerberg in the money after their investment fund sold British tech firm
Silicon Valley tycoons including Mark Zuckerberg are in the money after their investment fund sold a British tech company.
Iconiq Capital – which invests on behalf of the Facebook founder as well other tech billionaires including Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman – sold North-West London-based CSL Group to the private equity firm ECI Partners for an undisclosed sum.
In the money: Senior Facebook executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, entrusted Iconiq with their cash after the social media giant’s stock market listing
San Francisco-based Iconiq, along with Norland Capital and RIT Capital Partners, had owned CSL since 2016, when they backed a management buyout of the firm, which provides alarm signalling and monitoring systems.
Under Iconiq’s ownership, CSL has been a pioneer in the ‘internet of things’, where machines in this case alarm systems and computers – communicate with one another. CSL, which has completed four takeovers since 2016, services more than a million devices across the UK, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Iconiq is a notoriously secretive investment fund established by former Morgan Stanley bankers in 2011. Its early investors were senior Facebook executives, including Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, who entrusted Iconiq with their cash after the social media giant’s stock market listing in 2012.
CSL turned over £31million in the year to March 2019, its latest accounts reveal. It made a pre-tax loss of £14.2million, but said it made £9.6million in underlying profit.