Receiver put into Dublin tech firm Rapt by Desmond

Billionaire Dermot Desmond has recently propped up other firms where he is a major shareholder

Billionaire financier Dermot Desmond

John Mulligan Twitter Email

August 29 2020 02:30 AM

An investment vehicle controlled by billionaire financier Dermot Desmond has had a receiver appointed to Dublin tech firm Rapt Touch, which was co-founded by entrepreneur Gerry Giblin.

Mr Desmond's Netherlands-based Bottin International made up to a €4m loan available to the touchscreen technology developer in 2018.

The latest set of publicly available accounts for Rapt Holdings show it had racked up losses of €34.7m by the end of 2017. No accounts have been filed by the firm at the Companies Registration Office since then.

Neither Mr Giblin nor Rapt co-founder Owen Drumm were contactable yesterday. Bottin has appointed Shane McCarthy of KPMG as receiver and manager of Rapt

Mr McCarthy was also uncontactable yesterday.

Rapt was founded in 2008 and develops software that provides enhanced touchscreen capabilities. Its technology is primarily aimed at corporate and education sectors.

Mr Desmond is also an equity investor in the business, alongside other backers including Enterprise Ireland, M3 Ventures, Cyprus Venture Fund and the Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund.

The 2017 accounts for Rapt Holdings show that it made an €8.5m loss that year. Turnover for the year was €3.2m, which was just more than double that generated in 2016. It was all generated in the United States. Its operating loss was €3.1m in 2017, but it also incurred a €5.3m net interest expense on top of that. The company employed about 43 people at the end of 2017.

The accounts also note that after the year end, it had received additional funding from investors in the form of loan facilities.

Company filings for Rapt indicate that Bottin has a charge over a swathe of assets at the tech company, from property to patents and licences.

The difficulties at Rapt come as Mr Desmond is also bankrolling troubled Irish travel software firm Datalex.

Mr Desmond has provided Datalex with a €21m debt lifeline and owns just under 30pc of the business. Datalex was hit by an accounting scandal last year, and has been hammered by the impact of the Covid pandemic. Its software is used by airlines to help them leverage revenue from passengers.

Mr Desmond also recently agreed to provide an additional $75m (€63m) in support to Canadian miner Mountain Province Diamonds (MPD), in which he has a 32pc stake, as the pandemic plays havoc with its business. A company owned by Mr Desmond will buy a total of $100m in diamonds from MPD and the billionaire has also assumed $25m in debt owed by MPD.