An early backer of Zoopla has disposed of its stake in Zoopla, saying it was proud to have played a part in the company’s success.

Octopus Titan VCT yesterday said it had realised its full investment in the company.

Zoopla was founded in 2007 and launched in January 2008.

The following January, Octopus invested in Zoopla, now ZPG, and has held its interest in Zoopla through its participation in Octopus Zenith LP since June 2013.

Zoopla listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange with a value of £919m in June 2014.

Yesterday, ZPG had a market capitalisation of some £1.6bn (£1,584m).

Yesterday, Octopus said has successfully realised parts of its investment in Zoopla at various points of strength throughout the life of the investment, the most recent (and final) of which was following the rise in Zoopla’s share price following its announcement of recent acquisitions.

Octopus said it was “delighted that it has been part of Zoopla’s success story and that shareholders have benefitted from investment in the first billion dollar business to have been backed by a venture capital trust”.

In an interesting interview back in 2014, link below, Alex Macpherson at Octopus said: ”It is easy to join the dots and take the meteoric rise of ZPG for granted.

“However in 2007 when the business was launched it was one of over 20 such websites in the UK and soon faced the prospect of a stalling property market as the world financial markets began to unravel and Lehman Brothers collapsed.

“It took nerve and resolve to navigate this market. Survival (let alone success) was not assured. But Chesterman did not blink. He presented his plan and vision with absolute confidence – and along with a few others, we believed.

“Then as now, we steadfastly believed that the single most important element of any start-up success is the people. “

Yesterday, shares in ZPG ended the day at around 379p – close to its 52-week high on February 2 of 383.5p.

http://www.growthbusiness.co.uk/why-i-invested-in-zoopla-2466617/