The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR")

1 December 2016

Vela Technologies plc

("Vela", the "Company" or the "Group")

Update re BTL Group Ltd - Q3 Results and BTL Warrant Exercise

The Board of Vela (AIM: VELA), the investing company focused on early-stage and pre-IPO disruptive technology investments, notes the announcement released yesterday by BTL Group Ltd ("BTL") of its quarterly results for the period ended 30 September 2016. BTL, a company in which Vela has invested in and which is listed on the Canadian TSX Venture Exchange, is a technology company based in Vancouver, Canada, focused on developing blockchain technologies to disrupt and transform existing industries.

In the announcement released yesterday BTL reports the generation of the company's first revenues of C$226,591, resulting from a fintech pilot project, and highlights the progress made in BTL's other pilot projects in different industries, which it anticipates to have created the foundations for further revenues in future quarters.

Furthermore, the Board of Vela notes the successful completion of BTL's early warrant exercise incentive programme (the "BTL Incentive Programme"), in which 1,191,164 eligible common share purchase warrants in BTL ("BTL Warrants") were exercised by shareholders, raising gross proceeds of C$1,191,164. Pursuant to the BTL Incentive Programme, Vela has exercised 41,666 BTL Warrants for an exercise price of C$1.00 per warrant.

Following the exercise of its BTL Warrants, Vela's total interest in BTL comprises 783,332 common shares, equivalent to approximately 4.6 per cent. of BTL's issued share capital following exercise of the BTL Warrants. The BTL Warrants exercised by Vela were issued to Vela as part of the investment made in BTL in May 2016 and as disclosed in the announcement released by Vela on 6 May 2016.

Links to the BTL announcement and to the BTL Q3 2016 Results as filed on SEDAR, respectively, are copied below:

http://web.tmxmoney.com/article.php?newsid=4958506431886797&qm_symbol=BTL

http://www.sedar.com/CheckCode.do 

Commenting on the updates regarding BTL, Antony Laiker (Executive Director) said:

"It is great to see BTL producing revenues at this relatively early stage in the development of the business and we look forward to seeing how other BTL projects evolve. Vela first invested in BTL just over a year ago. Since then, BTL has attracted significant interest from investors, and is now valued at close to £600,000 based on BTL's current market price, making BTL Vela's second largest holding by market value. We wish Guy, Hugh and their team at BTL all the best for 2017 and look forward to keeping shareholders updated in due course."

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