The Inheritance Generation | GBI 17 | November 19

FOR PROFESSIONAL INVESTMENT SPECIALISTS

M AGAZINE

THE INHERITANCE GENER ATION

GOVERNMENT BACKED - GREAT BRITISH INVESTMENTS - EIS - SEIS - BR - SITR - VCT

The UK's No. 1 Conference for VCT & EIS Investors Meet the top VCT & EIS fund managers & the companies they back all in one place

Find out about the best VCT & EIS opportunities for 2019 and beyond

Understand how to maximize VCT & EIS returns for your clients

Thursday 21st November 2019 Leonardo Royal Hotel Tower Bridge, London

EXPO19

An amazing Expo celebrating all that is best about our industry.

Join us, book your tickets here

www.thevctandeisinvestorforum.com

CONTENTS

CHAPTER • 1 4 - 10 News

A round up of industry news

CHAPTER • 2 12 - 14 Stellar ICENI Service

Matthew Steiner on a new era for estate planning, the Stellar ICENI Service

CHAPTER • 3

16 - 17 Committed Capital

We talk to Glen Stewart, Head of Intermediated Capital Raising at Committed Capital, to find out more about the company’s strategic and operational signature

18 - 19 Hambro Perks

‘Staying Optimistic and Open-minded’, Andrew Sullivan talks to Hambro Perks about their team’s success, expertise and experience

20 - 21 The Exiteers

Bringing you news of successful exits in the sector

22 - 23 New Kids On The Block

A regular feature article to showcase the newest offerings from the sector

24 - 31 EIS Round Table, London

Insightful and informative articles emerging from key topics raised and discussed at our GBI EIS Round Table, London

CHAPTER • 4 35 - 50 Open Offers

Our listing of what’s currently available for subscription

Disclaimer

performance is no guarantee of future performance. The value of shares in any investee companies may go down as well as up and investors may not get back the full amount invested. Investors should not consider investing unless they can afford a total loss of their investment. Investments in unquoted shares carry higher risks than investments in quoted shares and involve a degree of risk as well as the opportunity of reward. It may be difficult to sell or realise the investment or obtain reliable information about its value. Any tax reliefs referred to in this publication are those currently applying or expected to apply. However, readers should be aware that tax reliefs and legislation can change. Their applicability and value will depend upon the individual circumstances of a given investor. Whilst the investments set out within may qualify for EIS and other tax advantageous breaks, there is no guarantee that EIS status or other tax efficient status can be maintained throughout the life of the investment. Both investee companies and investors need to comply with the requirements of the EIS legislation in order to maintain EIS Relief and non-compliance may result in the loss or partial claw-back of EIS Relief and potential interest penalties. The material in this yearbook is not to be regarded as an offer or invitation to buy or sell an investment, nor does it solicit any such offer or invitation, nor does it seek to endorse any particular investment product. Any information it contains is given in good faith, but no reliance should be placed upon the same. Applications to invest in any investment product referred to within should be made to the relevant promoter. GBI Magazine neither endorses any particular member, product or company/firm wishing to raise money under the EIS nor does it accept any liability for advice given. GBI Magazine is published by and a trademark of IFA Magazine Publications Ltd, Arcade Chambers, 8 King’s Road, Bristol BS8 4AB, Telephone 01173 258328 @2018 all rights reserved.

GBI Magazine is for professional advisers only. All material has been carefully check for accuracy but no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies. Wherever appropriate independent research and where necessary legal advice should be sought before acting on any information contained in this publication. The information and offers contained in this yearbook may not be suitable for all investors.

Readers should be sufficiently aware of the risks and ensure that they are of a suitable category as defined by the Financial Services and Markets Act to review and invest in any of the potential offers or funds. The information given in this publication is not to be construed as advice relating to legal, taxation or investment matters. The information contained in this yearbook does not constitute or form part of any offer to issue or sell, or any solicitation of an offer to subscribe or purchase any investment, nor shall it or the fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with any contract.

This yearbook is aimed at UK Investors and is not aimed at persons who are residents of any other country, including the United States of America and South Africa where the funds referred to herein are not registered or approved for marketing and/or sale and where the dissemination of information on the funds or services is not permitted. The information provided in the yearbook is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution, publication or use would be contrary to local law or regulation. The information contained herein may not be reproduced, distributed or published by any recipient for any purpose without the prior written consent of GBI Magazine. No representation, warranty, or undertaking, express or limited, is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information or opinions contained in this publication. As such, no reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information and opinions set out within it. Past

GBI Magazine is published by IFA Magazine Publications Ltd, Arcade Chambers, 8 Kings Road, Bristol BS8 4AB

M AGAZINE

Telephone: +44 (0) 1179 089686

Commissioning Editor: Michelle McGagh

Editor-in-Chief: Michael Wilson editor@ifamagazine.com

Publishing director: Alex Sullivan alex.sullivan@ifamagazine.com

City Editor: Neil Martin neil.martin@ifamagazine.com

Design: Becky Oliver

Full subscription details and eligibility criteria are available at www.gbinvestments.co.uk ©2017. All rights reserved.

Full subscription details and eligibility criteria are available at www.gbinvestments.co.uk

GBI Magazine is for professional advisers only.

GBI Magazine is a trademark of IFA Magazine Publications Limited. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in any printed or electronic retrieval system without prior permission. All material has been carefully checked for accuracy, but no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, independent research and where necessary legal advice should be sought before acting on any information contained in this publication.

What do we mean by ‘government backed’?

In the interests of clarity, any reference made by GB Investments to the point that EIS, VCTs and similar investments are government backed relates to the government’s general approval of these schemes, indicated by their having granted them highly tax advantaged status. The use of this term does not imply that government would in any way act in the capacity as a guarantor or backer of last resort in connection with such schemes.

Dunkirk without the boats?

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n an almost hourly basis, the bafflement that is Brexit deepens ever more divisively.

We also take a look at Nova’s first foray into fund launching, and at Deepbridge Capital’s successful iPipeline exit.

To misquote Churchill, we have no idea if it’s the beginning of the end, the end of the beginning or just the middle of a mess.

You’ll find details of EISA’s ‘Plan to Grow’ event in London on December 5th, which is designed to help you navigate your way around the constantly changing landscape of EIS and BR, and we’ll also bring you up to date with some of the latest stories from the sector as a whole. We have our regular investment showcase bringing you the latest offerings, and a listing of what subscription options feature at the moment.

So we’ll park it for now and concentrate on entirely positive news. Thankfully, the world of EIS is full of it.

In this, GBI’s 17th issue, we’ll examine how Stellar Asset Management is ushering in a new age of family office via its new estate planning offering, Stellar ICENI Services. Matthew Steiner, Business Development Director at Stellar, offers us an in-depth introduction to this ground-breaking innovation.

We report on a fascinating Round Table discussion held earlier in the summer in Hambro Perks’ spectacular Victorian atrium. Topics covered include the state of play in the EIS market after 25 years, the importance of education, research and transparency to the sector, and the less obvious benefits to both investees and investors of a successful start-up.

Glen Stewart, Head of Intermediated Capital Raising at Committed Capital, gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the firm’s operations and aspirations and his assessment of the present and future shape of the market.

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So, whatever happens between now and October 31st (if anything...), we’ll continue to monitor and report on all the developments in UK entrepreneurship and how investors can contribute and benefit in so many ways.

I hope you find GBI 17 of interest and a distraction from all the confusion.

See you on the other side!

GBI

Alex Alex Sullivan Managing Partner CML | GBI Magazine | IFA Magazine

News

Understanding the phenomenon that is family offices

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lpa Bhakta, CEO of Butterfield Mortgages, took the time to explain to us more about this fast-growing wealth management sector.

Over the last ten years, the world of wealth management has undergone a number of significant changes due to the emergence of new markets and technologies. Perhaps the most significant new trend is the rise of family offices as an alternative to private banks and other traditional wealth managers.

But what exactly is a family office, and what’s changed in order to make establishing one attractive for ultrahigh-net-worth individuals?

THE RISE OF THE FAMILY OFFICE A family office is a private advisory firm set up by an UHNW to manage their business interests and investment portfolios on a day-to-day basis. Aside from asset management, family offices typically act as full-service financial advisers.

While the amount of wealth vested in a family office varies wildly, they are usually required to manage a fund with a net worth in excess of £30 million due to the high overheads involved.

According to professional services firm EY, there are around 10,000 family offices operating globally today, compared with just 1,000 in 2008. Furthermore, the average size of these family offices, in terms of AUM, has grown considerably. Indeed, the family offices of the likes of James Dyson and Jim Ratcliffe have enough capital to rival some of the world’s most prestigious private banks and consequently, family offices are beginning to occupy a more central role within the financial ecosystem.

WHAT ADVANTAGES DO FAMILY OFFICES OFFER UHNWS? The rise in popularity of family offices reflects the desire for many UHNWs to have a greater degree of autonomy and discretion when it comes to their financial affairs.

This is a particularly pressing concern for UHNWs who are keen to avoid internal family conflict. In essence, having an office of full-time advisers on hand to manage transitional challenges can be a worthwhile expense for many.

Beyond succession planning, the appeal of family offices has been driven by a range of other factors as well. Impact investing for one, has led many investors to take a keener interest in exactly which vehicles their money is invested.

HOW TO APPROACH WORKING WITH FAMILY OFFICES? For any entrepreneur or investor looking to work with UHNWs, the proliferation of family offices presents a unique challenge. Namely, how to secure investment finance from private entities who rarely publish details of forthcoming deals or even take meetings with individuals with whom they do not have a preestablished relationship.

Patience is a virtue when it comes to working with family offices; relationships need to develop organically over time. However, it’s likely that with more UHNWs opting to set up a family office, the industry will begin to broaden its outlook when it comes to finding exciting and bespoke investment opportunities.

One potential way that individuals can attract the attention of family offices is via an industry association like the Family Office Council.

In the UK, the last decade has seen a significant rise in the number of UHNWs and this trend is expected to continue worldwide. However, with most of this growth coming from emerging markets, expect the next generation of family offices to be set up by wealthy individuals from a wide array of financial and cultural backgrounds. Consequently, while family offices might continue to become more commonplace, expect the sector to become more diverse as ultimately family offices are merely reflections of the families they serve. GBI

Still, the primary function of many family offices is to orchestrate a wealthy individual’s succession plan.

GB Investment Magazine · November 2019

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BlackRock selects Dynamic Planner to risk profile the MyMap fund range

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he four funds launched in May 2019 and join other BlackRock Funds which are already part of Dynamic Planner’s independent risk profiling service.

Dynamic Planner is one of the risk rating providers BlackRock employs and enables an accurate assessment of the expected risk characteristics of an investment fund or model portfolio over the longer term.

It performs a vital role in matching the expected risk of a fund or portfolio to that of the end investor’s agreed risk mandate - crucial to enable advisers to meet and exceed the regulator’s suitability requirements.

Pollyanna Harper, Head of iShares UK Intermediary Sales at BlackRock, said: “When it comes to selecting third party experts, we are incredibly diligent and robust in the process and steps we go through.

“Dynamic Planner is a trusted service provider, both in the industry and among advice firms, and, as a risk profiler on a number of BlackRock Funds, it makes sense to expand that mandate to include our newly launched MyMap range.”

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Chris Jones, Proposition Director at Dynamic Planner, said: “There is clearly an increasing importance being placed upon diligence, depth and accuracy when it comes to assessing the risk of a solution. Whether it’s the MIFID requirements for liquidity, credit and complexity, or the media focus on what well known funds are invested in, we need to go further than just ‘risk on risk off’ or Equity Bond ratios.

“Services like ours are in more demand than ever before and the organisations demanding them have raised the bar with more stringent selection processes. Given this backdrop, to be selected by BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, firmly underlines the quality, expertise and insight we offer.

“The way in which we risk profile solutions is becoming increasingly invaluable to advice firms planning for their clients and we know they will welcome the addition of four new BlackRock Funds to our risk profiling service.” GBI

News

Octopus sets out to disrupt the platform market

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ctopus Group, the London headquartered financial services and energy firm, has agreed a deal to acquire Seccl Technology for £10 million as it sets out to disrupt the platform technology market that underpins retail financial services.

The acquisition comes at a time when many adviser and wealth management firms are struggling with the rising costs and limitations of legacy systems.

Founded in 2017 and based in Bath, Seccl aims to help financial advisers, wealth managers, discretionary fund managers and fintechs deliver faster, cheaper and more flexible platform solutions to help manage and administer clients’ money.

Seccl does this using its best in class open API custody solution, allowing businesses of any size to rapidly build bespoke new investment platforms more easily and at a lower cost.

The underlying technology of Seccl is built using modern, modular software architecture that makes it scalable, customisable and easy to change or update. In practice, this allows Seccl to operate much faster than larger competitors, significantly reducing set-up and onboarding times and lowering the barrier to entry for smaller firms currently priced out of the market.

In addition to the £10 million acquisition, Octopus will provide continued investment as it grows the business. Once the deal completes, it will look to expand the Seccl team with new engineering, product and design staff, some of whom will move over from Octopus Wealth.

alongside Octopus Cash, the Octopus Investments cash management solution.

Simon Rogerson, CEO and co-founder of Octopus Group, commented: “Millions of us use platform technology everyday whether for online banking or managing investments. It determines our user experience and investment costs. But it’s a market crying out for change. Seccl’s innovative technology has the potential to completely transform the customer and client experience across retail financial services.

The market opportunity is enormous and we are all excited by its potential.”

David Harvey, co-founder of Seccl, said: “The platform technology space hasn’t changed in 10 years and, with a handful of firms now dominating the market, the time couldn’t be better for some new competition.

“Having created Seccl from scratch, rather than building on legacy systems, we operate with a fraction of the code base, which means we are cheaper, can move faster, and are ultimately open to smaller firms that can’t get a shoe in with the big providers today.”

Hugo Thorman, co-founder of Seccl, added: “The industry is on the cusp of a fundamental shift in the way it uses technology and I have always believed that our API-first technology would radically disrupt the market. With Octopus’ backing and expertise we are now well positioned to make this happen and drive change even faster.” GBI

For smaller advice firms who might prefer an off-theshelf solution, Seccl and Octopus will also build a full-service platform offering investment integration

GB Investment Magazine · November 2019

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Launch of a new BR guide from Hardman & Co

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ardman & Co, one of the leading analysts of Business Relief products, have interviewed and spoken with many nonAIM BR product providers and have accumulated insights and knowledge into these products. The firm’s sectoral expertise of the markets in which these providers invest has prompted them to publish ‘Business Relief Products: the truth about what’s underneath.’

The market for Estate Planning is growing; little surprise as more and more people are caught by Inheritance Tax every year.

We are now in what has been called the ‘Inheritance Generation’, when the baby boomers are beginning to leave their estates. It is estimated that £1 trillion will change hands over the next decade, and £5.5 trillion over the next 30 years. It is a massive opportunity for advisers.

ISSUES FOR ADVISERS The problem for most advisers is that the investments that BR product providers make are unfamiliar to them. Advisers are not experts in power generation or lending, hotels or forestry, which are just some of the sectors that these product providers invest in.

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It is, therefore, crucial to understand the risks and characteristics of these products. These investments can go wrong, as has been demonstrated in recent months.

It is only if they understand the risks that advisers can give the most appropriate advice to their clients.

A HELPING HAND FROM HARDMAN & CO Written by two experienced sector analysts, Brian Moretta and Nigel Hawkins, the new guide explores what the investment risks of these products are and how to identify them. It has been enthusiastically welcomed by advisers that have had early sight of it.

Richard Angus, Head of Business Development at Hardman & Co said: ‘It is essential that advisers understand what they are selling. This guide illuminates the investments underlying BR products, so that advisers can recommend these products with confidence.’

To obtain a copy of this guide please contact Vilma Pabilionyte on 020 7194 7637, or email vp@hardmanandco.com GBI

News

Smartlands successfully closes sale of security tokens in student accommodation block in Nottingham

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martlands, a global platform for crowdfunding investments in multiple asset classes through the use of security tokens, has announced the successful completion of its pilot security token offering.

The investment target was reached during the private placement of security tokens as beneficial interest in shares of a student accommodation block in Nottingham, valued by Knight Frank at £12.06m in September, 2018.

Smartlands Platform raised enough capital from private investors to buy 30% of Winrise One Limited – the company that owns the property, with the remaining 70% being held by the original developer Windermere Capital Investments Ltd. and Shojin Property Partners. Shojin Property Partners is the manager of the investment.

“The investment period is three years,” comments Arnoldas Nauseda, Smartlands CEO, “however, there may be an opportunity for investors to sell their Investee Tokens earlier when Smartlands finishes work on its proprietary secondary market trading platform scheduled for launch in late 2019.

There may also be an option to extend the period of investment beyond three years.”

Investors are expected to earn an income return of 5.74% per annum on average, paid quarterly over the three-year term (excluding the expected capital growth). The total expected ROIC is 47.17% over three years (15.72% annualised), which includes income and capital growth. Both of the abovementioned expected returns are after corporation tax and a 20% profit share paid to the originator Shojin Property Partners.

Smartlands Platform is a Worldwide Security Token Issuance Platform designed for 21stcentury crowdfunding. The platform is geared to bring together token issuers and investors by creating blockchain-based securities backed by digital ownership of shares in multiple asset classes. Smartlands Platform is built on the Stellar network and employs advanced blockchain technology with fast, cheap, secure transactions and extended capabilities. GBI

GB Investment Magazine · November 2019

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Parkwalk invests £50 million into university spin-outs in 2019

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arkwalk’s Opportunities EIS Fund, the largest EIS Fund in the 2018/19 tax year having raised £63m, has invested in over 20 deals this year with investment rounds varying from £0.75m to £25m with an average of £5.5m. The university spin-out sector has been burgeoning with deal activity this year.

Parkwalk has deployed £50m in the spin-out space, backing companies from plant genetics to graphene production, AI driven insurance platforms to genomics.

Moray Wright, CEO of Parkwalk Advisors, told GBI Magazine: “Our investment team has seen record deal flow in the past 9 months and we have closed a number of deals across the university spin-out sector – often as part of double digit funding rounds.”

As a result of the deployment figures, Parkwalk have been named 7th in the global top 10 Internet of Things venture capital investors in 2018 by Global Data, alongside an impressive list of VC firms around the world.

Beauhurst, the research firm, also named Parkwalk the most active investor into venture deals in 2018 and the most prolific investor into UK AI deals in the UK since 2011.

Wright continued: “As a result of our deployment rates, we continue to invest EIS subscriptions within 12 months and have visibility on a further £30m of investment this tax year.”

Recent investments by the Parkwalk investment team include: MoA Technology, which was spun out from Oxford University’s Plant Sciences Department. MoA closed a

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£6.3m Series A funding round, co-led by Parkwalk and Oxford Sciences Innovation.

Congenica has translated research from the Sanger Institute, Cambridge. The company is a provider of diagnostic support services to Genomics England (who recently completed the 100,000 genome project).

Congenica raised a £13m Series B investment round led by Parkwalk. The round attracted new strategic investors, including Digital China Health Technologies Corporation.

PredictImmune is a Cambridge spin-out which is providing tools (biomarkers) to physicians to help manage the treatment of various auto-immune diseases. PredictImmune raised a £10m Series B investment round co-led by Parkwalk, alongside BGF who are a new investor in the company.

Paragraf from Cambridge University is harnessing the extremely high conductivity, strength, low weight and ultimate flexibility of graphene.

Paragraf closed a £12.8m Series A round led by Parkwalk. The round also included investment from IQ Capital Partners, Amadeus Capital Partners and Cambridge Enterprise.

Cytora is a spin-out from the University of Cambridge with the aim of applying AI to commercial insurance supported by various public and proprietary data.

Cytora raised £25 million in a Series B round. New investor EQT Ventures led the round with Parkwalk, Cambridge Innovation Capital and a number of other investors participating. GBI

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A NEW ERA

FOR ESTATE PLANNING Stellar Asset Management is offering financial advisers the chance to build a family office solution for their clients with its new estate planning service, Stellar ICENI.

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dvisers can turn their businesses into family offices with the help of a new planning service, Stellar ICENI, that provides in-depth investment services to clients and allows them to tap into a rich seam of inter-generational tax planning.

Stellar Asset Management is best known to advisers for its specialist estate planning services, including its Stellar AIM Portfolio Service, Stellar Income Portfolio Service, Stellar Growth Portfolio Service and Stellar Business Service that provide tax-efficient investments using the premise of ‘business relief’ (BR) to allow investments to become inheritance tax (IHT) exempt after two years.

Stellar recently expanded its service to fill the ‘huge gaps’ in the estate planning services being offered to clients.

Estate planning is more than just reducing an IHT bill, it often involves the need for power of attorney, specialist tax advisers, probate services, and advice for family members who have been bequeathed sums of money.

Stellar’s Business Development Director Matthew Steiner said the company and its directors have been creating and managing services that qualify for BR for 20 years, which is a preferable way to tax plan for IHT

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as gifting money or using trusts means the person gifting the money needs to survive for seven years before it is exempt from IHT. Over the last five years, Steiner says he had seen ‘massive changes in the way these services are used’ as a ‘legitimate financial planning tool’ rather than a quick-fix investment ‘for the death bed’ in order to remove capital from an estate.

‘It’s not just older clients that advisers are using us for,’ says Steiner. ‘They are starting to split out their services, and we have AIM portfolio, Growth portfolio, and Income portfolios. We also have a single company portfolio that turns the investors into a shareholder in a qualifying business.’

As well as thinking about IHT planning earlier, advisers are also thinking about where else they can help their clients plan around death.

‘High-net-worth investors need tax advice, and business owners need tax advice. If you do not have a power of attorney in place or a will, it will undermine the whole rationale for financial planning in the first place,’ says Steiner.

This is where the new Stellar ICENI Service is aiming to fill the gaps, by providing advisers with access to specialists that will enable fuller financial planning for their clients.

Stellar ICENI offers tax advice from Obsidian, legal services, and estate administration from Kings Court Trust through its new service, as well as its own investment solutions.

Advisers can choose the levels of involvement they have with each of the partners, adding to the services as and when they are needed. It may be that advisers start with an investment solution from Stellar and then involve the legal services and tax service at a later date, then finally the estate administration.

‘The service can be matched to the needs of the underlying client,’ says Steiner. ‘Maybe they need to think about power of attorney, maybe they have a big IHT liability. It could be that they only take legal advice.

We have a lot of interest in the tax advice partners for clients who have businesses, overseas properties, or complex tax affairs.

By offering clients a holistic service, advisers will be able to take better advantage of what Steiner calls the ‘largest transfer of wealth in 30 years’, as the baby boomers pass down their accumulated wealth to their children.

‘If you are a really good financial planner, you spend your life optimising your clients’ financial position and you want to continue doing that for the next generation and become the architect for the next of kin - that is a great business model for an advice firm,’ says Steiner.

He says Stellar ICENI has shaped the partners service proposition as an ‘inter-generational wealth transfer’, which puts advisers ‘in a strong position’.

‘They may be looking for an interpretation of the law in a specific area.’

‘The other big benefit is helping financial advisers to develop and identify not just the next generation of clients but other members of the family that are important – the executors of the estate, family who will inherit money, friends that will inherit, who has power of attorney,’ he says.

While advisers will be familiar with the work of legal and tax specialists, estate administration may be a new area for them. Steiner describes it as a ‘concierge service for grief’.

‘If the adviser is able to build a strong picture of the family and the other key people, they have a better chance when the money is transferred to the next generation to retain the investment.’

‘You have probate but administration is a third of the cost of a solicitor and they will sort everything out: the transfer of utilities at a property, they will even get someone to mow the lawn of a property so it is easier to sell… A solicitor oversees the probate but is not skilled in being a financial detective and hunting down every aspect of a person’s finances. However, estate administrators will, and they will take care of everything.’

Steiner says after the death of a client, the ‘vast majority’ of money leaves a financial adviser - around 90% of assets are lost, and two-thirds of spousal benefits leaves advisers’ control.

All of these additional services mean ‘financial advisers are confident they can offer the highest level of service and give their clients the best outcome’, says Steiner.

‘It’s a family office solution for many firms,’ says Steiner.

‘For some advisers who work for larger firms, Stellar ICENI may not be the right thing because they may already have the infrastructure to deal with it, but if you are a small or medium-sized business where you do not have the infrastructure of larger firms, you can call on the partners to facilitate the services.’

Stellar ICENI creates a ‘collaborative service’ that ‘keeps clients at the centre of the advice process’ and not only allows advisers to retain the next generation of business but gain reciprocal work through the other partners.

‘The adviser works in a connected way with other partners,’ says Steiner. ‘The tax advisers will be making sure the financial adviser is in the loop all the time.’

In order to explain the proposition to advisers and help them explain it to their clients in turn, Stellar ICENI is developing a toolkit to provide introductory letters to accountancy firms, and regular seminars and workshops with the specialist partners.

Education is key for both advisers and clients and Stellar wants to expand adviser knowledge of tax-efficient

GB Investment Magazine · November 2019

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investment solutions. Advisers may be more aware of the benefits of EIS and VCT, the latter of which raised a record sum of £728 million in the 2017/18 tax year, the highest amount raised at the current level of 30% upfront tax relief. However, less is known about BR. Steiner says that VCTs and EIS require clients to invest in small companies and ‘put their investment capital at risk to get upfront tax relief’.

‘You are going to have some people switch off from this,’ says Steiner. ‘You cannot just get tax relief for the relief’s sake.

‘Business relief acts like a much wider investment. It is asset-backed with physical assets that do not have the same risk profile. A lot of the education we do is encouraging financial advisers to separate EIS and VCT from BR because it’s not the same.’

Steiner adds that the portfolios with single companies that make clients the only shareholder provide a bespoke arrangement designed for each client’s needs. “The rules from HMRC in BR qualifying activities are clear and our structures are robust and stand up to scrutiny.”

‘With single company portfolios, clients become shareholders in companies and undertake qualifying business actions and then they get the tax relief in two years. We are a nation of shopkeepers; there are investments in UK forestry, hotels, and residential property developments.’

Steiner says the investment that BR provides for British business is ‘great in light of Brexit’ and in terms of investing, Stellar ‘knows a lot of sectors very well’.

‘We have the widest range of physical asset choices in the industry,’ he says. ‘Whether that’s hotels in

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Scotland, residential developments, renewables, or construction finance.’

Steiner maintains that the Stellar portfolios provide a great way for advisers to add diversification to their clients’ portfolios as well as gaining valuable tax reliefs. The AIM Portfolio Service, which is available on platforms such as Transact and Standard Life, is well diversified, holding an average of 40 companies in the funds compared to the industry average of 25.

‘We are steady and cautious and will diversify, and we have been doing this for over 20 years,’ he says.

While EIS has been under the microscope in recent year and Steiner believes much of this is to do with the upfront tax relief received, the tax reliefs are different around BR as it is only offered on the death of the investor as long as they have held the investment for at least two years, with no upfront reliefs and no ‘advanced assurance’ that they will qualify, as with EIS. ‘The client is assessed for BR on their estate on death and you cannot get any advanced assurance,’ says Steiner.

Stellar ICENI is aiming to take advisers into a new realm of financial planning, not only using BR but with its estate planning service.

‘We do not think there is any such thing as IHT planning,’ says Steiner. ‘You create an estate plan to pass money down to the next generation. It is a reallocation of capital into into something more tax efficient.

‘Death and wills scare people - we are adjusting a portfolio and re-allocating assets to protect wealth.’ GBI

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Invest in the UK’s most exciting entrepreneurial businesses and benefit from generous tax reliefs

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Calculus Capital is celebrating its 20th year, as a multi-award winning leader of tax efficient investment.

The Calculus EIS Fund and Calculus VCT invest in businesses with strong growth potential, over a range of sectors with good quality management teams.

To find out more get in touch on: info@calculuscapital.com, 020 7493 4940 or visit www.calculuscapital.com

Before investing in the Calculus VCT or Calculus EIS Fund, you should read their respective Prospectus and Information Memorandum carefully and take professional advice. EIS and VCT are long term investments, and their value can fall as well as rise. Any person making a subscription to the VCT or EIS Fund must be able to bear the associated risks.

COMMITTED CAPITAL GBI Magazine caught up with Glen Stewart, Head of Intermediated Capital Raising at Committed Capital, to find out more about the company’s strategic and operational signature.

Glen is a tax adviser and previously worked at Coopers & Lybrand, PwC and Deloitte specialising in HNW, Expatriate tax and cross border advice.

Glen has 14 years’ experience raising capital for businesses in partnership with financial advisers and accountants, utilising tax efficient investment wrappers such as EIS and VCT. WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR FIRM’S APPROACH IN 2019 AND WHAT ABOUT 2020?

The rule changes brought about by the Patient Capital Review (PCR) aligned perfectly with our growth investment strategy, which we will continue into 2020.

Operationally, we continue to grow the team to meet increased interest in our EIS Fund from financial advisers looking for fund managers with an existing track record in the growth space.

WHAT’S YOUR FIRM’S USP? Our track record. We put this down to the depth and breadth of our rigorous due diligence process and the emphasis we place on human capital.

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Since 2001, we have made multiple investment rounds across 33 EIS qualifying companies, achieved 19 exits and 2 partial exits, with just 1 partial failure. We delivered an average 2.35xROI. (excluding tax reliefs) against a target return of 2-3x ROI. The importance of human capital cannot be underestimated. A company can have a world class product or service, first mover advantage and distinct USPs - but without a cohesive management team and a clearly defined sales and marketing strategy, the company will not achieve its potential.

HAS YOUR FIRM CHANGED IN ANY WAY DURING THE YEAR? We have invested significantly in our back-office infrastructure and client facing investor portal, having adopted the Exact Libris software.

We are structuring a non-EIS qualifying LLP fund with a £100m target fundraise aimed at institutional and HNW investors. This will provide follow-on investment for investee companies which have outgrown the EIS framework, and new non EISqualifying investee companies.

THE UK HAS A STRONG START-UP/ ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE – WHAT DO YOU PUT THAT DOWN TO? Connectivity and access to a wide range of finance options. Entrepreneurs are more networked than ever before, with an abundant choice of accelerators and incubators providing support, space and resources. We have a supportive government offering several funding routes for startups and growth stage companies.

There is also the availability of R&D tax credits, finance secured through SEIS, VCT and EIS funding options, crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending - all helping entrepreneurs turn their vision into reality.

WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON THE GOVERNMENT’S RECENT CHANGES TO EIS? The PCR brought about welcome changes that realigned the legislation with the purpose for which it was originally intended. Following this review, it would be beneficial for investors, advisers and fund managers alike to have a period of legislative stability without further change.

WHAT CHANGES TO THE SCHEMES WOULD YOU SUGGEST? It would be great to see tax incentives reintroduced for established companies investing into growth stage companies by way of the Corporate Venturing Scheme (CVS) that expired in March 2010. CVS was very similar to EIS, albeit the tax breaks were less.

WHAT SECTORS DO YOU SPECIALISE IN AND WHY? Since 2001, we have focused on growth-stage UKbased technology companies that are post revenue (£1m+). It is an important and growing sector because

tech is part of our everyday lives and comprises many sub-sectors. According to the 2019 Tech Nation report, total venture capital investment in UK tech in 2018 topped £6bn, more than any other European country.

ARE MORE CLIENTS BECOMING INTERESTED IN THE SCHEMES? From our own perspective, this is certainly the case with an ongoing year on year increase in FUM. According to HMRC statistics released in May, in 2017-18 a total of £1,929 million was raised under EIS vs £1,901 million in 2016-17.

Changes to pension annual and lifetime limits, a volatile stock market, sustained low interest rates and increased promotion of EIS investment opportunities continue to increase client interest.

HOW CAN ADVISERS CONTINUE TO EDUCATE CLIENTS ABOUT THE INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN EIS? There are a number of insightful resources that can assist advisers educating clients about EIS opportunities, such as the EIS Association and Intelligent Partnership. EIS can be a complex area and advisers can also tap into the knowledge of Fund Managers when considering the interaction of the generous tax reliefs available, investment opportunities and specific client cases.

ARE THERE ANY CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON? With the UK’s strong entrepreneurial culture, we continue to see innovation and very strong deal flow.

We anticipate demand for investment to increase with interest rate rises and access to more traditional bank finance still scarce. For the foreseeable future, we expect it to be “business as usual”. GBI

GB Investment Magazine · November 2019

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‘STAYING OPTIMISTIC AND OPEN-MINDED’ Andrew Sullivan talks to Hambro Perks about their team’s success, expertise and experience.

WHAT IS YOUR FIRM’S APPROACH? Hambro Perks helps outstanding founders build world-changing businesses. We invest permanent, patient capital from our own balance sheet and this means we are aligned with the long-term goals and interests of our entrepreneurs.

We aim to take early risk in businesses, investing where we can add significant value through applying and sharing the expertise our team has built up over many decades’ combined experience.

We believe we are the destination of choice for the very best entrepreneurs, and they actively choose us to support them. The Hambro Perks Co-Investment EIS Fund enables individuals to co-invest alongside us at the earliest stages in a company’s journey, knowing that we have invested our own capital and that we have applied an institutional level of analysis and diligence.

WHAT’S YOUR FIRM’S USP? We are active investors and seek to add value over and above the capital we invest. The fact that we invest our own shareholder capital, combined with an understanding that building a business is never easy and takes time, allows us to be patient in the support we provide.

Our shareholder base of successful, wealthy individuals, family offices and corporates is our single

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greatest asset – the expertise we are able to draw on is priceless. Our Co-Investment Fund enables individuals to invest alongside us in the same deals… and of course it’s worth pointing out that when Hambro Perks invests it doesn’t benefit from any EIS reliefs (being a company) but our individual coinvestors, if eligible to claim them, are buying the same deals 30% cheaper!

THE UK APPEARS TO HAVE A STRONG ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE – WHY? One trend that has been strengthening for some time now is the migration of talent away from industries that used to attract the brightest people. This is happening both at the new graduate level, where banks, accountancy and law have lost their lustre, and among seasoned professionals who have excelled in their first career and are looking to apply their experience to new ventures.

We have backed young first time entrepreneurs with limited experience up to ex partners of huge global concerns. The willingness to take risk is nothing new in the UK, and we have always been among the greatest innovators, but whereas in the past we were perhaps too eager to sell early, the shift in mindset towards wanting to found, build and scale businesses rather than see our best inventions benefit others seems to be gathering momentum.

VIEWS ON THE GOVERNMENT’S CHANGES TO EIS?

HOW CAN EIS INVESTMENTS CONTINUE TO HELP DIVERSIFY CLIENT PORTFOLIOS?

We have always focused solely on growth, and used to find it disconcerting that there were those who pushed the spirit of the rules to combine tax breaks with a guaranteed return. We welcome and applaud the recent moves from the Government to focus on risk to capital to ensure that EIS reliefs go to those investors that are willing to take significant risks in funding early stage businesses. In the short term this is leading to negative headlines around the drop in total EIS investment, but over time it will only be a positive.

The UK economy as a whole is performing reasonably well, however much of that growth is being driven by smaller, unlisted companies. As growing businesses stay private for longer it is increasingly hard for investors to access that growth through public equity portfolios. Investing in early stage businesses gives access to that growth.

COULD FUTURE GOVERNMENT CHANGES UNDERMINE THE SCHEME’S EFFECTIVENESS? We would never want to second-guess future Government policy, but the Treasury’s work shows that the scheme’s impact over time is hugely beneficial to the economy as a whole. That’s not to say that a short-sighted Government couldn’t alter the scheme to reduce its effectiveness, but this would certainly be a negative for the economy.

HOW WOULD YOU ALTER THE SCHEMES? I would change the 3-year cliff edge rule for exits so that the loss of reliefs could be scaled according to the time that had passed since the investment was made. At the time of investment the risk was high and that is the point in time where EIS is crucial.

There’s also the argument that great entrepreneurs will build incredible businesses whatever the economic backdrop. If a business offers an incredible new service, or makes an existing offering easier or cheaper to use, then that business will succeed. There is great benefit to exposure to this potential within a diversified portfolio.

ANY CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON? It’s always possible to worry about the world, but really at our core we are looking to back outstanding founders and we have to be optimistic and open-minded. As long as the UK keeps backing entrepreneurs and helping them succeed, we think our best days are ahead. GBI

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THE EXITEERS Bringing you news of successful exits in the sector

Deepbridge Capital, the tax-efficient investment manager and EIS provider, recently announced the exit of its holding in iPipeline Holdings Inc. The company was sold for $1.625bn and Deepbridge Capital have been kind enough to provide some extra background for GBI and its readers.

COULD YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE FUND INVESTED IN THE COMPANY AND HOW LONG IT WAS INVESTED FOR? Investments were originally made in to Resonant Software Inc., which subsequently merged with iPipeline Holdings Inc. in 2017.y WHAT EXACTLY DOES THE COMPANY DO? iPipeline is a provider of cloud-based software solutions to customers in the financial services and life industry. Resonant’s software, which was merged with iPipeline, focused on automating compliance processes within the financial and insurance sectors.

WHAT DID THE COMPANY INVEST THE MONEY IN? The two main areas they concentrated on were product development , and also to giving a boost to sales & marketing strategies and their implementation.

HOW MUCH WAS RAISED? £3.78m.

HOW WAS THE EXIT ACHIEVED? It was a trade sale; Thoma Bravo, LLC, a leading private equity investment firm, entered into a definitive

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agreement to sell iPipeline to Roper Technologies. The company was acquired for $1.625bn, and concurrent with the transaction, Larry Berran, iPipeline’s CFO & COO, was appointed CEO of the company.

The exit culminated a highly successful four-year partnership between Thoma Bravo and iPipeline, the result of which was a significant increase in the company’s valuation. Following its acquisition in 2015, Thoma Bravo worked with iPipeline’s management to drive organic growth in its core markets and transform the company’s product offerings through five highly strategic acquisitions. Today, iPipeline is the market leader in cloud-based software that powers the entire life insurance and annuity process from application to administration.

HOW MUCH WAS RETURNED TO INVESTORS? £5.97m in total, a return of up to 3x on investment.

We first invested in Resonant Software in 2013 and brought this highly innovative software to the UK, from the USA, under permanent establishment rules.

Due to our hands-on management style, we were able to ensure Resonant’s subsequent merger with iPipeline in 2017 was completed in a manner that was best suited to the interests of our investors. We are delighted to complete another exit and provide a positive return to our investors. The successes of our investee companies reinforce our commitment to identifying, managing and supporting the best technology and life sciences innovations. GBI

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THE NEW KIDS

ON THE BLOCK

Although Nova have been around for 10 years investing in start-up tech businesses, this is the first fund they have launched and are aiming to promote to IFAs for the first time.

TELL US ABOUT THE FUND The Nova cofoundery SEIS & EIS fund invests alongside Nova in early stage technology start-ups.

Andy Davidson, CEO, is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years experience in co-founding technology companies and still holds directorships in many successful tech businesses including Sentric Music and Lucid Games. In 2017, Andy was recognised by the Sunday Times as one of the UK’s top 100 disruptive entrepreneurs.

With the launch of the fund Nova private investors have the opportunity to co-invest alongside Nova into their portfolio of potentially fast growth, SEIS and EIS eligible, technology startups. Investors are benefiting from Nova’s experience and track record, as well as an attractive category of tax relief available to UK investors.

The fund is intended for individuals • Seeking a diversified exposure to knowledge intensive companies in the UK • With income tax liability in the preceding or current tax years • With large capital gains to defer or mitigate • Who will benefit from IHT relief The coinvestment model means that Nova provide team members and business services to each start-up within the portfolio on a flexible basis. In the opinion of

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Nova, this prevents the start-up from locking in fixed monthly costs, provides a flexible cashflow runway and ensures the start-up has the optimum mix of skills and experience to achieve their objectives.

Nova receives part of its payment for these services in cash and invests part of its payment on the same terms as the fund. This aligns both Nova and the fund investors in seeking successful exits for the portfolio companies.

Between 2008 and 2018, Nova invested in over 70 companies, with portfolio growth in excess of 80% year on year. Nova had created £72 million in shareholder value by 2018, and as Nova only invests at the point of a company’s inception, none of that value existed before Nova became involved.

HOW MUCH IS BEING RAISED? £6,000,000 during tax year 2019/2020 WHAT TYPES OF INVESTMENTS ARE BEING SOUGHT? Nova are passionate about investing in growthfocused technology start-ups, companies which have passionate founders and have the potential to disrupt existing markets. To date Nova have invested in over 70 technology start-ups, with a further 30 planned for this year, covering multiple different verticals including MedTech, FinTech, EdTech and PropTech.

Investments made into the fund are deployed in the knowledge intensive sector and split between SEIS

and EIS qualifying companies. The fund invests in a minimum of 10 investee companies per quarter, each of which is engaged in solving industry problems with the use of a digital solution. Investors’ funds will typically be deployed across at least 10 companies in the quarter they are received.

The selection of investee companies and the subsequent allocation of investor’s subscriptions to the investee companies are made at the discretion of the Investment Manager with appropriate guidance from the Investment Advisor.

The investment strategy for the fund is to deploy into early stage companies, and founders, that exhibit some or all of the following qualities: • Significant market potential with clear and demonstrable consumer or commercial need or demand • A problem originated solution that has the potential to create new market segments or displace current market offerings • Companies that utilise a technology-derived platform and/or an innovative approach to meet a newly-identified or existing market or consumer demand • Knowledge intensive opportunities that possess a clear and realistic path to the delivery of a maximum viable product or prototype • A clearly defined strategy aimed at creating and protecting intellectual property • Passionate, energetic and experienced founders • A clear exit strategy to be implemented within 4-5 years with alignment of founder interests with shareholders WHAT IS THE MINIMUM INVESTMENT? The minimum individual investment in the fund is £10,000, or £1000 per month. At Nova’s discretion, smaller individual investments may be accepted. The

maximum investment per year is £2,100,000. Nova encourages investors to invest via a monthly premium setup on their platform. Over several years a regular investor will benefit from a diversified portfolio of over 100 underlying companies.

WHAT IS THE TARGETED RETURN? In the opinion of Nova, against industry research conducted by Beahurst 2011-2016 showing tech company CAGR of 34%, the fund is prudently targeting growth of 20% year on year. At this growth rate investor returns including tax incentives of £2.18 for every £1 invested are being targeted. If, however, Nova portfolio growth continues in line with historical performance of 83%, investors could see returns of £5.70 for every £1 invested.

WHICH ARE YOUR TOP FUND HOLDINGS? Nova’s portfolio is made up of a diverse range of technology businesses including; Aquarate - A suite of sensor based medical devices for automated fluid balance monitoring in hospital patients and care home residents. Preventing illness and reducing lives lost due to hydration related illnesses.For further information please visit https:// aquarate.com/ Hygenie - An active monitoring system that allows hospitals to detect usage of hand hygiene stations, helping reduce healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) and improve patient safety. For further information please visit https://hygenie.io/ Woowi - A wearable device that supports SEN children to discover mindfulness when emotional stress levels are elevated. For further information please visit https://woowi.co.uk/ MenuGuru - Making eating out easy, accessible and painless for both the growing population of food allergy and intolerance sufferers, and the restaurants that serve them. For further information please visit https://menuguru.co.uk/ GBI

GB Investment Magazine · November 2019

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M AGAZINE

EIS ROUND TABLE LONDON

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Round Table

PARTICIPANTS Dominic Perks

Nicholas Baker

Co-Founder

Partner

Hambro Perks E: Dominic@hambroperks.com

Baker Jenness Financial Management

Nicholas Sharp

Ollie Povey

CIO

Co-founder and COO, Tempo

Hambro Perks Co-Investment EIS Fund E: Nicholass@hambroperks.com

E: ollie@heytempo.com T: +44 (0)208 634 7137 W: www.heytempo.com

Adam Francis

Richard Angus

Mattioli Woods plc

Hardman & Co, Head of Business Development

T: +44 (0)1638 564230 E: adam.francis@mattioliwoods.com W: www.mattioliwoods.com

T: +44 (0)207 194 7622 E: ra@hardmanandco.com W: www.hardmanandco.com

Andrew Aldridge

Roger Tull

Partner, Head of Marketing

Independent Financial Adviser, Positive Solutions

T: +44 (0)1244 746000 E: Andrew.aldridge@deepbridgecapital.com

T: +44 (0)1702 482021 M: 07780 666782 W: www.rogertull.co.uk

Henry Hall

Stephen Jones

Founder

Clear Solutions Wealth & Tax Management Ltd

HH Kollective E: Henry@henrykhall.com

T: +44 (0)1283 730080 W: www.clearsolutionsifa.co.uk

Jack Curzon

Dr. Rajiv Mathur

Consulting Director

CTO and Director

Thomsons Online Benefits

Chainvine Ltd W: www.chainvine.com

E: Jack.curzon@thomsons.com

T: 07941 005829 E: Bakerjenness@aol.com

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25 YEARS ON, WHERE DOES THE EIS MARKET STAND? On June 6th, 12 delegates with varying backgrounds but a common interest in discussing EIS with their peers gathered in the magnificent Victorian atrium at Hambro Perks in Westminster.

T

he round table discussion was chaired

by Richard Angus, Head of Business Development at Hardman & Co, the independent investment research firm, alongside Alex Sullivan, Managing Partner of IFA Magazine.

After a brief round table welcome and introductions Richard posed the first question of the discussion, asking after 25 successful years “where does the table think that the EIS market stands now?”

Andrew Aldridge, Partner and Head of Marketing at Deepbridge remarked that “the EIS market has never been in ruder health than it is now. It is now established and we recently saw the statistics from 2017/18, which was a record year for EIS fundraising.

There is big money staying in EIS and the prospects are excellent.”

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DO PEOPLE GET EIS? But of course, there are still issues the EIS market needs to address and it was felt that as a slight step aside from standard investment, there is pressure from Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) industries on ‘outside the box’ ideas. Everybody recognises that EIS is a complicated product, but it can be, and needs to be, simpler to communicate. Correctly, the regulatory stance is that it is a high-risk investment, but it needs to be more specific about high risk so advisers can explain it more clearly.

EIS is still seen as niche, but perhaps not as niche as it was. Some delegates felt the perception among IFAs is that the tax benefits tail is wagging the investment dog, and there aren’t a huge number of mainstream clients who are interested. As Nick Baker, IFA at Positive Solutions in Sussex put it:

Round Table

“There is not enough information for us as advisers to be able to confidently say to a client ‘it starts here, this is what happens, and it ends here’, which is what most people like and can easily understand. Instead you have to say it might be 3, 5 or 7 years. I know it is a tax issue, but they are looking at it as an investment. If you can’t give a defined termination, standard investors will say, ‘Then I’m not interested - what else is there?’”

WHERE ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES? So, if EIS is outside the compass of the ordinary investor, where is the capital funding going to come from?

Richard Angus observed: “We have talked to the biggest wealth managers in the country and there is a concern that if the advisers aren’t informed on EIS some opportunities could get lost in translation – no adviser wants to give a bad sales pitch. We think the 5565 year old bracket of current or ex-businesspeople, if made more aware, would be very interested in putting capital in this area.”

Aldridge agreed, saying: “In any walk of life there are the good and the not-so-good. Any adviser who has worked in this space and knows it well can have an eloquent conversation with clients.

“For many advisers, particularly if they have clients who are business owners, the CGT could be the initial trigger point for considering EIS, rather than income tax relief. If the client wishes to sell their business or property portfolio, they may say ‘What could I do about tax liability?’ The CGT is a huge lump sum – it can be the spur to advisers to investigate EIS. Clients who are selling their businesses are called to this market. They trigger the adviser interest.”

Roger Tull, IFA at Positive Solutions believes the secret is to “Anticipate the demand. I have clients who have property deals happening in a few years who know nothing about EIS now. I will start an education process now. If we know the clients well enough, we know if they are planning to exit the business or having a life change and that they could be brought into the market.”

SMOOTHING THE PATH

entrepreneurs. It does work in the long term if you have diversified risk. If they don’t have access to capital it blows up. Is life easier than a year ago? Is knowledge seeping into the buy side?”

Nicholas Sharp, Head of Co-Investment Fund at Hambro Perks responded: “I have to be careful because we’re only a year old – but one thing is clear, there are a huge number of people who actively want to invest in early stage businesses.

“The issue is finding investees, with the pitch that really resonates. We filter 2,000 or 3,000 opportunities each year. You can be on a distribution list and those brokers only pay if money ends up in the company.

They have no skin in the game. We do and crucially that shows our interests are aligned. Many businesses do fail and they want to know it will hurt you as well as the manager.

“What they want to know is that you will do the work and that you owe money in that. You will work alongside them and so raising capital is not a big challenge.”

Andrew Aldridge again: “It’s about ‘what is the appropriate investment?’ Several years ago, if appropriate meant EIS then off an adviser might go to the largest EIS provider in the market - box ticked job done. That was the status quo and perhaps consideration wasn’t given to the appropriateness of the manager or their investment style.

“That attitude has changed. There are a number of entrants in the market like our peers here today, all great guys, who understand the VC market and the intricacies of supporting early-stage companies, and that is good for the industry. It adds credibility to what people are investing in.”

At this point the chair called for a short break, which meant the Nespresso machine took a caning and Westminster’s mobile network came under severe pressure.

Afterwards the discussion ranged widely, taking in adviser and consumer education, fees, research resources, investor benefits and some investee experiences, which we will report in our next articles. GBI

Angus posed the question, “When you are marketing, is life getting easier? Are you understood by advisers or are there obstacles still to be overcome? I talk to people outside our industry about the nature of investing in

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EIS - EDUCATION, INFORMATION, SIMPLICITY Three words kept being repeated during our round table session kindly hosted by Hambro Perks – ‘transparency’, ‘research’ and ‘education’. All attendees agreed that each of these is vital, and they unanimously declared that there is still a lot of room for improvement.

THE CHALLENGE OF CHARGES Stephen Jones, Chartered Financial Planner at Clear Solutions Wealth and Tax Management, identified transparency as one of the key issues in the EIS market: “There is a lot of work about EIS and Hardman & Co. has provided evidence about the range of charges and there are different descriptions of charges, which is leading to transparency with providers.

“Most people don’t understand the range of charges and how to analyse them. There is the personal issue with carrying interest and people are quiet about it.”

Andrew Aldridge of Deepbridge totally agreed: “There is a range of fees and a range of terminology of fees – it’s an ongoing industry discussion. There is a myriad of providers who are disclosing what they charge investors, but perhaps not what they charge investee companies.

“Charges to investee companies is not simply comparing apples with apples; there is a difference between smart capital and dumb capital. Is it passive capital or is the company getting added value from the manager?”

He went on to explain the difficulties of trying to compare like with like, even when looking at

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his peers. Transparency and disclosure are issues that we advocate and that everybody in our sector needs to take on board. On the plus side, he said the situation was a lot better than even just a few years ago when trying to unravel what exactly was being charged was like trying to tackle the Gordian knot without a sword.

Nick Sharp outlined the Hambro Perks approach: “Our view is that if we are working for our investors, they should pay our fee. It is easy to have a market proposition.

These are small growing companies which need money – if you take out 10%, you aren’t doing them any favours nor, ultimately, are you helping investors. That is an absolute no-no.”

He expanded on how they will charge investors those fees while providing capital to the companies to allow them to grow. Some paid fees he finds surprising; he has co-invested with other funds and on the investment documents they are investing at a different price to provide money back to the fund manager.

“If we pay 9p and they are at 10p that’s just not on.”

RESEARCH RULES Replying to a question about how quickly was it possible to judge that a client was suited to an EIS investment and to select the right product, Roger Tull,

Round Table

IFA at Positive Solutions reckoned it was easier now than it used to be.

“If you go back, all you did was get half a dozen prospectuses that were 30 or 40 pages long. How do you make sense of that? The emergence of platforms is a big help to us in terms of assessing what is the market. It’s healthier now.”

Nick Baker of Baker Jenness Financial Management highlighted the importance of decent research: “It’s hard to find – I had to badger Octopus for it. We rely on quality research. Internal research and product information is great, but we all know it is not enough.

Having the independent analysis alongside gave me the impartial point of view so, here is more history and more information on what we are getting involved with, for ourselves and for our clients.’”

Jack Curzon, Consulting Director of Thomsons Online Benefits suggested that while research can be very useful, sometimes “opinionated experts are easier for people to digest. Often research is too advisory when it’s an expert opinion you’re after. There can be too much caution and hesitation when you read the research; the stuff people really want and need to hear often doesn’t come through.”

Financial Planner Stephen Jones added that this is where the analyst adds value, because it’s essential you have time to do due diligence. “I would expect to see a report, so I can take a view on the area of investment. Years ago, sitting down to try and find out about something was very different. Today, the track record is about the people at the top. If they aren’t impeccable, I’m not interested.”

YOU CAN TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS Chair Richard Angus, Head of Business Development at Hardman & Co., asked Andrew Aldridge of Deepbridge how, in view of their success in the EIS market, they felt the landscape is changing.

The answer was pretty unequivocal.

“Our growth over the last 5 years is down to education.

If you see us speak at an event, we aren’t doing a hard pitch about our product. It’s about educating advisers and investors about the changing world of EIS. It’s about the Patient Capital Review, supporting innovation and job creation. We try to bring it to life.

“One of our most memorable events was about 18 months ago in Glasgow, which we called ‘Investing in Scotland’. We had invited Scottish investee companies

to join us in order to showcase that EIS is not just a London or Westminster thing, but about creating and supporting jobs and innovation in their own back yard.”

“It’s that type of education that really benefits advisers and investors. Tax might be the initial reason to consider EIS, but when you see the extent to which EIS investment is a genuine economic driver, advisers become aware that it’s about going way beyond tax.”

Stephen Jones concurred: “One reason Octopus is successful is that they have invested in the education stance. They do seminar after seminar. If you’ve been educated by them, it will have worked well and of course, many advisers don’t have that budget and I do appreciate that there are other parties, but there needs to be more.”

The nature of an EIS investment has always involved a degree of exclusivity, but many advisers have clients who might benefit – without either of them being aware of it.

“One of my clients, her brother needed care and he had a £2 million second property which created a huge CGT issue on its disposal”, recalled Nick Baker.

“I knew a little about EIS then, but it wasn’t easy to go to a central place such as Synaptic for research. It is easier to get information now and some advisers are open to learning more but there is still not enough education around this product area.”

Adam Francis, Consultant with Mattioli Woods, noted that “It’s also about changing customer attitudes.

We are investing in long-term growth. Growing 5% a year with pension, do you want to invest in young companies? This is long-term money.

“The worry is that one might only look at fantastic track records and for a client to take that at face value and assume their money is safe. The underlying investment is 5 years down the line and they expect that is what they’ll get so it is important that they understand diversification to mitigate risk.”

COMING UP NEXT...

Deepbridge Capital and Hambro Perks introduce 2 of their investee companies , Rajiv Mathur of Chainvine (blockchain) and Ollie Povey of Tempo (recruitment) respectively. Both gave a fascinating insight into the coal-face of capital investment and impressed everyone present with their passion, conviction and determination, as we shall report. GBI

GB Investment Magazine · November 2019

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FOCUS ON

SUCCESSFUL START-UPS: THE BENEFITS FOR PROVIDERS, INVESTEES AND INVESTORS Understandably, we normally concentrate on EIS from the investor’s perspective; so it was illuminating to hear first-hand from a pair of start-up entrepreneurs.

A

t a recent round-table session generously hosted by Hambro Perks, Alex Sullivan, Managing Partner of GBi and IFA magazines, discussed how we need to divert attention away from the tax efficiencies and benefits that an EIS can bring, and rather focus on where the money goes and how it helps the British economy.

Two key EIS providers, Deepbridge and Hambro Perks, each introduced one of their successful start-ups to give us an insight into the coal face of capital investment.

Deepbridge focus on supporting technologies aiming to provide commercial solutions to real world problems, but try to avoid investing to simply satify buzzwords. They say that having previously been approached by many companies claiming to be developing “blockchain” solutions, it was noticeable that many were data-processing tools attempting to jump on the ‘blockchain bandwagon’, rather than creating a genuinely innovative blockchain.

CHAINVINE – THE REAL BLOCKCHAIN DEAL They did, however, find Chainvine – who were genuinely developing an innovative blockchain technology, and were making a practical difference in building a practical business. They had identified

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a clearly defined problem in the market – and were providing a solution, two key criteria for Deepbridge when committing to investment.

Rajiv Mathur is the co-founder and chief technologist at Chainvine. He used to teach computer science at Imperial College and has worked for big banks and Visa on fraud detection security.

“When my partner and I saw blockchain, we wondered how we could utilise it for enterprise. The focus wasn’t on the consumer, but we wanted to have a huge impact on business.

“Consumers don’t care much about the technology, just its application whereas blockchain is a technology, it’s in the back-end. So consumers don’t touch it or feel it and we use DHCP, which is a protocol for assigning dynamic IP addresses to devices on a network. Does this matter to the consumer? No, but using Microsoft Outlook to send an email really does.

“We wanted to create an application to allow companies to use the new technology in the mainstream beyond the hype and this is what we did. We started by creating a platform that allows any organisation to use the distributed technology without understanding it. You don’t need to understand how the email system works to send an email.

Round Table

“Blockchain is forcing people to make decisions about which technology to use but Chainvine’s platform is agnostic about the specific technology. There are 8 or 9 mainstream technologies, and we can use them all in our platform and that’s how we are different from the rest of the market. We don’t join any alliances and we don’t want to create a closed ecosystem but encourage the emergence of an open ecosystem.

“Businesses have shelled out billions on closed ecosystems. Where we see this going mainstream is how these systems can interoperate. Our platform allows that and we want to create a super ecosystem that others can join.”

Before introducing his investee, Dominic Perks, CEO of Hambro Perks, spoke of his company’s passion for backing and building technology companies, which now comprise a portfolio of over 40. Hambro Perks’ point of difference from the EIS perspective is that they invest their own capital in these businesses and then have a co-investment fund. They work closely with ideas-led young entrepreneurs, of whom Ollie Povey, founder of Tempo, is one.

TEMPO – HIRE ASPIRATIONS “Tempo is an end-to-end recruitment business which disrupts how people hire staff and how others find work. Existing recruitment channels are outdated and unfit for purpose from the hirers’ and jobseekers’ perspectives.

“Our workforce grew up with video and technology at their fingertips and they don’t need to go through a 2 – 3 week process. They need to find the job, apply for the job and get hired and that’s how we connect jobseekers and companies. We have technology that matches traditional CV work experience and a series of platform data about how they engage with the platform.

“What we build is a platform which prioritises or streamlines to see the candidates that they want and vice versa a tailored shortlist of candidates. We use video and a platform to speed up the 30-day process to 3 days in a more engaging and personal way.

We launched about 2 years ago with Hambro Perks and have gone from a 2-man band to pushing 30 staff.

We work with 30,000 candidates, 2,500 companies and have placed 1,000 people in work in London.”

WHAT WERE THE BUSINESSES LIKE BEFORE EIS FUNDING?

wanted to develop but couldn’t afford to hire a team, so relied on small third-party suppliers to create code.

They weren’t in control and IP was compromised.

The funding allowed them to assemble an in-house development department and, being based in Basingstoke, they weren’t paying London rents. They offered graduate internships and post-maternity positions. Said Mathur: “Yes, it is from a vested interest, but we want to help society a little.”

By contrast, Tempo started from scratch in collaboration with Hambro Perks. 2 years on they have built a big business which has grown from 2 to 30 employees.

Ollie Povey again: “We have found a gap and said ‘Let’s go for it’, and have built a business which is the upcoming name. Without access to EIS funding someone else would have done it and overtaken us or a bigger company in the sector would have done it.”

APART FROM THE OBVIOUS, WHAT’S IN IT FOR INVESTORS? “If it goes like we want it to and we are working hard to make sure it does, investors should feel proud that they helped build Chainvine and get real satisfaction that they were involved in something groundbreaking,” says Rajiv Mathur. “There are the financial benefits, and the tax benefits. But there should also be a sense of pride in supporting a business that has the right sort of people and realising that you are as crucial as the team itself.

Povey agrees: “The other thing about schemes like EIS is that it allows investors access to businesses they’re passionate about. They might have a prior understanding of it – they might have an involvement in the traditional HR industry, or they have experience related to it. It’s a market they’re genuinely interested in.”

Dominic Perks echoed the sentiment: “Investors want returns. We like to feel warm and fuzzy and get returns.”

Andrew Aldridge of Deepbridge concurred: “Just like us, clients want to understand what they are investing in and when they know what they are supporting, they become passionate. People understand entrepreneurship in the UK and are enthused about it, but perhaps 10 or 15 years ago it wasn’t seen as a career like now. People can really buy into supporting that.” GBI

Chainvine was self-funded for 18 months before Deepbridge stepped in. They had technology they

GB Investment Magazine · November 2019

31

GETTING UP TO SPEED WITH EIS AND BR:

FREE ‘PLAN TO GROW’ EVENT WITH EISA DECEMBER 5TH

32

GB Investment Magazine · November 2019

EISA is the official trade body for the Enterprise Investment Scheme. It is a not-for-profit organisation whose principal goal is to help SMEs obtain the funding they need to grow their business and help drive the UK economy forward.

O

n December 5th, EISA in association with The Insurance Institute of London are holding an Enterprise Investment Scheme and Business Relief investment focused event, ‘Plan to Grow’, aimed specifically at financial planners and regulated advisers.

A SHIFTING LANDSCAPE Both EIS and BR investments are changing. It’s vital that investors and especially their advisers make themselves aware of the implications.

They need to be up to date with the important areas of investment, income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax advice. What action should advisers be taking on behalf of their clients? How do they advise clients confidently, competently and comprehensively?

‘Plan to Grow’ is designed to provide the answers to these questions and more; it will bring together investment and tax efficient industry experts, commentators and Government representatives.

They will provide planners, paraplanners and advisers with a fully CPD qualifying session of informed opinion from thought leaders spanning both the EIS and BR markets covering the issues to be faced when advising in this area.

NEW HORIZONS Delegates will get to understand how EIS/BR investments calculate their charges and performance.

Experts in the industry will reveal how changes in the EIS and BR market affect their clients, unlock ideas on how to incorporate EIS/BR investments within a client’s financial plan, hear direct from the Government on its view of the EIS/BR sector, get the inside story from entrepreneurs and investors on their experience of EIS/BR and hear our keynote speaker on why now is an exciting time to invest in Britain’s entrepreneurial companies.

They will also gain insights into: The EIS and BR market

Eddie Grant of Technical Connections, who will take a look at the technical side of EIS and BR investing and give some practical tax and investment planning advice to use with clients.

Marcus Stuttard, Head of AIM at the London Stock Exchange will discuss the SME sector and the importance of helping more companies scale up so they can benefit from larger investments from AIM and other markets.

Brian Moretta, Hardman & Co, examines how BR’s popularity has surged in the past few years as increasing numbers of people accrue estates that may be subject to inheritance tax. Both the value of assets invested, and the number of products, has grown very quickly. However, how transparent is the industry and how can advisers review the market properly? In his presentation, Brian will give a brief overview of BR strategy options and their prospects, and an insight into some of the potential issues.

Kelly Tolhurst MP, Small Business Minister, will give the Government’s view of EIS and BR investments.

Why does the Government continue to support both the schemes and small businesses and what do they get in return for their investment in the schemes?

THE TIME, THE PLACE ‘Plan to Grow’ will be held on Thursday 5 December 2019 at The Great Hall, One Moorgate Place (the home of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales), London EC2R 6EA. Breakfast and lunch is included.* Registration will be at 0815 for an 0900 start, and the event will wrap up at 1430.

Although ‘Plan to Grow’ is free, for planners and advisers who are not already EISA members there is an additional bonus as attendance at this event provides them with free membership of EISA. *Attendance at ‘Plan to Grow’ is open strictly only to those who work for Financial Planning, Accountancy or Advisory firms. GBI

How to advise clients confidently and competently on tax efficient investments How to invest diversely and understand the risks and rewards.

THE EXPERTS The agenda and line-up is constantly being added to, but confirmed speakers currently include:

GB Investment Magazine · November 2019

33

BUSINESS RELIEF PRODUCTS The truth about what’s underneath

Please contact Vilma Pabilionyte to receive a free copy of this guide: vp@hardmanandco.com / 0207 194 7622

M AGAZINE

GBI OPEN OFFERS A selection of tax efficient opportunities currently open for investment

SEIS Open

Close

Nov 2017

Evergreen

Target Raise: £3m per annum Minimum investment: £10,000

Deepbridge Innovation SEIS The Deepbridge Innovation SEIS represents an opportunity for private investors to participate in a selected portfolio of innovative seed stage innovation companies, taking advantage of the tax benefits available under the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme.

Providing seed investment to emerging technology-focused companies, the Deepbridge Innovation SEIS seeks to fund selected investee companies that possess an exciting new innovative approach to meet the existing and emerging requirements and demands of both corporate and consumer markets.

The Deepbridge Investment Team has a proven track record of working with emerging companies to create value for shareholders through a hands-on investment methodology.

The Deepbridge Innovation SEIS is a manager fee-free SEIS opportunity at the point of investment for subscriptions received by a financial adviser. Upfront and ongoing manager fees are paid by the Investee Companies, potentially allowing investors to enjoy up to 100% of SEIS tax benefits. Please see costs and fees section in the Information Memorandum for full details.

T. 01244 746000 E. Enquiries@deepbridgecapital.com www.deepbridgecapital.com

The availability of SEIS tax reliefs depends on individual circumstances, may be subject to change in future and depend on underlying companies invested in maintaining their qualifying status. Investment in unquoted companies carries high risks and investors could lose the total value of their investment. Investments in SEIS can be difficult to realise. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

This financial promotion, directed at investment professionals, has been approved by Enterprise Investment Partners LLP (“EIP”).

Deepbridge Advisers Limited (FRN: 609786) is an Appointed Representative of EIP, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 604439).

EIS Open

January 2013

Close

Evergreen

Deepbridge - Technology Growth EIS

Amount to be Raised: Uncapped

The Deepbridge Technology Growth EIS represents an opportunity for private investors to participate in a selected portfolio of innovative growth companies, taking advantage of the tax benefits available under the Enterprise Investment

Minimum Investment: £10,000

Scheme. The Deepbridge EIS focusses principally on three sectors: • Energy and resource innovation; • Medical technologies; • Business enterprise and other high growth IT-based technologies.

T. 01244 746000 E. Enquiries@deepbridgecapital.com www.deepbridgecapital.com

The Deepbridge Investment Team has a proven track record of working with emerging companies to create value for shareholders through a hands-on investment methodology. The Deepbridge Technology Growth EIS is a manager fee-free EIS opportunity at the point of investment for subscriptions received by a financial adviser. Upfront and ongoing manager fees are paid by the Investee Companies, potentially allowing investors to enjoy up to 100% of EIS tax benefits. Please see costs and fees section in the Information Memorandum for full details.

The availability of EIS tax reliefs depends on individual circumstances, may be subject to change in future and depend on underlying companies invested in maintaining their qualifying status. Investment in unquoted companies carries high risks and investors could lose the total value of their investment. Investments in EIS can be difficult to realise. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

This financial promotion, directed at investment professionals, has been approved by Enterprise Investment Partners LLP (“EIP”).

Deepbridge Advisers Limited (FRN: 609786) is an Appointed Representative of EIP, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 604439).

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GB Investment Magazine Open Offers GB36 Investment Magazine · October· 2018

Open Offers

SEIS Open

Close

January 2016

Evergreen

Target Raise: £3m per annum Minimum Investment: £10,000

The Deepbridge Life Sciences SEIS The Deepbridge Life Sciences SEIS represents an opportunity for private investors to participate in a selected portfolio of early stage life sciences companies, taking advantage of the tax benefits available under the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme.

Providing seed investment to emerging companies operating in the life sciences sector, the Deepbridge Life Sciences SEIS seeks to fund companies with exciting new technologies that aim to satisfy the needs of large and growing markets.

The Deepbridge Investment Team has a proven track record of working with emerging companies to create value for shareholders through a hands-on investment methodology.

T. 01244 746000 E. Enquiries@deepbridgecapital.com www.deepbridgecapital.com

The Deepbridge Life Sciences SEIS is a manager fee-free SEIS opportunity at the point of investment for subscriptions received by a financial adviser. Upfront and ongoing manager fees are paid by the Investee Companies, potentially allowing investors to enjoy up to 100% of SEIS tax benefits. Please see costs and fees section in the Information Memorandum for full details.

The availability of SEIS tax reliefs depends on individual circumstances, may be subject to change in future and depend on underlying companies invested in maintaining their qualifying status. Investment in unquoted companies carries high risks and investors could lose the total value of their investment. Investments in SEIS can be difficult to realise. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

This financial promotion, directed at investment professionals, has been approved by Enterprise Investment Partners LLP (“EIP”). Deepbridge Advisers Limited (FRN: 609786) is an Appointed Representative of EIP, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 604439).

EIS Open

March 2017

Close

Evergreen

Deepbridge Life Sciences EIS

Maximum Raise: Uncapped

The Deepbridge Life Sciences EIS represents an opportunity for private investors to participate in a selected portfolio of healthcare innovation, whilst taking advantage of the tax benefits available under the Enterprise Investment Scheme.

Minimum investment: £10,000

The Deepbridge Life Sciences EIS focuses principally, but not exclusively, on three sectors: • Biopharmaceuticals • Biotechnology • Medical Technology.

The Deepbridge Investment Team has a proven track record of working with emerging companies to create value for shareholders through a hands-on investment methodology.

T. 01244 746000 E. Enquiries@deepbridgecapital.com www.deepbridgecapital.com

The Deepbridge Life Sciences EIS is a manager fee-free EIS opportunity at the point of investment for subscriptions received by a financial adviser. Upfront and ongoing manager fees are paid by the Investee Companies, potentially allowing investors to enjoy up to 100% of EIS tax benefits. Please see costs and fees section in the Information Memorandum for full details.

The availability of EIS tax reliefs depends on individual circumstances, may be subject to change in future and depend on underlying companies invested in maintaining their qualifying status. Investment in unquoted companies carries high risks and investors could lose the total value of their investment. Investments in EIS can be difficult to realise. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

This financial promotion, directed at investment professionals, has been approved by Enterprise Investment Partners LLP (“EIP”).

Deepbridge Advisers Limited (FRN: 609786) is an Appointed Representative of EIP, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 604439).

GB Investment Magazine · Open Offers

37

EIS

SEIS

Open

Evergreen

Open

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised:

Open Ended

Minimum Investment: £10,000

Nova Growth Capital At Nova, we believe that fund management can be done differently. Our approach to fund management affords the investor access to tech enabled, growth-focused businesses at the earliest stages of a company life cycle, all whilst aiming to reduce the risk associated with investing in startups. We do this by aiming to reduce the 5 most common startup mistakes. Our truly proprietary deal flow is provided by our cofoundry business, helping founders solve real problems felt by sizeable markets. Our cofoundry then employs over 100 people to consult, build and grow our portfolio companies, applying our investors capital into an operating model rather than an investment model. The result; our portfolio value has grown in excess of 80% year on year for 10 years.

• Potential returns of £5.70 in the £1 if portfolio growth continues at 83% • Target returns of £2.18 in the £1 based on targeted 20% year on year portfolio growth

T. 0151 318 0761 E. fund@wearenova.co.uk www.wearenova.co.uk

EIS Open

Evergreen

SEIS Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: £5m Minimum Investment: £15,000

T. 01865 784466 E. info@oxfordtechnology.com www.oxfordtechnology.com

• A minimum return of 58p in the £1 in the unlikely event that every company in the cohort fails • A 0.2% chance of every company in the cohort failing Our senior team are a balanced mix between seasoned investors, start-up practitioners and successful entrepreneurs. The fund aims to deploy quarterly into 10 companies through a mixture of SEIS and follow on EIS investment, further reducing risk by giving a diversified spread of circa 30 high growth, tech enabled companies per year

Oxford Technology Combined SEIS and EIS Fund - “The Start-up Fund” Oxford Technology invests in high risk, high reward technology start-ups, in general within an hour’s drive of Oxford, and has been doing this since 1983. The latest fund, OT(S)EIS, made its first investment in 2012. By 5 April 2019, OT(S)EIS had made 126 investments in 39 companies.

The figures for the fund as a whole since its inception are as follows: Gross amount invested by OT(S)EIS:

£6.33m

Cash back to investors via tax reliefs:

£2.47m

Net cost of these investments after tax reliefs::

£3.86m

Cash back from exits*:

£0.24m

Fair value of remaining portfolio:

£13.31m

Total value: £15.78m Tax free gain (mainly on paper so far):

£9.21m

*OT(S)EIS investors who made an SEIS investment in Animal Dynamics, an Oxford University spin-out at 14p per share (7p after SEIS tax relief) in Jun 2015, had the opportunity to exit in March 2019 at 97p per share (so 14x the after tax share price). About 50% of the shareholders opted to sell with 50% opting to remain – the company is doing very well.

OT(S)EIS remains open for investment at any time. We average about one or two new investments per quarter, and investors in the fund receive their pro-rata share of these. The latest quarterly report, with a page of information on each investment is downloadable from from www.oxfordtechnology.com.

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GB Investment Magazine Open Offers GB38 Investment Magazine · October· 2018

Open Offers

EIS Open

Close

01.09.2017

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: £40m Minimum Investment: £15,000

Oxford Technology EIS Fund - “The Development Fund” Oxford Technology has been investing in technology start-ups since 1983. The Oxford Technology EIS Fund will aim to provide each investor a diversified portfolio of 5 - 10 EIS investments in high risk, but high potential early stage technology companies near Oxford.

T. 020 7222 3475 E. info@oxfordtechnology.com www.oxfordtechnology.com

EIS Open

01.10.2018

Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: £20m Minimum Investment: £10,000

Great Point Ventures EIS Great Point Ventures EIS (“Fund”) presents UK tax payers with the opportunity to invest in EIS qualifying businesses operating in the booming UK creative industries.

The Fund aims to seek out high growth companies and has a broad sub-sector approach designed to offer investors a degree of diversification across content creation, content distribution & marketing, production facilities & services and new media & technology.

Investors will have a minimum of four companies in their portfolio and all companies must have received Advance Assurance from HMRC prior to funds being deployed.

Why Great Point Ventures EIS?

Unrivalled sector experience - the Great Point team have a unique blend of financial, operational, commercial and investment management expertise specific to the media sector T. 0203 873 0028 E. dperkins@greatpointmedia.com www.greatpointmedia.com

Strong opportunity pipeline - significant proprietary deal flow and a number of “first look” deals in place with industry players and leading educational institutions Alignment of interest - the Fund offers a competitive fee structure ensuring Great Point’s interests are aligned with those of the investor Growth focussed - the Fund’s target return is two times gross investment (excluding tax reliefs, inclusive of all costs and fees) Tax efficient - for every £1 subscribed at least 97p will be invested and therefore attract EIS tax reliefs (subject to personal circumstance)

GB Investment Magazine · Open Offers

39

EIS Open

April 2017

SEIS Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised:

Up to £25,000,000

Minimum Investment: £10,000

T. 020 7071 3945 E. enquiries@growthinvest.com www.growthinvest.com

EIS Open

Now

SEIS Close

Multiple

Amount to be Raised: Evergreen

Minimum Investment: £10,000

T. +44 20 3858 0847 E. mark@worthcapital.uk worthcapital.uk

GrowthInvest Portfolio Service A discretionary investment management service which seeks to leverage the experience and expertise of the GrowthInvest investment team to select a diversified portfolio of some of the most promising companies that have passed through GrowthInvest due diligence process.

GrowthInvest is an independent platform, which provides access to tax efficient investments to a growing network of UK financial advisers, wealth managers and investors. The platform aims to bring the advantages of early stage investing to a wider audience of investors and advisers, who are able to benefit from the potentially higher returns these companies can offer and tax efficiency via government approved schemes, such as SEIS and EIS. From our experience working with advisers on the Platform, the Fund has been designed to consist of three sub-funds, each with a separate investment policy. The first will target Investee Companies which qualify for SEIS Reliefs only. The second will target Investee Companies which qualify for EIS Reliefs only and the third will be a mixed investment policy which will target Investee Companies which qualify for SEIS Reliefs and / or EIS Reliefs. You will be able to choose how much of your subscription to allocate to each of these three sub-funds. The Fund is aiming to exit investments after three to seven years.

Start-Up Series Fund The Start-Up Series Fund is an evergreen EIS & SEIS service. Managed as an Alternative Investment Fund by Amersham Investment Management Limited, authorised and regulated by the FCA. The service is designed for eligible subscribers to be invested in selected winners of the Start-Up Series, a monthly competition organised by Worth Capital Limited and promoted by startsups.co.uk. The Fund invests in qualifying B2C or B2B companies with innovative products or services that can create new consumer behaviours in growth markets, with teams that demonstrate compelling marketing & communication skills and with a clear credible route to exit.

•

EIS & SEIS investments - choose EIS, SEIS or both

•

Businesses selected by real world, commercial entrepreneurs with deep brand, marketing, retail & innovation expertise – worth capital

•

A unique approach to UK EIS & SEIS fund investing – a monthly competition, around one hundred businesses considered each month

•

Ongoing oversight from experienced investor directors - skilled in helping accelerate growth & reducing risk

•

Investments in ‘mini-portfolios’ of typically 3 or 4 businesses

•

Investments qualifying for attractive EIS & SEIS tax reliefs

Any investment in the Start-Up Series Fund places your capital at risk of total loss and will not be readily realisable. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change.

We recommend you take professional advice before investing.

40

GB Investment Magazine Open Offers GB40 Investment Magazine · October· 2018

Open Offers

EIS

SEIS

Open

Close

Now

31.10.19

Amount to be Raised: £3.5m Minimum Investment: £20,000

Iron Box Capital: Alive in the Morning Ltd. Alive in the Morning Ltd. will develop, produce, finance and market a slate of unique, commercial films in the horror and thriller/horror genres. Horror is one of the most popular and pro table genres in a worldwide Filmed entertainment market that will be worth a forecasted US$104.62 billion a year by 2019. It is consistently commercially successful as people love to watch movies to be scared, whether at the cinema or at home.

Horror is also one of the most international genres, as fear is universal, transcending cultural and geographical boundaries.

Horror Films additionally can be made on low budgets and do not need star names to attract audiences, offering the potential for a significant return-on-investment.

Advance Assurance has been given.

T. 07528616752 E. raimund@ironboxcapital.com www.ironboxcapital.com

SEIS Open

Now

Close

Evergreen – multiple close dates

Amount to be Raised: £750K Minimum Investment: £10,000

Iron Box Film & TV seis channel in the Amersham SEIS fund The British Film Industry is growing, and is forecast to grow for years to come. This is fuelled by the global demand for films, through multi on-line channels, including Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Iron Box’s team of experts has specialist knowledge across development, finance, production and marketing of film & television projects. As a company they are well positioned to capitalise on this growth market.

The aim is to focus on the most profitable genres, where there is a clear target audience, and in using proven teams of people that have a track record of making profitable Film & TV shows.

The Iron Box Film & TV SEIS Channel has been designed for UK tax payers who prefer to invest in a managed portfolio of independent filmed entertainment projects, whether for traditional films or television. There are likely to be around 4 films in each portfolio. The fund will finance projects that are commercial, with strong audience appeal, and suit the international marketplace.

T. 07528616752 E. raimund@ironboxcapital.com www.ironboxcapital.com

The companies will be SEIS eligible.

GB Investment Magazine · Open Offers

41

BR Open

Close

June 2005

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: Unlimited

Minimum Investment: £25,000

Octopus AIM Inheritance Tax Service Since 2005, the Octopus AIM Inheritance Tax Service has offered a fast and flexible solution to inheritance tax planning, while providing the potential for significant capital growth through investment into a portfolio of 20-30 companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

As we only select companies which meet the requirements for Business Property Relief, the shares should become exempt from inheritance tax after just two years, provided they are still held on death.

Our highly experienced Smaller Companies team manages £1.5 billion on behalf of 11,500 investors across the service.

T. 0800 316 2295 E. clientrelations@octopusinvestments.com

octopusinvestments.com

Portfolio companies are chosen after detailed research, which involves spending time with a company’s management team, evaluating its competitors and assessing its financial strength.

Holdings are monitored on a day-to-day basis, with the team making investment decisions.

The Octopus AIM Inheritance Tax Service is also available within an ISA wrapper.

The value of an investment, and any income from it, can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the full amount invested.

Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may change in the future.

Tax relief depends on portfolio companies maintaining their BPR-qualifying status.

The shares of smaller companies could fall or rise in value more than other shares listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. They may also be harder to sell.

Issued by Octopus Investments Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered office: 33 Holborn, London EC1N 2HT. Registered in England and Wales No. 03942880. We record telephone calls. Issued: September 2018. CAM07427-1809.

EIS Open

Evergreen

Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: £15m+ Minimum Investment: £25,000

T. 020 3327 4861 E. EIS@hambroperks.com www.hambroperks.com

42

Hambro Perks Co-Investment Fund Hambro Perks helps outstanding Founders build world-changing businesses. The provision of permanent, patient capital from our own balance sheet means we are completely aligned with the long term goals and interests of the entrepreneurs and investee companies that we support.

We aim to take early risk in businesses, investing where we can add significant value through applying and sharing the expertise our team has built over many decades’ combined experience of founding, building, internationalising and exiting companies. We believe we are the destination of choice for the very best entrepreneurs, and they actively choose us to support them as they build fast growth tech-enabled businesses. Our main areas of focus are education technology, digital health, insurance technology, digital media and fintech.

The Hambro Perks Co-Investment Fund enables individuals to co-invest alongside and on a fully aligned basis with Hambro Perks, thereby benefiting from this extraordinary access and proprietary dealflow while utilising EIS reliefs. Please get in touch for more information.

GB Investment Magazine Open Offers GB42 Investment Magazine · October· 2018

Open Offers

EIS Open

Evergreen

Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: Evergreen Minimum Investment: £15,000

Downing Ventures EIS Downing Ventures EIS invests in high risk, high potential return investment opportunities with a principal focus on early-stage UK technology companies, while also providing access to attractive EIS tax reliefs.

The teams invests across a variety of sectors, with a focus on enterprise software, health technology and e-commerce.

Each of these young, growing businesses will be high risk with a significant chance of failure.

However, the following factors should help to manage risk: • Diversification: investments are estimated to be spread across a portfolio of 10 - 15, where possible in a variety of sectors.

T. 07946 117770 E. Bill@Downing.co.uk www.downing.co.uk

IHT Open

Evergreen

BR Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: Evergreen Minimum Investment: £25,000

• Due diligence: a high number of opportunities will be investigated before each investment is made. In 2018, the team reviewed around 100 companies a month.

It’s anticipated that investors will be given the opportunity to exit their investments between four and eight years from subscription.

Downing Estate Planning Service Downing Estate Planning Service (DEPS) aims to preserve investors’ capital by focusing on two sectors: businesses trading from freehold premises and/or energy businesses. We believe these are lower risk than other tax-efficient sectors. DEPS is designed to offer full IHT relief on subscriptions after two years, by investing in a portfolio of businesses that qualify for business relief.

The service has been designed with the following key features: • Targets capital growth of 4% per annum over the medium term (this is a target and not guaranteed).

T. 07946 117770 E. Bill@Downing.co.uk www.downing.co.uk

• Receive distributions (paid on a quarterly, six-monthly or annual basis).

• Access to capital twice a month, with no charges or penalties on exit (subject to liquidity, Downing’s discretion and 10 days’ notice).

Additionally, we offer two insurance policies for this service: • Downside protection cover (at no additional cost): covers the first two years (before the investment obtains IHT relief). It covers a loss in value of up to 20% on initial net investment on death.

• Life cover (optional – at an additional cost): mitigates the effect of IHT for the first two years before IHT relief begins. It covers 40% of the original gross investment (which would be payable to HMRC) upon death within the first two years.

GB Investment Magazine · Open Offers

43

IHT Open

Close

Evergreen

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: Evergreen Minimum Investment:

£100,000

Downing AIM Estate Planning Service (DAEPS) Downing AIM Estate Planning Service (DAEPS) enables investors to own a portfolio of AIMlisted shares and is designed to offer full IHT relief on subscriptions after two years, by investing in companies that qualify for business relief.

We aim to manage risk by spreading funds across at least 20 companies from different sectors on the AIM market.

Other key features:

T. 07946 117770 E. Bill@Downing.co.uk www.downing.co.uk

• Downside protection cover (at no additional cost): an insurance policy that covers the first two years (before the investment obtains IHT relief). The policy covers 20% of any net loss in value on death under the ages of 90 years.

• Ownership and control: allow investors to retain full ownership of the investments.

• Capital growth: companies will be selected based on analysis on operational business, longevity of earning and alignment between management and equity shareholders.

• Access: enable investors to withdraw capital from their portfolio at any time, subject to liquidity and 10 days’ notice.

IHT Open

Close

Evergreen

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: Evergreen Minimum Investment:

£100,000

Downing AIM ISA (DISA) Downing AIM ISA (DISA) gives investors the opportunity to invest in a portfolio of AIMquoted companies, combining IHT relief (after two years) with ISA tax benefits, by investing in companies that qualify for business relief.

We aim to manage risk by spreading funds across at least 20 companies from different sectors.

Other key features: • Downside protection cover (at no additional cost): insurance policy that covers the first two years (before the investment obtains IHT relief.) The policy covers 20% of any net loss in value of death under the ages of 90 years.

T. 07946 117770 E. Bill@Downing.co.uk www.downing.co.uk

• Ownership and control: allows investors to retain full ownership of the investments.

• Capital growth: generate capital growth from the portfolio of investments.

Companies are selected based on analysis of their operational business, longevity of earnings and alignment between management and equity shareholders.

• Access: to enable investors to withdraw capital from their portfolio at any time, subject to liquidity.

EIS Open

Evergreen

Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: Uncapped Minimum Investment: £20,000

Symvan Capital Symvan Capital has an established and award-winning track record of growth-oriented investing. We invest in scalable and disruptive technology businesses – companies that seek to impact and change established business models or industries. We look for businesses with a unique proposition and the potential to deliver ten times our investment.

Symvan scours the market to find founders with strong teams who have vision, drive and flexibility to deliver results within reasonable time frames. We fund, mentor and support them through to exit. We provide both management and expert advice from our own team and from our network.

T. 020 3011 5097 E. ml@symvancapital.com www.symvancapital.com

There are zero upfront or ongoing charges to the investor. We charge the investee companies instead. Therefore, investors can claim 100% of the EIS tax reliefs.

The only fee Symvan eventually charges investors is a 20% performance fee, which is dependent on a successful exit. Consequently, Symvan is very exit focussed.

We typically add no more than five to seven new companies to the portfolio per year, in line with our “deeper not wider” investment philosophy.

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GB Investment Magazine Open Offers GB44 Investment Magazine · October· 2018

Open Offers

EIS Open

Close

July 2019

June 2020

Amount to be Raised: £20m Minimum Investment: £50,000

Calculus EIS Fund Pioneers of tax efficient investing, Calculus Capital created the UK’s first approved EIS Fund in 1999.

Our 20 year track record of investing in growing UK companies assures investors of our ability to make sensible investments capable of delivering excellent returns at every stage of the economic cycle.

Calculus has won multiple awards, including EISA’s ‘Fund Manager of the Year’ five times, and ‘Best EIS Investment Manager’ at the Growth Awards, most recently in November 2018.

Calculus are recognised as having an incredibly robust investment process and an active portfolio management style - which has led to an impressive track record of successful exits.

The Calculus EIS Fund focuses on established companies with growth potential, across a diverse range of sectors. An investor can expect a portfolio of at least 6 companies with the following characteristics: • The ability to achieve our target IRR of 20% • Experienced management teams • Successful sales of proven products or services

T. 020 7493 4940 E. info@calculuscapital.com www.calculuscapital.com

• Profits or a clear path to profitability • Clear route to exit Calculus’ investment strategy is exit led, with a key focus on delivering strong returns to investors. The target 18 month deployment commences after the relevant closing date.

Calculus value their reputation for client service as much as their investment record, and are focused on building long standing relationships with both clients and advisers. Please get in touch to find out more on 020 7493 4940 or info@calculuscapital.com.

EIS Open

June 2019

Close

June 2020

Amount to be Raised: £20m Minimum Investment: £10,000

UK Creative Content EIS Fund The UK Creative Content EIS Fund, in association with BFI, will invest in a new generation of EIS qualifying UK creative content companies within a diversified growth focused portfolio. Calculus Capital is the fund manager bringing a wealth of experience investing in growing UK companies over the past 20 years. Stargrove Pictures is acting as strategic adviser for the Fund, having overseen £1bn+ of investment in the sector. Together, Calculus and Stargrove create a ‘best in class’ combination which the BFI selected after a rigorous selection process.

UK content companies already have an established track record of creating high quality content watched by millions worldwide.

Technology is changing the way we consume creative content, evidenced by the significant growth of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services such as Amazon and Netflix, who are reported to be spending almost $15bn on content. Together with the more traditional broadcasters and distributors, this has created a highly competitive landscape and an ever-increasing global demand for exciting original content. The Fund is well placed to capitalise on this unprecedented growth in demand.

T. 020 7493 4940 E. info@calculuscapital.com www.creativecontenteis.co.uk

An investor can expect a portfolio of at least 6 companies with the following characteristics: • Proven experience in developing and producing commercially appealing projects • Existing development slate • Excellent talent connections • Commitment to diversified multi-platform strategy • Experienced entrepreneurial management teams The Fund is targeting deployment over 15 months with a target return of 2x on monies invested.

Calculus value their reputation for client service as much as their investment record, and are focused on building long standing relationships with both clients and advisers. Please get in touch to find out more on 020 7493 4940 or info@calculuscapital.com.

GB Investment Magazine · Open Offers

45

EIS Open 2012

Close Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: No maximum

Minimum Investment: £20,000

Par Syndicate EIS Fund Par Equity is an award-winning EIS Fund Manager, investing in innovative, high growth potential technology businesses across the UK. We harness the expertise and contacts of our Par Syndicate and wider investor network to create a distinctive, operationally focused investment model that benefits both investors and entrepreneurs.

Our investor network provides unrivalled access to the right people at the right time, who enhance our deal flow, improve our due diligence, fine tune business models and guide the entrepreneurs through to exit. Entrepreneurs recognise Par Equity as an added value investor, which is reflected in our strong flow of investment opportunities.

Strategy for the Fund: • Focused on early stage technology companies with high quality management teams addressing global markets

T. 0131 523 1057 E. pauline.cassie@parequity.com www.parequity.com

• Co-investing with experienced angel investors who add value to portfolio companies at each stage through to exit • Target portfolio of 7 - 8 investments • Target deployment within 12 months • Expected holding period of 5 - 7 years with a benchmark IRR of 15% Experience and track record of the Fund Manager: • Award-winning investor • 10-year track record • 53 investments made • £128m deployed • 14 realisations achieved: • 3.2x multiple (before tax relief) • 26% blended IRR • 3.6-year average holding period

EIS/SEIS Open Now

Close Evergreen with quarterly close

Amount to be Raised: £10m Target

Minimum Investment: £25,000

E. invest@o2h.com www.o2h.com/ventures

46

o2h Ventures Therapeutics Fund o2h Ventures Limited has launched the first fund in the UK solely focused on early stage biotech therapeutic and related AI opportunities in the UK. The geographic scope shall be UK wide but will target the growing Cambridge biotech cluster.

The fund is headquartered in the o2h SciTech Park, Cambridge, where it can provide the incubation and support as part of a community to the companies it has invested in to help them achieve a critical value inflexion point. The team at o2h have access to some of the most exciting ideas through its live grass roots working relationships fostered with entrepreneurs and scientists over many years.

A shift in focus of the large pharmaceutical companies from developing innovation in-house to acquiring innovation externally increased demand for the best science providing earlier exit options.

The fund is structured to be S/EIS compliant providing generous income, inheritance and capital gains tax breaks for UK tax payers. We plan to build a portfolio of 5-12 unquoted per investor.

Investors may download the Information Memorandum at www.o2h.com/ventures.

GB Investment Magazine Open Offers GB46 Investment Magazine · October· 2018

Open Offers

EIS Open

May 2019

SEIS Close

Evergreen: First tranche for 2019/20 closes October 2019

Amount to be Raised: £5m Minimum Investment: £10,000

Jenson SEIS & EIS Fund 2019-20 Applying a very structured sector agnostic investment approach, the Fund targets exciting, innovative and disruptive technologies which qualify for SEIS investments, where we typically invest the full allowable amount of £150,000 per company.

These investee companies are then nurtured via the Investee support programme, which provides financial and operational assistance to enhance returns, a key differentiator between Jenson and other SEIS and EIS providers.

The EIS element of the fund is used to provide follow-on funding to fully exploit commercialisation of a proven business model. Specifically, the EIS fund will concentrate on the best of the Funds existing portfolio but will always be benchmarked relative to new external company opportunities.

Having access to an extensive and existing SEIS portfolio enables follow on funding at a fair price.

T. 020 7788 7539 E. seis@jensonsolutions.com www.jensonfundingpartners.com

EIS Open

Evergreen

SEIS Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: N/A Minimum Investment: £5,000

Jenson Funding Partners has been investing since 2012 and has made over 100 investments. To date the SEIS has invested over £13.5 million and the EIS, combined with the syndicated investors, has invested over £6 million and raised over £5million of debt facilities.

The combined SEIS and EIS structure enables an individual to choose whether to invest in earlier start-up companies within SEIS or later stage companies under EIS, invest solely via SEIS or EIS or split funds across both.

GrowthInvest - The Tax Efficient Platform for Advisers GrowthInvest is a unique, independent platform which provides access to tax efficient investments to a growing network of UK financial advisers, wealth managers and investors. Originally founded by financial advisers in 2012 as the Seed EIS Platform, we rebranded as GrowthInvest in October 2016 to better reflect the wider range of products and services available: We permit investment into a range of single company offers, as well as Managed EIS Portfolio Services and funds, giving clients a number of different investment options.

• We offer a simplified asset transfer process which allows advisers to place all of their clients’ tax efficient investments onto the platform.

• We provide intuitive online reporting tools, allowing advisers to monitor, analyse, and provide consolidated performance updates and quarterly reports to their clients.

T. 020 7071 3945 E. enquiries@growthinvest.com www.growthinvest.com

• All investable companies go through one of 3 defined due diligence tiers, giving added peaceof-mind to the adviser.

• A single, secure online environment for all clients to review and build their tax efficient investment portfolios.

We’ve placed the adviser at the heart of everything we do, making it straightforward for advisers to improve the service they offer to their clients in the tax efficient investment arena. Please visit us at growthinvest.com for more details about our current open investment opportunities.

GB Investment Magazine · Open Offers

47

EIS Open

Close

15th Dec 2014

Evergreen

Target Raise: Evergreen Minimum investment: £15,000

Committed Capital Growth EIS Fund Committed Capital is an investment management and corporate advisory business founded in 2001.

• Investment Methodology - Focus on maximizing growth in companies with the injection of human capital to assist leading entrepreneurs develop their business to its full potential.

• Investment Strategy - Post-revenue (£1m+), growth stage UK based technology companies across a number of sectors. Companies must have multiple client contracts in place, solid pipeline of sales, proven management and robust and demonstratable growth strategy.

• Diversification

- Investors will have between 8-12 companies in their portfolio with HMRC advance assurance in place.

T. 020 7529 1365 E. glen.stewart@committedcapital.co.uk www.committedcapital.co.uk

• Deployment • Target return

- Funds typically deployed within 12 months.

• Minimum investment

- 2-3x ROI*

- £15,000

Track record Since 2001 the team have achieved an average 2.35x ROI* with an average holding period of 4 years.

The funds have deployed £42.5m (as at August 2019), had two profitable partial exits and most recently a whole exit that completed on 31 July 2019 with a 2.71x ROI*.

Outside of the current funds, Committed Capital has deployed £36.8m across 18 other EIS qualifying companies and has exited all of these achieving 17 profitable exits with just 1 partial failure. * - (excluding any tax reliefs)

EIS Open

31st January 2019

Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: Target £10m Minimum Investment: £20,000

or £5,000 under the future investors scheme

T. 0785 091 5378 E. sanjeev.gordhan@newable.co.uk www.newable.co.uk

VCT Open

September 2019

Close August 2020

Amount to be Raised: £10m Minimum Investment: £5,000

Newable EIS Scale-up Fund The Fund seeks to leverage Newable’s unique corporate infrastructure and the extensive eco-system built by Newable and London Business Angels over the last 35 years. Bringing together the best entrepreneurs, partners and investors to invest in and help scale high-growth businesses.

We target the funding gap that exists for businesses which have de-risked their technology, developed traction with customers and now seek funding to scale their commercial operations.

The Fund aims to provide investors with a diversified portfolio of 7-10 EIS qualifying investments per subscription across our key sectors; SpaceTech, Life Sciences, Automation and Electronics.

The Newable Investment Committee has over 100 years of combined investment experience with a track record of making successful investments across the Innovation and Technology space. Our EIS funds to date have an average of 29% IRR with a failure rate of 21%

Calculus VCT Calculus Capital have a strong track record for investing in established, unquoted UK companies.

Our experienced investment team and thorough investment process have produced impressive dividend performance and exit returns for investors. By co-investing in selected established companies through both VCT and EIS, Calculus are able to choose larger companies and bigger deals - reducing the risk profile of the investment. The Calculus VCT has the following characteristics: • Targets an annual dividend of 4.5% of NAV • Income tax relief of 30%, tax-free capital gains and dividends • Diversified portfolio, targeting 30 qualifying companies • Share certificates issued 10 days after allotment • Allotments available in both 2019/20 and 2020/21 tax years • Monthly standing order option available • Target 5% discount in respect to share buyback after 2020

T. 020 7493 4940 E. info@calculuscapital.com www.calculuscapital.com

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The top up offer will be used to both invest in new companies with growth potential and provide further funding to a number of portfolio companies.

Calculus value their reputation for client service as much as their investment record, and are focused on building long standing relationships with both clients and advisers. Please get in touch to find out more on 020 7493 4940 or info@calculuscapital.com.

GB Investment Magazine Open Offers GB48 Investment Magazine · October· 2018

Open Offers

ACQUISITION AND SALES

O F I FA BUSINESSES Retirement?

Time for a change?

There are countless reasons to sell your IFA business, just as there are countless reasons to get hold of one.

W E A R E A SPECIA L I ST F I NANC IAL S A L E S , CO N S U LTA N CY A N D BR O KE R AGE B US I N ES S .

Gunner & Co.’s mission is to work directly with you, whether you are looking to realise the capital in your business, or you are looking for growth through a merger or acquisition.

We consider every business to be unique, and therefore finding the right solution for you starts with a thorough understanding of your business operations and your wish list.

Only from here can we make valuable introductions which align to both party’s needs.

If you would like to discuss options to sell, exit or retire, or acquire IFA businesses, please get in touch for a confidential discussion.

louise.jeffreys@gunnerandco.com

gunnerandco.com

EIS Open

Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised:

£20 million

Minimum Investment:

£20,000 (£15k if both spouses)

T. 0207 927 7465 E. Enquiries@endven.com www.endven.com

EIS Open

Evergreen

Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised:

c. £30m

Minimum Investment:

£25,000

Endeavour Ventures Managed Portfolio Service Building on our successful track record in growth EIS investing since 2005, Endeavour’s new Portfolio Service has been designed to provide many of the advantages of a managed EIS fund, but with better flexibility and no initial or annual fees for investors. Total fees are kept low, and clients receive 100% EIS relief on the money we invest.

Endeavour builds each client a diversified portfolio of companies across technology sectors that we know and understand. We focus on enterprise software, property and legal technology related platforms, cloud-based software delivery, workforce management and optimisation, data management platforms, and we have developed expertise in payments, FX and in fintech. We also diversify across stages of development, we seek out companies that are showing increasing customer traction, and many of our investments are into maturing businesses wishing to expand. The number of investments held by a client increases over several years tax years to give optimum diversification.

The objective is to enable clients to consistently benefit from EIS reliefs against tight deadlines while providing a base case return on capital of 1.6x to 2x over a 5 year period. This is against Endeavour’s 12 year audited cash to cash track record of 6.1x cost.

Our investment team understands growth investment complexities and timeframes. We have the right combination of skills for due diligence, investing, assisting and monitoring portfolio companies, and for exiting investments. We know that growth investing requires resilience over a number of years, and therefore forge strong partnerships between management teams and our own team members, that endures throughout the course of the investment cycle and on to exit. The most recent portfolio exit was Blue Prism Group Plc, providing Endeavour’s investors with a return of 150x and securing the EISA’s 2017 Best Exit of the Year.

MMC Ventures EIS Fund Invest in the UK’s fastest growing technology companies • Performance: In the last 24 months, MMC has delivered five positive exits returning an average of 2.7x to investors.

• Experience: MMC has been backing the UK’s fastest growing tech companies for 19 years, making them one of the most experienced managers in the EIS space.

• Commitment: More than £11 million has been invested by the MMC founders and team alongside its investors, on the same terms.

T. 0207 361 0212 E. invest@mmcventures.com www.mmcventures.com

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Investors in MMC’s EIS Fund can expect deployment over a 12-18 month period in a diversified portfolio of c. 10 companies. The Fund targets a 2-3x return over a 4-8 year holding period.

GB Investment Magazine Open Offers GB50 Investment Magazine · October· 2018

How does the challenge of educating consumers about electric cars for a large manufacturer lead to long term tax free income for your clients?

Unlike other traditional venture investment products, Triple Point’s Venture Fund works with its venture network to identify the challenges facing big corporates and then matching them with early stage companies which can solve them. Why? Because it helps to reduce risk and maximise growth.

And because Triple Point’s Venture Fund is a VCT, investors enjoy 30% up front income tax relief, tax free dividends and tax free growth throughout the life of their investment.

Maximising Financial Returns by Solving Corporate Challenges

As with any investment there is no guarantee that the target returns will be achieved and investors’ capital is at risk. Past performance is not a guide to future performance and may not be repeated. Tax rules and reliefs are subject to change.

020 7201 8990 contact@triplepoint.co.uk

VENTURE FUND

www.triplepoint.co.uk

This financial promotion has been issued by Triple Point Administration LLP (“TPAL”), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom (with firm reference number 618187). Triple Point is the trading name for the Triple Point Group which includes the following companies and associated entities: Triple Point Investment Management LLP registered in England & Wales no. OC321250, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority no. 456597, Triple Point Administration LLP registered in England & Wales no. OC391352 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority no. 618187, and TP Nominees Limited registered in England & Wales no.07839571, all of 1 King William Street, London, EC4N 7AF, UK

For the changing world of finance

Searching for a forward looking investment and asset management provider?

Look no further.

At Shard Capital, we’re well placed to navigate the ever-changing financial markets amidst the global backdrop of political and economic uncertainty. With a number of specialist, actively managed funds and services, we offer innovative investment opportunities that aren’t necessarily relevant to larger firms.

Rubrics Fixed Income Funds

Sure Ventures PLC

Award-winning global asset manager providing dynamic fixed income strategies across five Irish UCITs Funds

Listed VC investment trust investing in high growth start-ups in Augmented and Virtual Reality, Internet of Things and Fintech sectors

AIM IHT Portfolio Service

EIS Portfolio Service

Stringent research based portfolio selection leveraging our strong relationships with companies, brokers and market counterparties

Only invests in listed EIS companies (mainly on AIM) through a rigorous selection process, vetted by our investment committee

T: 0207 186 9900 E: info@shardcapital.com W: shardcapital.com/advisors This notice is not intended for retail clients. Shard Capital Partners LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority