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Regardless of Brexit, these are exciting times for the EIS industry.


The sheer volume of opportunities is attracting more and more new funds to the market – and they are very welcome.

In most instances, although the fund might be new, the people involved are highly experienced and experts in their fields. Some have been investing in young companies for many years but are now offering a fund for the first time and are seeking support from the adviser market.

Hardman & Co’s New Entrant Network initiative has been created to smooth their path to market.

 
 

In this feature, we take the opportunity to showcase some of these new entrants and what they have to offer. We think you’ll be as impressed by their potential as we are.

Haatch Ventures

Haatch Ventures is made up of a team of hands-on value creators. They have been there. Built scaled companies of their own and sold them. They use that knowledge, experience and network to accelerate the growth of their portfolio businesses via a “Smart Money” approach, providing support to enable digital transformation.

Over the last seven years the team has been investing, supporting and managing their own private and EIS fund portfolio of digital companies, hand selected through a world class deal pipeline.

 
 

Why is the deal pipeline so great? The answer lies in the vast amount of respect the digital world has for the founders – Kiddicare.com architect Scott Weavers-Wright, who sold the business to Morrisons in 2011 for £70m & has since sold another start up to Quotient Technologies (NYSE Listed), digital marketing expert Simon Penson (founder of Zazzle Media; sold to NYSE-listed IPG) and Mark Bennett (Director of Hardware Partnerships for Google) as well as respected technology expert Fred Soneya. Together the team is able to best support portfolio companies not just with cash, but with a vast wealth of start up scaling knowledge.

Now for the first time this expertise is being harnessed into an EIS Fund. To date the approach has produced market-leading returns. The current portfolio has average ROI of 5.60x based on the latest third party fund raising round for each company. Our target return on exit is 10x.

This has given us an enviable reputation as the go to early stage investors in digital disruption tech.

 
 

Fred Soneya
fred@haatch.com
01780 408487

Side By Side

EIS investing does not have to be in just start-up companies. The companies we invest in, while still EIS investments, are at the later stage of their development phase, and usually have 2 to 4 million pounds of revenue, and are establishing mainstream customer loyalty for their product and services.

The fund selects just a few new companies each year, (8 in total), growing British companies and after very extensive diligence (that includes customers and international markets), may enter into long term financing and management advising agreements
with the company. We provide our own expertise free, but may also introduce other expertise as needed or dictated by the diligence process.

Companies are allocated new working capital by us each year, necessary to meet their approved business and financial plans. We develop a close strategic and operating relationship and help companies transition the well known and otherwise risky process to commercial large scale success.

We believe we are unique operators who bought into and exited companies in our own right before forming our fund to expand our capacity to bring this select, focused experience to each company and commit at least one day a month to be with each management team throughout their lifetime in the fund.

Contact: London@thesidebysidepartnership.com
Tel: +44 207 993 8686

Newable Eis Scale-Up Fund

The Newable EIS Scale-up Fund 3 seeks to leverage Newable’s unique corporate infrastructure to invest in knowledge intensive companies at the scale up stage. We target companies which have de-risked their technology, developed traction with customers and now seek funding to scale their commercial operations.

We specialise in Med-Tech, Automation, Spacetechnology and Electronics; these sectors provide particular opportunities created through the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution which is increasing productivity and efficiency across the globe.

Michael Walsh, Managing Director and Newable CFO – Mike provides strategic financial support across the business and previously managed over £300m of VC investment funds. Mike has worked for some 30 years in financial services and qualified as a CA from PWC.

Sanjeev Gordhan MBA, Commercial Director – Prior to joining Newable Sanjeev worked at Mattioli Woods as a Wealth Manager with a client book of circa £30million. Having been an advisor, Sanjeev understands the key priorities for IFAs and Wealth Managers and for this reason has been able to ensure Newable is well placed to provide investors with a best in class EIS investment opportunity.

Alex Sleigh, Investment Director – Responsible for overseeing investments across the Fund, having been involved in over 60 Investments since joining in 2011. MA (Hons) in Economics and Modern History from University of St. Andrews and Masters in General Management from Vlerick Leuven Ghent Management School, Belgium. ‘Investor in Residence’ at King’s College, London.

Established in 1982 Newable is a leading provider of business services to UK SMEs and start-ups to help them start, scale and internationalise. We provide businesses with a raft of products and services ensuring we not only invest capital but support those companies through their business journey.

For more information, contact Sanjeev Gordhan –
07850 915378 or at Sanjeev.gordhan@newable.co.uk

Zero Carbon Capital

The climate crisis is an urgent and existential threat to humanity. Record levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are making extreme weather related events more frequent and severe: hurricanes, droughts, floods, heatwaves and wildfires. Tackling this global challenge requires big technological innovations that can dramatically reduce our carbon output. The companies that will invent and commercialise the next wave of those technologies are being created now, and need seed capital to grow.

The Zero Carbon Fund is a new EIS fund investing in these early-stage opportunities. We find ambitious teams and breakthrough ideas that can scale to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by half a gigaton per year, and deliver long-term value. We believe companies that make significant contributions to our zero-carbon transition will be highly valuable as the financial landscape is fundamentally rewritten by climate risk.

The ZCC team has a long history of engaging in this space and spent the last 4 years investing their own money as angels in the US and UK. They have seen first hand the significant growth in demand for investment and in public interest in this space. Along the way they have built a strong, global network enabling them to offer a unique perspective on the opportunity to investors.

We believe the zero-carbon transition will produce a significant number of breakout companies and the Zero Carbon Fund is your opportunity to participate in that value creation.

You can find out more at https://zerocarbon.capital
or by emailing: 
info@zerocarbon.capital.

Praetura

Praetura has supported SMEs since 2011, with the acquisition and listing of Inspired Energy plc that year. Since then, we have grown steadily and made a further 36 investments into high growth tech or IP enabled small businesses on behalf of investors, investing over £130m.

Headquartered in Manchester, the Praetura team have built an enviable network across the region generating strong deal flow and opportunities. Businesses we look to back all provide access to recurring, high margin revenue streams and the opportunity for operational leverage once scaled. We are prepared to back these inherently scalable business models early. We believe that by making an early investment in a business, we are able to work with driven management teams at the foundational stages of a business and support them in growing successful ventures.

As important is our ability to add “more than money”,we’re constantly looking for ways to add significant value through our team’s skillset, network and experience. Deciding whether we can add value and help shape a company’s growth is critical when we decide where to invest, as it helps to reduce the risk inherent in early-stage investing.

Praetura’s approach and track record offers investors looking for meaningful capital growth investments an attractive investment opportunity.

Praetura won the ‘Best New Entrant’ award at the ‘Investment Week Tax Efficiency Awards’”.

Contact Details:
Jonathan Prescott – Business Development Director
07710087636
jon.prescott@praetura.co.uk
www.praeturaventures.co.uk

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