Symvan Capital is planning to raise £10 million for its new high-growth technology EIS fund and give it a ‘Californian style’ of operation.
The firm, a leading provider of tax-efficient disruptive technology investment opportunities, says that its Symvan Technology EIS Fund will allow private investors to invest in UK high-growth technology companies that have already proven their commercial viability, undergone a long-term due diligence process and demonstrated their potential to scale.
Every company within the new fund will have received earlier investment from Symvan Capital through the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), and since then have had commercial development and direction from Symvan Capital.
Symvan says that this ‘California-style’ approach to tech investment is unique amongst UK EIS providers.
CEO of Symvan Capital Kealan Doyle said: “Our unique model allows us to reduce the risk of investing in high-growth technology businesses – the companies in the fund have already proven that they are commercially viable since we initially invested in them at an early stage.”
“Tech investment in the UK has often focused on university spin-outs. While the technology developed by these businesses is often enormously exciting, bringing a hard-nosed commercial approach to them can sometimes be difficult. That’s why the fund focuses on commercially proven businesses that are on the path to scale, and can achieve substantial valuation uplift in the short to medium term.”
The minimum investment is £20,000 and the deadline for subscriptions for the next round of investment is 5 April 2017.
The new fund will focus on companies across several key areas: software, machine-learning and analytics, social media & digital media and media & entertainment.
Investee companies include:
- B.heard: helps provide customer feedback for companies, with valuable insight about what they think. Its ‘value comparison platform’ merges traditional elements of price comparison, review websites and regulatory data;
- Buying Butler: a graduate of Microsoft Accelerator in 2014, Buying Butler has created a B2B digital ‘concierge buying service’ which helps customers understand the best options available to them. It is largely focused on the automotive industry, and more recently, on the vehicle insurance market specifically;
- Cognisess: disrupts the ‘old economy’ recruitment model through neuroscience, game-based assessment and big data analytics, providing a comprehensive and objective analysis of a candidate that a traditional recruitment process cannot provide.
Doyle added: “Our selection process sets us apart on the EIS landscape. Sourcing companies from our existing SEIS funds means that Symvan’s due diligence is an on-going process, rather than what might be a snapshot just before the investment is made. That means we understand how our investee companies and their management teams work over an extended period, and investors can benefit from that certainty and experience.”
