Mark Brownridge, Director of the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA) has contacted us with news of an important in-depth study into the funding of startups and scaleups.
He says: “EISA are undertaking a major research study both into the effectiveness of the tax advantaged schemes (EIS, SEIS and VCT) and the effect of Covid19 on young, innovative UK companies seeking to access finance and we need your readers’ help.
What is the study analysing?
This will be the first time a comprehensive, 360 study of the tax advantaged schemes will have been undertaken. The results of the study will be used to formulate our recommendations to HM Treasury and Government about how the schemes can be expanded and improved at this time to help get much needed funding to startups and scaleups quickly and effectively as well as improving the investor journey.
The objectives of the study are:
- To compare the performance of UK companies that have received funding through EIS, SEIS and/or VCT schemes against the performance of similarly matched companies that have not received such funding, either because they weren’t eligible or weren’t aware of the schemes to compare the performance of recipient companies dynamically, i.e. before and after receiving initial EIS, SEIS or VCT investment
- To quantify the effect on business performance indicators for each scheme based on key variables including, for example, company age, size, region and sector.
- To capture the directly relevant qualitative experience of those companies who have received EIS, SEIS or VCT funding as well as those that are not able to
- To identify the current SME funding gap and where the market failure exists as well as discovering regional and diversity issues
- To highlight how expanding the schemes to a wider subset of SMEs can plug those gaps/prevent future market failure
We need your input
As part of this study, we wish to discover the important views of those supplying equity funding to startups and scaleups i.e. funders and investors (Angel investors, private individuals and financial planners as well as VCs, fund/portfolio managers and crowdfunding sites) and to do so we have produced a short survey to collate the information.
The survey is designed to be simple and easy to complete (it should take no longer than 7mins) and will provide us with critical data to help formulate our thinking and drive our engagement with HM Treasury and Government. The study is a follow up to the survey we undertook back in March so we would urge anyone who completed that survey to also complete this one (including fund/portfolio managers).
The survey link can be found here.
On the back of the study, we will launch a major campaign to vocally put our points forward, gather support and present a strong, evidence based case for positive change which we hope you will support. We will let you know more about the campaign in due course assuming you are willing to provide the survey with your email address.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors of this study:
- Acceleris Capital
- Edition Capital
- Hambro Perks
- Kin Capital
- Nova Growth Capital
- Octopus
- Shakespeare Martineau
- SFC Capital Partners
- Thompson Taraz
- Vala Capital
Many thanks for your readers’ input and help in advance.”
