In this two part Q&A, Jeffrey Faustin, Chief Investment Officer at Jenson Funding Partners, sat down with GBI Magazine’s Matt Williams, to discuss the firm’s approach and why he believes they’re well positioned to deliver for advisers’ clients.
Jenson Funding Partners invests in & supports start-ups and have currently invested our £24 million in 135+ entrepreneurial UK businesses. Jenson is one of the first UK VCs to become certified B Corp. They offer investors the choice of investing in either an SEIS or EIS portfolio or to split their investment across both Jenson’s portfolios are designed to help advisers and their clients to mitigate the risks of early stage investment by diversifying across sectors and risk profiles.
In this part one of our OBA Faustin outlines what he believes sets Jenson apart from other fund manager and explains the benefits of advisers choosing to invest their clients’ cash with Jenson.
Q: What is your role in the company, and what does Jenson do?
I’m the Chief Investment Officer at Jenson Funding Partners. I primarily focus on the investment management side of the business. That includes overseeing at the sourcing of deals and helping the team to negotiate terms and managing that process. As for Jenson, we are an investment fund manager, we focus on pre seed and seed stage investments, and we’ve been operating in this space for just over ten years. I’ve been with the fund for the last ten years, almost from day one, and the been working on various aspects of the business since we got started. I’ve been a partner for the last four years, a role which also involves thinking strategically about the direction that we take this business in future.
Q: What are the benefits for advisers’ clients of investing with a fund manager like Jenson?
If you look at the tax-efficient investment sector, there is a significant benefit in the structure that applies to investors individually. One of the benefits of investing with Jenson is that advisers can add an additional layer of portfolio diversification for their clients. We do the heavy lifting when it comes to finding companies, reviewing and assessing them, and deciding which ones are investable. That’s the primary benefit.
We consider ourselves fairly unique, taking a very hands-on approach to investing in companies. We go for what we consider to be low volume but high-quality company investments, with a great deal of effort focused on managing those companies. We’ve been around for a long time, and over that period, we’ve been able to develop a very strong and constant pipeline of investment deal flow. We’ve established ourselves well within the market in terms of building relationships for sourcing companies, our experience is now proving to be a considerable advantage for us. Importantly, we can deploy investors capital quickly within the existing tax year.
As an aside, I recently judged the British Business Association’s awards presenting an award at the ceremony, which demonstrates just how we have gained significant traction and success in adopting our strategy. We will aim to continue to build on that in the future to the benefit of our investors.
To find out more about Jenson Funding Partners click here, or you can get in contact directly by clicking here
