Top 20 EIS funds and investors you should know about

The Enterprise Investment Scheme or EIS is an HMRC-run scheme that helps younger, higher-risk businesses looking to raise funds by incentivising investors with a 30 per cent income tax relief amongst a number of other tax incentives including the investment being Capital Gains Tax (CGT) free. The Seed Scheme (SEIS), for earlier stage companies, offers 50 per cent income tax relief.

Established in 1994, EIS continued to be supported through Labour governments and was made more attractive during the coalition government in 2011.

It was further modified a few years ago to shift the focus towards more innovative start-ups.

You can raise up to £12m through EIS funds (or in some cases £20m) and in the 2021/22 tax year, around 3,780 businesses raised circa. £1.575bn through the scheme. Investment sizes have fallen since the highs of 2021 and 2022 but, making the scheme still the best way for early-stage businesses to secure reliable capital.

With this in mind, we have put together a list of the top 20 EIS funds that you should know about.

We have listed EIS investor funds that cover a variety of regions, sectors, investment sizes and given examples of previous investments so you can make the right choices as to how to grow your business.

Amadeus Early Stage EIS Fund Calculus Capital Committed Capital Concept Ventures Endeavour Ventures EMV Capital Foresight Group Fuel Follow On EIS Fund Guinness Ventures Haatch Ventures LLP Jenson Funding Partners Mercia Asset Management MMC Ventures Molten Ventures Parkwalk Opportunities EIS Fund PXN Ventures (formerly Praetura Ventures) SuperSeed (SuperSeed Ventures) The Side By Side Partnership Ltd Symvan Capital Worth Capital Top 20 EIS funds you should know about Top 20 EIS funds – a Growth Business guide EIS fundRegionsInvestment sizeSectorsPrevious investmentsNo. of exits Amadeus Early Stage EIS Fund UKMinimum £25,000Intelligence, human and planet-based enterprisesPimloc, Ravelin, Glysure, PolyAI70+ Calculus CapitalUK£1m-£3mTechnology, healthcare and media companiesRiff Raff Entertainment, Notify, Optalitix, Brouhaha Entertainment, Wazoku, Oxford Biotherapeutics17 Committed CapitalUKTypically £3m per companyTechnology. Sub-sectors include Edtech, Insuretech, Fintech, Digital mapping, Digital advertising, Electric motors, IoT, SaaS & Video Collaboration TechData Cloud, Knowledgemotion, Konsileo, Kortext, Lightwave, Living Map, Ceed, Saietta, Seenit, Smartology, Stormagic, Fairstone and Kokoon24 Concept VenturesUKUp to £750,000Anything that changes the nature of work, play and learnGreendeck, Organise, Scribeless, Workscope, Labworks2 Endeavour VenturesUK all regions£500,000 – £1.5mB2B Saas and Ai for EPOS, payments, marketplaces/platforms, HR, Health and safety, compliance/reg-tech, construction, process automation, Fintech, data analytics, telcoms, media tech, and defence techBlue Prism Plc 150X money, Ebury Partners Ltd (FX platform) 33 x money, Workflow Management Ltd t/a Reflow 11×13 EMV CapitalUK and internationalMinimum £25,000AI and robotics, biotech, medtech, electronics, advanced engineering, cleantechPointGrab, Recycling Technologies, Wanda Health, Insight, GlycoTest3 Foresight GroupUK, North America and ItalyBetween £1m and £5mFocused on tech businessesdefaqto, GovGrant, The Naked Deli, OrthoView, IFS58 Fuel Follow On EIS FundUK £500,000 – £2mMarketplaces, software and platform companiesCapdesk, Wombat, Yavrio, Arbolus, Journee, Wollit5 Guinness VenturesUKAverage £1m-£5mConsumer, healthcare and business servicesCera Care, Popsa, ContentCal19 Haatch Ventures LLP UK£250,000-£1mB2B SaaS, future of enterprise, fintechBuymie, Poplar, Eleanor, Deazy, Marvel, VuePay, Codices, Veritonic, Iterate.ai, Scurri, 1 Second Everyday and Elevaate8 Jenson Funding PartnersUK£50,000 to £500,000AgnosticVoneus, LiveIT, Whispering Gibbon, Dame, Tapfuse, RotoVR, Treefrog, IBC, Warwick, Fiovana, Equus, The LinkApp, EyLog, BrainBroker, Dream Reality, FrontM, Angoka, Whitehall Finance and Tailwise12 Mercia Asset ManagementThroughout the UK, with a particular focus on the Midlands, North of England and Scotland£150,000 – £2bnInvestments are made into sectors which have modest capital requirements but high growth potentialOxgene, Luminous, Kaido, adaptech, Warwick Acoustics40 MMC VenturesUK and Europe£1m-£10mEnterprise AI, Cloud & data infrastructure, Fintech, Data-driven healthInteractive Investor, Current Health, Signal AI, YuLife, Copper, Brightpearl17 (*includes partial exits) MoltenUK and Europe£2m-£10mConsumer technology; enterprise technology & SaaS; hardware & deep tech and healthcareApatech, Buy.at, Alphamosaic, KVS, CSR, Blackspider, Domantis23 Parkwalk Opportunities EIS Fund UK universitiesMinimum £25,000University spinoutsAdsilico, Oxa, Accelercomm65 PXN Ventures (formerly Praetura Ventures)North of England£500,000-£20m (seed – Series A)Digital and tech; financial, professional and business services; energy and the environment, health and life sciencesModern Milkman, Current Health, Cyacomb, HomeCooks, Ruuby, Sunamp20 SuperSeedUK£100,000 to £500,000B2B, SaaS and AI.Dopay, Scribeless, SuccessData and ThingTrax.8 The Side By Side Partnership LtdUKMinimum £10,000Technology-enabled businessesDendrite, Maritime Technology, Groovy, GSS, Go Now, Prism Sola, Solar Centre, CTSO, Sky City apartments, Community First Bank, Pervasive Tech, EKR Therapeutics, Systech, InstaMed, Untethered, Sintan, Bluum, Healthsqaured, Structured Web, Fusar, Mouse House, Enclothed, Fuss Free Technologies, Caervest and Skin Analytics11 Symvan CapitalUK£500,000-£1.5mSector agnostic, specialisms Neotas, RightIndem, APIContext, TIKOS, Pimloc, Digital Clipboard, Nossa Data, Gazeal6 Worth CapitalUKUp to £400,000 per investeeAgnosticUniblock, Vitrue Health, Kanda, Weekly10 and Bedfolk0 Source: Growth Business

1. Amadeus Early Stage EIS Fund

Bio:

The Amadeus Early Stage EIS Fund was launched in 2015. It is an opportunity to invest alongside Amadeus’s venture capital funds within a highly selective EIS-qualifying investment portfolio. On average, Amadeus invests in eight to ten UK companies a year and historically an average of four a year have been EIS qualifying.

Regions covered: UK

Investment size: £25,000+

Sectors covered: Intelligence, human and planet-based enterprises

Examples of previous investments: Pimloc, Ravelin, Glysure, PolyAI

Number of successful exits: 70+

Website: www.wealthclub.co.uk/eis-investments/amadeus-early-stage-eis/

Contact: Form available on the website

2. Calculus Capital

Bio: Calculus are pioneers of the EIS industry, having launched the UK’s first approved EIS Fund in 1999. Our focus has remained consistent: building portfolios of entrepreneurial, UK growth businesses and creating value for our investors through our multi-award-winning EIS funds and VCT.

Calculus focus on the fastest growing sectors in the UK – technology, healthcare and media companies. We have been able to produce significant results for our clients via tax free dividends for our VCT investors, or tax free capital gains for our EIS investors. We are proud to have been awarded ‘Best EIS Fund Manager’ by the EIS Association five times over.

Regions covered: UK

Investment size: £1m-£3m

Sectors covered: Technology, healthcare and media companies

Previous investments: Riff Raff Entertainment, Notify, Optalitix, Brouhaha Entertainment, Wazoku, Oxford Biotherapeutics

Number of successful exits: 17

Website: https://calculuscapital.com/

Contact: info@calculuscapital.com

  3. Committed Capital

Bio: Committed Capital are specialists in growth stage venture capital, and they have been investing for more than two decades in the UK’s most promising high growth technology companies. Their investee companies typically have excellent technical solutions to pressing issues in a substantial addressable market. Applying these solutions systematically gives their companies a high probability of rapid growth and a successful exit.

Their mission is to support post revenue (over £1m) investee companies through applying and sharing the expertise the team has of founding, building, internationalising and exiting companies.  For investors, they offer an opportunity to invest in a portfolio of actively managed growth stage technology companies, whilst benefitting from potential tax reliefs under the Enterprise Investment Scheme.

The fund invests in UK-based smaller companies, one of the most dynamic and potentially highest returning sectors of the market, and a core area of expertise at Committed Capital. Committed Capital aims to deliver strong returns irrespective of any tax benefits through the EIS structure. Since 2001 the team have achieved an average 3x ROI, or a 36.8 per cent IRR with an average holding period of 4.5 years.

Regions covered: UK

Investment size: Typically £3m per company

Sectors covered: Technology. Sub-sectors include Edtech, Insuretech, Fintech, Digital mapping, Digital advertising, Electric motors, IoT, SaaS & Video Collaboration Tech

Number of investments a year: 10

Previous investments: Data Cloud, Knowledgemotion, Konsileo, Kortext, Lightwave, Living Map, Ceed, Saietta, Seenit, Smartology, Stormagic, Fairstone and Kokoon

Number of successful exits: 24

Website: www.committedcapital.co.uk

Contact: info@committedcapital.co.uk

Number: 02075291350

4. Concept Ventures (formerly RLC Ventures)

Bio: Concept is a pre-seed VC fund backing companies building towards the future of how we work, play and learn.

They aim to challenge limiting issues in the VC space such as investor bias, time-wasting and a lack of transparency.

Regions covered: UK

Investment size: Up to £750,000

Sectors covered: Anything that changes the nature of work, play and learn

Examples of previous investments: Greendeck, Organise, Scribeless, Workscope, Labworks

Number of successful exits: 2

Website: https://www.conceptventures.vc/

Contact: Form available on website

5. Endeavour Ventures

Bio: Endeavour Ventures was founded in 2005 and focuses on scalable technologies and enterprise software, also some Greentech.

Regions covered: UK all regions

Investment size: £500,000 to £1.5m

Sectors covered: B2B Saas and Ai for EPOS, payments, marketplaces/platforms, HR, Health and safety, compliance/reg-tech, construction, process automation, Fintech, data analytics, telcoms, media tech, and defence tech

Examples of previous investments: Blue Prism Plc 150X money, Ebury Partners Ltd (FX platform) 33 x money, Workflow Management Ltd t/a Reflow 11x

Number of successful exits: 13

Website: www.endven.com

Contact: Bill@endven.com, magnus@endven.com

6. EMV Capital

Bio: EMV Capital is an award-winning VC investor specialising in early stage high-growth deep tech companies in the life science, sustainability and industrials sectors in the UK and internationally.

EMV Capital develops unique investment strategies for each portfolio company, drawing on its EIS fund and extensive network of private investors, family offices, institutions, and corporate VCs. Delivery and successful execution of these investment strategies enables innovative portfolio companies to raise funding to drive transformational growth.

EMV Capital is a wholly owned subsidiary of NetScientific plc (AIM:NSCI), a life sciences and technology commercialisation and investment group.

EMV Capital has a multi-disciplinary team of specialist investors, portfolio managers, capital raisers, legal, finance, marketing and support staff. The company is focused on primary and secondary investments, through debt and/or equity.

Regions covered: UK and international

Investment size: Minimum £25,000

Sectors covered: AI and robotics, biotech, medtech, electronics, advanced engineering, cleantech

Examples of previous investments: PointGrab, Recycling Technologies, Wanda Health, Insight, GlycoTest

Number of successful exits: 3

Website: http://emvcapital.com/

Contact: info@emvcapital.com

7. Foresight Group

Bio: Foresight Group is an independent infrastructure and private equity investment manager, with specialist teams targeting growth businesses, renewable energy and environmental projects in the UK, North America and Italy.

At Foresight we are well aware of the need to live up to our name. That means spotting opportunities ahead of the crowd; it means being flexible; it means being innovative; it means being totally focused and responsive to the needs of our investors while creating an environment that attracts the very best talent in our sector. We summarise this in just two words: Creative Capital. These two words sit behind everything we do from supporting entrepreneurial managers of growth businesses, to bringing together institutions to invest in ground-breaking renewable energy projects alongside the Green Investment Bank, to offering private investors tax efficient investment solutions to help them plan for the future. It is in deploying our financial, intellectual and emotional capital creatively that helps us make a better future for our investors, for our investee companies, for our partners, for our colleagues and ultimately for the world in which we live.

Regions covered: UK, North America, Italy

Investment size: Between £1m and £5m

Sectors covered: Focused on tech businesses

Previous investments: defaqto, GovGrant, The Naked Deli, OrthoView, IFS

Number of successful exits: 58

Website: https://www.foresightgroup.eu/sme

Contact: info@foresightgroup.eu

8. Fuel Follow On EIS Fund

Bio: Fuel Ventures was founded by Mark Pearson who built his own company and scaled it to a £55m exit. We know how hard building fast growth companies is and we use all our operational expertise and experienced network to help companies grow.

Regions covered: UK

Investment size:  £500,000 – £2m

Sectors covered: Marketplaces, software and platform companies

Examples of previous investments: Capdesk, Wombat, Yavrio, Arbolus, Journee, Wollit

Number of successful exits: 5

Website: www.fuel.ventures

Contact: www.fuel.ventures/submit-pitch

9. Guinness Ventures

Bio: Guinness Ventures is the sister company to Guinness Global Investors (both from the Guinness Asset Management stable) and was founded in 2010.

Trusted by investors to grow their capital, our award-winning investment management team are experts at sourcing opportunities in growth-stage companies and helping them unlock their significant potential

Being truly invested in the success of the businesses we back, our impact goes beyond the financial investment as we use our resources and network to provide the companies that we invest in with the help that they need to grow.

We look for exciting and interesting businesses that we believe have potential for growth across a wide range of sectors including technology, education, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, leisure and food & drink.

Since inception, Guinness Ventures has invested over £255m into more than 180 EIS qualifying companies including some of the fastest growing growth companies in the UK.

Regions covered: UK

Investment size: Average £1m-£5m

Sectors covered: Consumer, healthcare and business services

Previous investments: Cera Care, Popsa, ContentCal

Number of successful exits: 19

Website: https://www.guinnessgi.com/

Contact: info@guinnessventures.com

10. Haatch Ventures LLP

Bio: Haatch was founded by Scott Weavers-Wright and Fred Soneya in September 2013, since then it has been investing in early-stage technology startups under the Haatch Angel brand and its EIS fund Haatch Ventures. It looks for start-ups that show highly scalable and disruptive models of growth.

With its group of hands-on value creators, who have built and sold companies, it uses their knowledge and experience to help accelerate the growth of the new companies it invests in.

Regions covered: UK

Investment size: £250,000-£1m

Sectors covered: B2B SaaS, future of enterprise, fintech

Number of investments a year: Approximately 20-30

Examples of previous investments: Buymie, Poplar, Eleanor, Deazy, Marvel, VuePay, Codices, Veritonic, Iterate.ai, Scurri, 1 Second Everyday and Elevaate.

Number of successful exits: 8

Website: www.haatch.com

Contact: jk@haatch.com

11. Jenson Funding Partners

Bio: Jenson Funding Partners was founded in 2012 with the launch of its first Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS fund building a solid, scalable and efficient investment process. Since 2012, it has invested £24m in over 135 companies.

Its core offering is investment via its SEIS and EIS Funds, investing, supporting and growing innovative start-ups with disruptive technologies. Key to its investment criteria is its support programme providing key financial, technical, operational and sales and marketing support to investee companies from the outset. Its investment mandate includes the nurturing of the early-stage businesses it invests in.

Regions covered: UK

Investment size: £50,000 to £500,000

Sectors covered: Agnostic

Previous investments: Voneus, LiveIT, Dame, RotoVR, TreeApp, EyWorks, Dream Reality Interactive, FrontM, Angoka, YAi, Cocoon, EBar, Axioma, Hike, Georganics, Luna, NotInTheGuideBooks, PeachWeb, Permia Sensing, Skuma Water, The Seam and ZappedSkin

Number of successful exits: 12

Website: www.jensonfundingpartners.com

Contact: clientservices@jensonventures.com

12. Mercia Asset Management

Mercia is a specialist asset manager focused on supporting regional SMEs to achieve their growth aspirations. They provide capital across four asset classes of balance sheet, venture, private equity and debt capital; the Group’s ‘Complete Capital Solution’.

Their EIS Funds, which are managed under Mercia Fund Management Limited, have an investment-led venture capital strategy, investing nationally with a focus on the underserved regions; specialising in the identification, creation, funding and scaling of innovative technology businesses with high growth potential, creating a strong investment proposition.

The Investment Team of industry specialists with venture capital expertise, works extensively with portfolio companies to scale each business with the aim of ultimately delivering shareholder returns.

Fund investors and intermediaries benefit from a diversified portfolio offering the tax advantages of EIS, detailed reporting with a strong focus on transparency to investors and their advisors, externally audited funds and an experienced investment panel.

Regions covered: Throughout the UK, with a particular focus on the Midlands, North of England and Scotland

Investment size: £150,000-£2bn

Sectors covered: Investments are made into sectors which have modest capital requirements but high growth potential

Previous investments: Oxgene, Luminous, Kaido, adaptech, Warwick Acoustics

Number of successful exits: 40

Website: https://www.mercia.co.uk/venture/mercia-eis-funds/

Contact: Enquiries@mercia.co.uk; 0330 223 1430

13. MMC Ventures

Bio: MMC funds and helps scale technology companies that are transforming today’s markets. MMC commits to a deep understanding of each company’s underlying technology and business model to help make better decisions and be more effective partners.

Regions covered: UK and Europe

Investment size: £1m-£10m

Sectors covered: Enterprise AI, Cloud & data infrastructure, Fintech, Data-driven health

Number of investments a year: 15

Examples of previous investments: Interactive Investor, Current Health, Signal AI, YuLife, Copper, Brightpearl

Number of successful exits: 17 (*includes partial exits)

Website: www.mmcventures.com

Contact: fundenquiries@mmc.vc

14. Molten Ventures

Formerly Draper Esprit, Molten is a leading cross-stage venture capital firm that invests in European technology companies. Members of the Draper Esprit team have been active in technology investing for three decades. They have experience of investing in over 200 companies, generating strong returns for investors through building valuable global companies alongside founders and management teams.

The Draper Esprit partners have invested and helped build many of Europe’s most successful venture companies of recent years, including Apatech, Buy.at, Alphamosaic, KVS, CSR, Blackspider and Domantis. Draper Esprit is the exclusive European partner for Silicon Valley based Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) Global Network of venture funds.  Draper Esprit invests across Europe and has partners located in London, Cambridge, Dublin, Helsinki and Paris.

Regions: UK and Europe

Investment size: £2m-£10m

Sectors: Consumer technology; enterprise technology & SaaS; hardware & deep tech and healthcare

Number of investments per year: around 12

Total investments to date: around 120 into 60 companies, including Apatech, Buy.at, Alphamosaic, KVS, CSR, Blackspider, Domantis

Number of exits: 23

15. Parkwalk Opportunities EIS Fund

Bio: We invest in entrepreneurial teams who are building world-changing businesses; from seed to success, we are with you. We’ve been investing in this unique asset class since 2009 and have a strong track record of producing world-leading companies born from university IP.

The Opportunities EIS Fund is open all year round and will invest in a portfolio of early stage high-growth companies spun out from UK universities. Investors will receive a portfolio of eight companies across sectors including Quantum Computing, AI, MedTech, Life Sciences, CleanTech and more.

Regions covered: UK universities

Investment size: Minimum £25,000

Sectors covered: University spinouts

Previous investments: