Richard Angus, our Head of Business Development was invited to speak on early-stage growth companies and knowledge-intensive businesses at Newable‘s Investors’ Late Summer Soirée.
Richard commented:
“We have seen a number of trends in the EIS and angel investing market. One of the trends is that a number of investment managers who in the past hadn’t really much to do with EIS, but understand how to invest in knowledge intensive businesses, have decided to enter the market – which we think is good – as there is a huge number of companies looking for the right type of investment.”
Hardman & Co place a strong emphasis on investment-led, not tax-led investment, and into ambitious businesses with growth potential; there is no room for asset-backed or project type of investments in EIS.
An increase in experienced investment managers entering the EIS market will hopefully mean that “we will have less of our intellectual capital taken by foreign companies”. We have plenty of innovation in the UK, but not enough appropriate investors are aware. By nurturing and providing funding throughout businesses’ growth cycles, we will keep their IP and economic benefits firmly in the UK.
There is also demand from advisers to understand risk. The tax benefits of SEIS/EIS are designed to compensate for some of that risk…but we think of it as co-investment with the government, rather than a tax break solution only.
