Investee guidelines

Under our ethical framework, the following practices are prohibited:

· Excessive uncertainty in commercial transactions, gambling, or speculation;

· Fraud, cheating, misrepresentation, or any other unethical practices in business; and

· Deliberately damaging the wildlife and environment.

The overarching objective of the aforementioned prohibitions is to promote prudent, ethical, just and fair-trading relationships that are beneficial to all the relevant parties without creating any harm to the society or the environment.

The focus of the environment should not lead directly to environmental degradation. Any potential negative environmental impact caused by the activities of the company must be mitigated as much as feasible and should be openly disclosed by the company. If any damage does take place, the company needs to deal with the problem fairly.

Companies should provide data on the positive and negative impact of their actions. Any potential harm or damage to customers, members of the public or other organisations also should be mitigated and efforts of such documented.

Marketing should be reasonable and transparent: fraud, misrepresentation, exaggeration and cheating aren’t permitted.

These guidelines promote integrity and good corporate governance, making ethical companies a stronger, more sustainable option for investment.

To see a FULL copy of our ethical framework please email us.

In addition to the above, start up and scale up companies must be:

1. Ethically compliant with sign off from an accredited auditor or regulator.

2. MVP ready (as a bare minimum).

3. IP in the investee company (and not offshore, nor with an individual).

4. Ideally the company is already trading with existing users and has created traction.

5. Capable of scaling up their operations efficiently (including tech) to facilitate growth over a relatively short timescale.

6. Have an identifiable exit route.

7. SEIS and EIS compliant in the first instance.

The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) is a tax relief scheme introduced by the government in 2012. It’s designed to encourage investment in younger companies like start-ups. 

Shares are offered to individual investors and a maximum of £250,000 can be raised using this scheme.

For companies, the SEIS provides an opportunity to raise money when your start-up is at an early stage and you’re just beginning to trade. The tax reliefs given to investors make your funding round more attractive to investors.

To qualify for the SEIS, a company must:

· Be permanently established in the UK.

· Be less than three years old.

· Not be listed on a recognised stock exchange.

· Have fewer than 25 employees.

· Have assets less than £350,000.

Like EIS, excluded sectors include companies that deal in land, commodities, shares and other financial instruments.

The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) was set up by the UK government in 1994. It aims to help small, private companies raise the money they need to become high-growth companies.

Shares are offered to individual investors and a maximum of £12m can be raised using this scheme (life-time limit).

To qualify for EIS, a company must:

· Be permanently established in the UK.

· Have fewer than 250 full-time employees.

· Not be trading on a recognised stock exchange.

· Not be controlled by another company, or have 50% of its shares owned by another company.

· Not have gross assets worth more than £15 million before shares are issued, and not more than £16 million afterwards.

· Like the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), excluded sectors include companies that deal in land, commodities, shares and other financial instruments.