The EIS & VC Navigator

Elliot Limb is co-founder and CEO of Cubed and spends his days supporting fintech companies scale. Having worked with many startups, he has a broad insight into their challenges and difficulties. He also has some strong views, which makes for a very interesting discussion! We covered a huge number of areas, including: - why fintech has a long way to go - what causes startup companies to fail: Elli...

Since its founding eight years ago, British Business Bank has established itself as an important participant in the funding markets for UK SMEs and startups. In this episode, its CEO Louis Taylor tells us what it is doing and how it is going about it. We start by discussing how the Bank fits into the UK ecosystem. Louis discusses the bank's mandate and how it goes about fulfilling it. It aims to c...

Hardware startups have often struggled to get funding, but Damon Bonser of British Design Fund is trying to change that. In this episode, he talks about his experiences and how hardware can be more attractive than many investors think. The first half of our discussion focusses on how companies can mitigate risk. Damon discusses how he avoids investing in a warehouse of unsold goods, focussing inst...

Anyone with a passing interest in technology or venture capital cannot have missed the rapid increase in interest in AI over the past few months. We are overdue talking about it on the podcast, so we got an expert in James Pringle. He used AI as a founder and it now impacts how he invests so he is the ideal guest to discuss the topic. We start off by covering some of the basics, drawing out what A...

When planning this episode with Kealan Doyle of Symvan Capital, he told a story about a venture capital conference where the compere asked who had been through a downturn before and nobody raised their hands. So we decided to discuss the last couple of venture capital cycles and how previous downturns compare with the current one. We also talk about some of the secular changes that have taken plac...

There have been two recent changes that will affect how ESG is applied in practice by fund managers, advisers and, most importantly, investors. Lee Coates of ESG Accord has been advising on ethical investment for three decades, runs a consultancy to help others implement ESG and and is on a relevant FCA committee. We had such a great discussion that we are giving it to you in two parts: this is th...

There have been two recent changes that will affect how ESG is applied in practice to fund managers, advisers and, most importantly, investors. Lee Coates of ESG Accord has been advising on ethical investment for three decades, runs a consultancy to help others implement ESG and and is on a relevant FCA committee. We had such a great discussion that we are giving it to you in two parts: this is th...

Healthcare is a large industry and is a lot more than just drugs. We have two experts, Savvas Neophytou and Ben Carter of Deepbridge, to discuss the industry and how there is a lot of other life science areas that are attractive to venture capital investors. We talk a lot about devices. We discuss the challenges and benefits of investing in hardware, how they do diligence on technologies and negot...

Venture debt is a niche within the venture capital market that has been growing in importance. In this episode we get David Hayers, who is Head of Venture Debt at Hambro Perks, to explain what venture debt is and how it works. We start off by going through the basics. David talks about what types of companies venture debt is suitable for, what they look for when doing diligence and how the loans g...

In today's episode we get more of a corporate finance perspective on venture capital, with two guests from PwC. Antonia Burridge co-founded the Raise team and John Baker is heavily involved in equity crowdfunding, so we get a perspective that extends right across the market. We start we some background on the Raise Team. Antonia discusses founding a new operation within a such large organisation,...

While we usually focus on EIS and VCT in this podcast, there is a larger venture capital industry outside this area. Although its been mainly for institutional investors to date, Sprout is looking to change that. In this episode, founder and CEO, Jonny Blausten discusses the GP/LP market in general and how they are opening it up to retail investors. We start by talking about GP/LP funds. Jonny exp...

Exits were described by an earlier guest as mythical beasts, but the reality is much more positive. Beauhurst used their database in report that they published in 2022, we we get their Head of Research, Henry Whorwood, to discuss it. While our discussion doesn't need the report in front of you, some people will find it helpful to download it using the link below. Henry starts off by talking about...

The events with Silicon Valley Bank have been dramatic and concerning for the venture capital industry in the US and UK. The EIS Navigator's host, Brian Moretta, has spent much of his career analysing financial companies, so is uniquely placed to give insights on banking and venture capital in this solo episode. Brian summarises what happened at Silicon Valley Bank. He outlines how the recent grow...

Whether agritech or agtech, agricultural technology is an area that hasn't quite hit the heights of some other areas of technology venture capital. In this episode, Paul Rous of Regenerate Ventures discusses how and why that is changing, with a more promising future ahead. Paul starts by talking about the history of agtech, talking about why it hasn't taken off as it might and what the barriers ha...

In venture capital investing it is easy to focus on the excitement of doing deals, but the reality is all the hard work happens after the investment is made. In this episode, Ben Leslie of Puma talks about how fund managers can support companies and help them achieve their goals. In a wide ranging discussion we cover many areas. Ben discusses how and where he provides support. He talks about the i...

Venture builders has only one representative amongst SEIS and EIS fund managers, but Andy Davidson of Nova strongly believes it will become more important in the future. We get him to explain how venture building works and why he's so bullish. We start off digging into venture building, using Nova's business as an example. We talk about finding founders, founder/venture builder fit and how ideas c...

Raising money through angels or fund managers is something that most management does, at best, infrequently. For SEIS, EIS and VCT money, it is often the first time founders have sought equity. Richard Cooper of Oxford Innovation Finance has advised many companies in the past and is now a fund manager, so has lots of experience to help founders prepare. We start with some of the basics, such as wh...

Although investing on AIM through EIS fund and VCTs would appear to have several attractions, there are very few fund managers who invest in this area. Seneca Partners are one and we get fund manager Matt Currie to talk about it. We cover many areas in the discussion. We talk about the differences in governance between AIM, fully listed companies and unquoted companies and what this means for inve...

Despite hopes that we may have a quieter year, 2022 turned out to be much more dramatic than 2021. The EIS navigator team have got another all-star panel to discuss what happened. Cristiana Stewart-Lockhart, Director General of EIS Association, Neil Cole, Head of Wealth Planning Solutions, UBS Wealth Management, and Kealan Doyle, Director, Symvan Capital join Brian to pick through the events of 20...

The leisure sector faces very different challenges from the more tech focussed companies that most EIS and VCTs focus on. Harry Heartfield of Edition Capital specialises this area and gives insights into its past, present and future. We start by chatting about the challenges that covid brought. We talk about how leisure companies coped with their doors being closed and how they managed finances to...

The power law is something that most venture capital investors are aware of, but usually only in the most general sense. Graham Schwikkard, CEO of SyndicateRoom, has just written a white paper on the topic using their data driven approach. We start on a bit of background, discussing what the power law is and what motivated the paper. Graham then explains how they approached the data, what decision...

The lack of secondary market liquidity has been a long term challenge, especially for companies that are not venture scale but still viable. Rufus Pearl is trying to improve that with a new scheme for investors to exit some of these investments and bring forward their loss relief. We start by talking about secondary markets for EIS and venture capital investments. We discuss the challenges, why it...

While the business world is an ever-changing place, we seem to be in an exceptional time of flux. Reuben Wilcock has seen many small growth companies pivot and adapt and we tap into his knowledge. Our discussion starts with what drives pivots and what sort of changes we might see. Reuben gives several examples and talks about the evidence that companies should be obtaining to make these changes. W...

We've spoken a lot about tax advantaged investing, but how should an investor choose which VCT or EIS fund to give their money to? Ewoud Karelse is one of the long-standing analysts in the tax-advantaged market and has immense experience of looking at these products. In this episode, he discusses what to look at giving a wealth of tips. Essential listening for investors, IFAs and even providers wh...

The biotech industry attracted huge amounts of capital during the pandemic, but how is it faring in the post-pandemic world? Sunil Shah of o2h returns to give us an update on what's been happening. We start off by talking about the wider market. We discuss what's happening with capital and valuations, the contrast between public and private markets and how the US differs from the UK. We also dig i...