The Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA) has teamed up with start-up ratings agency Capital Pilot to launch Curated Capital, an investment platform for growth businesses looking for investors.
Curated Capital hopes to facilitate £10m worth of investment in its first year to support 100 of the UK’s fastest-growth businesses.
Capital Pilot reviews each business opportunity and scores each start-up and scale-up for potential investors, saving time and early due diligence.
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EISA members, many of which are FCA-regulated investment funds using the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), will benefit from a wider list of investment opportunities, while investee businesses will no longer need to approach funds individually.
So far, 20 EISA member funds or VCs have signed up to Curated Capital out of a potential pool of around 60 EISA member funds.
Start-ups that want to be seen on the Curated Capital platform pay a £100 fee to be assessed. If they score a minimum 650 out of 1,000, they qualify to be listed on the platform.
“Simply, Curated Capital will match the most investable start-ups with the best investor funds,” said EISA.
Capital Pilot combines human research, analytics and algorithms to assess a company’s readiness for investment.
EISA is the membership organisation dedicated to promoting the tax efficient Enterprise Investment and Seed Investment Schemes used by investors backing early stage businesses, which otherwise would potentially have no access either to private investment or traditional debt.
>See also: How entrepreneurs can qualify and take advantage of EIS and SEIS
Mark Brownridge, director general of the EISA, said: “Doing some of the assessment heavy lifting for members means that not only do they now have the bandwidth to look at all relevant opportunities, but at the same time, through the use of the Capital Pilot model, they can quickly see if the sector and risk levels meet their objectives.”
Richard Blakesley, founder and CEO of Capital Pilot, added: “The model that we have built in Capital Pilot enables us to undertake a detailed review to see whether businesses looking for funds are investment ready. Through Curated Capital, we hope to see more businesses realise the investment they need to grow.”
