Deepbridge Launches New Innovation SEIS
29 November 2017
Deepbridge, the tax-efficient investment manager, has today (29th November 2017) launched the new Deepbridge Innovation Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) which will provide seed-stage funding to a diversified portfolio of innovative, technology-focused companies.
The Deepbridge Innovation SEIS will seek to fund selected investee companies that possess new and innovative approaches to meeting the existing, and emerging, requirements and demands of both corporate and consumer markets.
The SEIS’s overarching focus will be to offer investors a diversified exposure to companies engaged in a variety of technologies, potentially including: energy and resource innovation; medical technologies and diagnostics; business enterprise information technology, data analytics; transport and automotive innovation; instrumentation and control technologies; advanced materials and manufacturing; and robotics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
Deepbridge has outlined that the investment opportunities will be sourced from highly-regarded partners and an extensive deal-flow network developed by the investment manager. It will be working with research and innovation organisations, commercial enterprises, academia, venture capital institutions, as well as Government-backed development funding agencies.
Key partners for Deepbridge in sourcing these investments include the National Science and Innovation Campus, Sci-Tech Daresbury, and digital development experts, We Are Nova.
Investors will be able to secure potentially attractive returns via the SEIS while also taking advantage of the income tax, capital gains tax, and inheritance tax benefits available under the SEIS.
Ian Warwick, Managing Partner at Deepbridge, commented:
“The message from last week’s Budget announcement by the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, was clear – as a country we have to invest in the next generation of technology-based businesses that are going to revolutionise the way we live and work. He was also clear on what they see as some of the best ways to fund those companies and subsequently gave considerable support to the EIS/SEIS market, especially in terms of delivering investment to those firms that are pushing the envelope in terms of their technology products and services.
“At Deepbridge we have a huge depth of experience and history of investments in these businesses and this new Innovation SEIS is focused on providing investment to those highly-innovative companies that are developing changing processes, products and ideas, combining that innovation with significant technological advancement.
“The Innovation SEIS will generally invest in companies possessing significant intellectual property, requiring relatively modest capital at the outset with the express intention of delivering either a product designed to prove concept, a prototype, or a minimum viable product. It is also the express intention of Deepbridge to also consider further funding of the selected investee companies under the EIS, where those companies meet the specific investment criteria of a relevant Deepbridge EIS proposition.
“In essence, this is a SEIS which will continue Deepbridge’s focus on finding quality, young companies and entrepreneurs with great technology-focused ideas, helping fund them at the start of their journey with the ambition of working together throughout their lifetime. We believe there is a potentially compelling opportunity for investors to secure attractive entry terms to fund such start-ups. The Chancellor has set out the Government’s commitment to help fund exactly these types of businesses through SEIS and EIS. Deepbridge fully supports the Government’s new measures and as the foremost tech and life sciences sector experts will continue to provide advisers with access to well-managed portfolios of exciting investee companies within these sectors.”
