Access EIS

A diversified, data-driven approach to EIS.

Syndicate Room spent two years indexing and analysing the startup market and we've learned what makes it tick. Access EIS runs on a methodology built around this data and emphasises co-investing, diversification, and getting in early to reduce risk, maximise access to deal flow and make investing in startups simple and accessible, even if you’re new to it.

• Target returns of £3.50 for each £1 invested.
• A fund that only invests in highly-vetted deals alongside super angels.
• The UK's most diversified startup fund, building you a portfolio of 50+ deals.
• Pay less. Access EIS fees are 52% lower than the industry average for EIS and VC funds.
• Get 30p back in tax relief per £1 invested with EIS. Eligible investors only. Read more.
• Frequent portfolio updates & easy EIS exporting for self-assessment.
• Back ambitious startup founders and help them on their journey. Discover our startups.
• Invest online in as little as 10 minutes.

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What is Access EIS?

Read our fund brochure for everything you need to know about Access, from the specifics of our innovative co-investment model to our fees, and how to invest.

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Aim big.

The table below shows three scenarios for projected returns over a 7 year period. Each scenario assumes a £10,000 investment in Year 0 (when an investment is first made). Please read page 18 of the Information Memorandum for our full methodology.

Startups are a high-risk investment class - all the underlying investments can fail and investors can lose their money. Never invest more than you can afford to lose.

The above table illustrates the value of the initial EIS tax relief on a £10,000 investment (approximately £3,000). Eligible investors may also benefit from EIS loss relief in relation to investments in the portfolio that later go on to fail but is not factored in here. Read more about EIS initial relief and loss relief on page 45 of the Information Memorandum.

How we select startups for your portfolio.

We built an index of the UK startup and scale-up market, which takes into account several million data points and allows us to track thousands of investors and companies. From our analysis of the data, we’ve noticed a few key trends:

• The market grows at 28% year on year
• A diverse portfolio of at least 50 companies could capture market returns
• There are a subset of investors, super angels, whose returns far exceed the market

On average, a super angel’s startup portfolio grows at 42% a year and each super angel has a demonstrable track record of backing top startups before others spot them. Their seed investments include UK startup success stories like Revolut (valued at $5.5bn in Feb 2020), Horizon Discovery (LON: HZD), Magic Pony Technology (sold to Twitter) & Swiftkey (sold to Microsoft).

Given the above, we’ve struck up a relationship with a good number of these super angels who have agreed to share their deals with us. Your capital will be invested exclusively into startups with backing from one or more super angels and your investments will always be at the same valuation as them too.

Who you’ll be co-investing with.

The table below shows a selection of our super angels' investment track records and their noteworthy investments. Names are redacted for privacy reasons.

Read more about our super angels, their backgrounds, investments and our selection criteria.

Listen to an interview with one of our super angels, Chris Mairs. His investments include what3words, Zzish and Magic Pony Technology. Magic Pony Technology was acquired by Twitter for £150 million in 2016.

Piggy-back on the due diligence of experts.

Before we consider a startup for investment, it needs to receive investment from one or more super angels. Their approaches to due diligence vary, but they don’t take it lightly, usually getting to know startups and founders very well before investing. Frequently, they also have significant sector expertise.

In addition, we conduct our own due diligence for an extra layer of safety. We check that:

• The business is raising between £400,000 and £5m. This selects out the very high risk early-stage opportunities, but ensures there is still plenty of potential for valuation growth left in the business.
• The business is UK incorporated and the funding round is EIS eligible.
• The super angel we are following is investing in the same funding round as Access EIS, and that we’re investing at the same valuation.
• The business isn’t in an excluded sector, such as involved in arms or gambling.
• The company directors pass all required anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) checks.
• The super angel’s investment is in-line with their normal investing habits we have on record. We check that the super angels aren’t receiving compensation for referring Access EIS.

Get your money working. Fast.

1. Invest online in 10 minutes.
2. Your portfolio will begin building after your two week cooling off period, unless stated otherwise during a promotion.
3. We’ll invest in an average 4-5 startups per month.
4. Expect your portfolio to be fully built in 12 months or less.

Reduce your tax bill with EIS tax relief.

By investing in Access EIS, eligible investors can receive generous tax relief for their income or capital gains tax bills.

EIS highlights:

• Income tax relief of 30% (30p on each £1 invested).
• Additional loss relief up to 45% per failed company (% equal to income tax band).
• No capital gains tax on investments held for 3+ years.
• No inheritance tax on investments held for 2+ years.

To illustrate EIS at work, consider an investment into a single startup. If the startup exits successfully after three years, you get the initial 30% tax relief and all of the profits without paying capital gains tax. If it were to fail, you could combine the income tax relief and additional loss relief so that up to 68.5% of your investment can be offset against your tax bill.

EIS tax relief can be claimed for the tax year in which an investment is made, or carried back by one year. For the purposes of tax relief, HMRC considers an “investment” to be the date the startup issues shares and not when you pay money into Access EIS.

You’ll receive a digital EIS certificate within a few weeks of each startup investment. You’ll be able to download these one at a time, in batches, or all at once after deployment to easily attach to your tax return.

Enjoy the ride, stay updated

Sit back and enjoy watching your portfolio develop. You’ll receive regular updates about your portfolio companies by email, and our friendly team are available to answer any queries you might have over the phone.

Your investor dashboard is where you can quickly and easily stay up to date with all the latest information on your portfolio. We require startups to report quarterly and these reports will be saved to your dashboard.

It’s also where you can download digital EIS certificates for your investments. You can export everything in one click and simply attach it to your self-assessment tax return to HMRC.

Our fees are 52% lower than the industry average.

(All fees and figures listed in this table are before VAT.)

We deploy over 92% of capital invested.

We have a fixed cost set-up fee of 2% + VAT, and charge 1.5% for 7 years as an annual management fee. However, we only take 3 years’ of the annual management fee up front, for a total initial fee of 6.5% + VAT. We don’t take the remaining annual management fees until the fund starts to generate returns.

EIS tax relief can only be claimed against the amount of an investor's capital that an EIS fund deploys, and we are delighted to share that we deploy 93.5% of each investment before VAT.

Our performance fees are lower than the industry average.

The performance fee – which is often referred to as “carry” or “carried interest” – is the percentage of fund profits taken by the fund manager as an incentive to build high-performing portfolios for investors. We only charge it on returns over 110% of the original investment.

For example, if Access EIS were to return £20,000 on a £10,000 investment, there would be a profit of £10,000. With a performance hurdle of 110%, SR would return £11,000 without charging a performance fee. The 10% fee would only be applied to the remaining £9,000, meaning you would receive £19,100.

Fund reviews.

Independent, third party reviews of Access EIS for financial advisers and other investment professionals.

Watch our in-depth presentation explaining Access EIS, co-investing with super angels, and how our data-driven approach aims to mitigate risk.

Still have questions about investing in the fund?