EIS 2018 report (web)

75 74 SENECA PARTNERS ABOUT THE MANAGER Seneca Partners is a specialist SME Investment and Corporate Advisory business based in the North of the UK. Our team of 70 comprises highly experienced professionals with backgrounds in corporate finance, private equity, stockbroking, accounting and banking with an extensive network of contacts and intermediaries. Seneca provide equity, debt and fully integrated corporate finance advice to businesses with an annual turnover of up to £100m, helping business owners to both finance their growth and also to realise value on exit either via trade sale, floatation or restructuring. With over £650m of AUM across the various Seneca businesses, Seneca are long-standing EIS and Private equity investors with a strong track record of value realisation for investors.The strength of relationships in the UK’s heartland areas provides high quality deal flow and importantly, timely deployment for investors with a geographical USP. THE SENECA EIS PORTFOLIO SERVICE Our Evergreen Service invests growth capital in established rather than start up or very early stage businesses and has deployed c. £50m of investor subscriptions across 40 companies during the last 4 years. The service targets a return of £1.60-£1.80p per £1 invested excluding any tax reliefs within a 5 year period. Each investor will have a minimum spread of 4-6 companies for each year they invest and ordinarily will have a mix of private equity deals and AIM listed companies as part of their diversified allocation across a wide range of sectors. Whilst the Service remains open all year round, capacity of £10m has been made available via our Evolution Approved Fund, which aims to close by 3 rd April 2018 and become fully invested in 8-12 companies between 6 th April and Q4 2018 with the intention of providing investors with a single EIS 5 certificate before 31 st January 2019. 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 £10M £0M £5M £15M £20M £25M £30M FUNDRAISING: AMOUNT OF NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED EACH YEAR VARIETY OF SECTORS INVESTED BY SENECA EIS PORTFOLIO SERVICE Contract Research Organisation 0.4% Oil Equipment Services and Distribution 0.4% Storage 0.5% Industrial Goods and Services (excl. Engineering and Shipping) 1.0% Business Travel 1.5% Aerospace 1.6% Facilities Maintenance 1.6% Electricity and Gas 2.2% Gaming 2.3% Medical Diagnostics 2.4% Food Packaging 3.1% Online Retail 3.1% Restaurants, Pubs and bars 3.3% Agrochemical 4.2% Telecommunications Service Provide 4.3% Healthcare Equipment and Services 5.0% Leisure 5.9% Life Sciences 8.2% Automotive 9.4% Software and Computer Services 10.8% Biotechnology 11.0% Pharmaceuticals 18.1% INVESTMENT CASE STUDY Seneca invested £1m of EIS growth capital into Rockar in August 2014, to facilitate a retail rollout and further development and enhancement of its market-leading ecommerce software platform. The business, the first of its kind in the auto industry, allows customers to research, test-drive, purchase and service a new car without sales team involvement. The expansion plans have subsequently been supported through a £5m funding round in July 2016, at significantly enhanced valuation to Seneca’s entry point, with two established VCT managers investing via a process led by the Seneca Corporate Finance team. This has enabled the business to partner with additional car manufacturers, which is are now using Rockar’s market leading software solution to launch their own online car retail solution and the management team remain very optimistic about Rockar’s future prospects. Seneca have played an active advisory role since initial investment, supporting management with key strategic and commercial decisions. SYMVAN CAPITAL ABOUT THE MANAGER Symvan Capital is an award-winning EIS/SEIS technology venture capital fund manager. We invest in companies seeking to have a material impact in their industry with the potential to deliver exceptional investment returns within a realistic time frame. Symvan launched its first fund four years ago and has since won three fund management awards and a runner-up award from the EIS Association and Growth Investor Awards. The Symvan Lifecycle Approach supports our view that positive investment returns can be created from nurturing early-stage technologies through to and including participation in Series A fundraising rounds. The essence of the approach is that successful SEIS investments will be taken through and funded by Symvan Capital’s funds from seed start-up to venture scale-up. Since 2014 we have selectively made SEIS and EIS investments in 14 exciting tech growth businesses, most of whom have raised further capital or now preparing for a material Series A investment or exit. OUR TECHNOLOGY EIS OFFER The Symvan Technology EIS Fund is ideal for investors seeking enhanced capital growth from proven technology growth companies. If there is one single attribute differentiating Symvan from other providers, it is that our approach is considerably closer to that of a California venture capital investor than of a traditional SEIS/EIS fund manager. • High growth fund investing in disruptive and scalable technology businesses. • Expected Fund life of 5-7 years. • Investment return of £2.85 for every £1 invested (excluding impact of any tax relief). • Fund performance of 30% implied cash on cash return to date. • Portfolio management service structured as an AIF. • Target Size up to £10 m invested in tranches. • Diversification across 8-10 companies. • Symvan charges zero upfront or ongoing fees to investors. • Investors only pay a 20% performance at successful exit. • Capacity for investors requiring carry-back relief to 16/17 is on a first- come, first-served basis. Deadline for subscriptions is end of March 2018. LIFE CYCLE APPROACH Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5 Y6 MATURITY / GROWTH SYMVAN SEIS FUND INVESTMENT SYMVAN ANGEL NETWORK INVESTMENT SYMVAN EIS FUND INVESTMENT SERIES A IPO TRADE SALE INVESTMENT CASE STUDY Cognisess is a predictive people analytics company. Cognisess Deep Learn™ helps companies understand the current and future value of their most important and expensive asset: people. They serve frontline HR and business functions with an affordable, pay- as-you-go platform to optimise both candidates and employee performance through predictive people analytics. Initial customers include InterContinental Hotels Group, AB InBev, Audi, Volkswagen, Vauxhall and Babcock. Since initial investment, Cognisess has achieved +104% NAV uplift. • May 2014: Symvan meets Cognisess at Microsoft Accelerator. • May 2015: £150,000 SEIS investment; appointed to the board. • 2015/16: £230,000 follow-on by Symvan Angel EIS Network. • 2016/17: £300,000 Symvan EIS Fund investment. • April 2017: Cognisess was the only UK company selected of 15 startups globally (out of 500 accelerator graduates) to attend the Microsoft Global Startup Roadshow at Microsoft’s HQ in Seattle. • 2018: Symvan’s EIS Fund is a cornerstone for a £1.5m fundraise.