There are many profound comments on risk as a subject,
Mark Zuckerberg said: “The biggest risk is not taking any” and Jeff Bezos: “I knew that if I failed, I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying”.
Successful people will always take risks along their journey, but many of them will be informed, and mitigated so that the potential losses are significantly outweighed by the potential gains.
To a would-be investor, looking for a significant return on what is likely to be a reasonably substantial investment, the risk is something that will be in mind. And for an early-stage or developing business, seeking to raise investment, selling your ideas, products and concepts to an investor is key- something which UHY can help you with (see our previous article).
When doing so, you will want to have all the tools available to you possible and having some knowledge of the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and its older sibling, the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). These schemes afford investors certain tax breaks, such as income tax reductions, the ability to eradicate or defer capital gains, loss reliefs if things don’t work out (that shouldn’t be the focus when selling, but always worth a mention!) and exemption from capital gains on the growth value of their investment in your business. In short, these schemes help reduce the down sides of the risk for your investor.
When coupled with Research & Development in a tech company, which is a large enough subject for a separate article, these schemes make your company a viable prospect for that key investor and could even encourage them to invest more than they would otherwise.
These two schemes have lots of rules attached to them, with investment limits, company size limits, specific rules on what activity money can be used for, and the type of holding that an investor can have.
The next steps
At UHY we have significant experience of advising technology businesses in raising finance including advising on the suitability of SEIS and EIS, obtaining advance assurance from HMRC that the company proposal will qualify for the relief, helping you structure investment ‘rounds’, undertaking the statutory work for the company on the issue of shares and obtaining the necessary certifications so that the investors can then claim what reliefs are available to them.
There is zero risk in contacting us for an outline discussion and to see if we can help you reduce the perceived investment risk of your business to an investor, so that they maximise their investment and your raise the capital your business needs to move it to the next level.
