New fintech VC fund aims to become early backer of every single future British unicorn

24th January 2020 | Blogs

New fintech VC fund aims to become early backer of every single future British unicorn

Unlike traditional venture capitalists (VCs), SyndicateRoom’s Access EIS processes millions of data points and invests in no fewer than 50 companies per fund with a mission of backing not just some, but every single successful UK startup.

With highly biased decision-making and small, concentrated portfolios, 87% of traditional VCs fail to even match the overall growth of the entire startup market. In fact, SyndicateRoom’s research shows that 30 random investments across the startup market would likely beat the returns of all but the VC elite.
First launched in November 2019, Access EIS has already raised over £2.7m from over 200 private investors and will now begin investing in startup seed rounds.
Designed for everyday investors, Access EIS aims to mitigate risk through widespread diversification and generous EIS tax relief. Investment into Access EIS starts at £5,000.

CAMBRIDGE (UK), 15 January 2020: SyndicateRoom (SR) today announces that its new flagship VC fund – Access EIS – begins investing with a view of backing not just some, but all future UK unicorns. With an anticipated portfolio size of no fewer than 50 startups, Access EIS aims to capture the entire top end of the market.

The evergreen EIS fund will initially be investing £50,000 into seed rounds between £400,000 and £5m and the cheque size will increase as more money is invested into the fund.

Instead of using a human fund manager to choose investments, Access EIS tracks performance data of 1,000+ active startup angel investors in the UK. It then identifies and co-invests with the nation’s best-performing investors – or super angels – with the aim of replicating their collective success.

There are around 100 super angels in the UK who between them were early backers of almost all UK unicorns, including Revolut, Deliveroo and Transferwise. Access EIS already has agreements in place with 45 super angels and is actively onboarding the rest.

Peter Cowley, serial entrepreneur, angel investor and author of The Invested Investor and Founder to Founder is one of the super angels identified by the research. Peter comments:

“Access EIS is an efficient source of funding that enables entrepreneurs and their teams to get back to building their businesses faster. I’ve already shared one startup opportunity that I’m investing in with Access EIS and I look forward to working with SyndicateRoom closely in the future.”

Ultra-connected investors

The research behind the fund’s investment strategy also mapped out the connections of the UK startup ecosystem.

Crunching over 1,000,000 data points on over 1,000 investors, 6,000 companies and 10,000 funding rounds over a seven year period, SR created a map of the super angel community. The map below shows a snippet of the super angel network. The bright green nodes show the ultra-connected super angels, their investments and who they’ve co-invested with.

Graham Schwikkard, CEO of SyndicateRoom comments:

“This is the first time anyone has really mapped out the startup investment market in this way and it’s fascinating to discover these ultra-connected super angels. These individuals have their pick of top startup deals and a track record of backing the UK’s most successful businesses. Whereas UK VCs deliver average portfolio growth of 18% per year, super angel portfolios grow at an average of 42% per year.”

Video Link: https://vimeo.com/374201306

Access EIS in a nutshell

* SR commissioned XPM Investment Consulting, an independent investment research consultancy, to review all open EIS offers. XPM profiled 49 EIS funds and averages were taken to arrive at the profile of a typical EIS fund. The research was conducted in July 2019.

** Throughout our research, there was no clear evidence for how long funds keep charging investors for.

*** 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.

ENDS

For more information and interview requests please contact:
Alex Quaye, Marketing Manager @ SyndicateRoom
alex@syndicateroom.com
+44 (0)1223 478558

About SyndicateRoom:
We’re a fintech company made up of data-scientists, investment professionals, software developers and marketers with one mission: to fund every single British startup success story.

To achieve this, our fund – Access EIS – tracks over 1,000 startup investors. It then selects and co-invests with the best-performing super angels with the aim of replicating their collective success.

This content has been issued and approved as a financial promotion by Syndicate Room Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (No. 613021). Investing in early-stage businesses involves risks, including illiquidity, lack of dividends, loss of investment and dilution. SyndicateRoom is targeted exclusively at sophisticated investors who make their own investment decisions. Tax relief depends on an individual’s circumstances and may change in the future. If unsure, seek advice. In addition, the availability of tax relief depends on the company invested in maintaining its qualifying status. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. You should not rely on any past performance as a guarantee of future investment performance.

Full risk warning available at www.syndicateroom.com/risk-warning.